Specialist Occupational Therapist

Specialist Occupational Therapist

The closing date is 25 February 2026

County Durham & Darlington NHS Foundation Trust are one of the largest integrated organisations in the Country, providing hospital and community services to apopulations of over 650,000. We are an ambitious and innovative organisation with a talented workforce of over 7,000 colleagues. Our Visionis to be 'Right Frist Time, Every Time' and our mission is to provide safe, compassionate and joined upcare to the population of County Durham and Darlington.

• Do you have enthusiasm and motivation to take on new challenges with our forward thinking Trust?
• Are you an excellent team worker but also have the drive to lead and influence change?
• Do you strive or aspire to provide seamless holistic patient centered care within a progressive multidisciplinary team?

We are looking for an enthusiastic and dynamic occupational therapist to join our Countywide Community Therapy Team in the South. This post will be based at Bishop Auckland Hospital and cover the south of the county and the Durham Dales areas to be instrumental in allowing people of all ages to live as independently and safely as possible within their own homes and communities.

As a member of the organisation the post holder will independently manage their own caseload in the community providing goal led interventions following a comprehensive assessment. You will assess clients in their own homes and community settings to understand their physical, cognitive and environmental needs. Provide practical strategies to support daily living. You will develop a highly specialist knowledge of many conditions in the community therapy and Intermediate Care, crisis team and the application of theoccuational therapy process with these patients.

Opportunities to:

• Develop skills in holistic assessing beyond the scope of your traditional occupational therapy practice.
• Develop your supervisory, leadership and service development skills.
• Support assistant staff and help with their development
• Lead and participate in peer support and in service training
• Work within a dynamic Multi-Disciplinary Team

The successful applicant would work Monday to Saturday in the community therapy team.

If you are being interviewed you must accept an interview slot in the system to continue, even if you have arranged with the manager.

You must be able to produce ALL certificates stated essential in the person specification or you will not be able to complete pre-employment checks.

We provide hospital services from two acute sites - Darlington Memorial Hospital and University Hospital of North Durham. We have a centre for planned care in Bishop Auckland and provide care from community hospitals in Chester-le-Street, Shotley Bridge, Barnard Castle, Sedgefield and Weardale as well as over 80 other community based settings and providing care in patients' homes.

We particularly welcome applications from disabled and Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) candidates as BAME and disabled people are currently under-represented.

Full Job Description s can be found in the adverts supporting documents.

• To provide a community- based Occupational Therapy tosupport people to live independently and safely.
• To organise and prioritise own workload and to monitor thoseyou clinically supervise within a defined area.
• To independently screen, prioritise and plan interventionsfor routine and priority referrals receivedwithin the specialist area.
• To use sound clinical judgement to prioritise patients within a demanding and unpredictableenvironment ensuring effective use of resources.
• To assist staff under your supervision to prioritise theircaseloads and advise them on appropriate interventions in response to complex cases on a daily basis.
• To undertake holistic and comprehensive specialistassessments of patients including those with diverse or complex presentations/multi pathologies that change across the caseload.
• To utiliseanalytical and clinical reasoning skills and manualassessment techniques to provide accurate diagnosis of their condition, these skills may be advanced; intepretfacts and select the appropriate…