Specialist Occupational Therapist

We are delighted to offer an exciting opportunity for a Highly Specialist Occupational Therapist (band
7) to join our dynamic and forward-thinking team . This role is ideal for an experienced clinician with a strong background in community paediatrics and complex needs who is looking to further develop their specialist expertise.

As a valued member of our occupational therapy team, the post holder will provide advanced clinical expertise across a range of service areas, working with children and young people with complex presentations. In addition to delivering high-quality, evidence-based intervention, there will be excellent opportunities to develop leadership, service development, and management skills within a supportive and collaborative environment.

This is a fantastic opportunity to make a meaningful impact while progressing your professional growth within a committed and innovative team.

The role offers the opportunity to deliver highly specialist, child-centred assessment and intervention, drawing on advanced knowledge of child development, disability, environmental factors and occupation. The post holder will analyse occupational performance skills, roles and contexts to design meaningful, outcomes-focused interventions that enable children and young people to thrive in their daily lives. You will manage a complex and varied caseload across children with complex physical needs, pre-school children, special schools and school-aged populations.

The role involves coordinating OT provision within the specialist clinical area, maintaining oversight of care to ensure timely, high-quality and responsive intervention.

A key component of the post is acting as an expert advisor to Lewisham Education SEN Service, providing specialist clinical opinion at SEN Tribunals, Disagreement Resolution Meetings and other statutory forums. You will clearly articulate children's occupational therapy needs and the resources required to meet them. Working collaboratively with schools and community AHP colleagues, you will support the development and delivery of sustainable intervention programmes.

You will also contribute to audit, service development and clinical pathway implementation, helping shape the future direction of the OT service. This is an influential and developmental role suited to a clinician passionate about complex paediatrics and service innovation.

Our people are our greatest asset. When we feel supported and happy at work, this positivity reaches those very people we are here for, the patients. Engaged employees perform at their best and our Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) initiatives contribute to cultivate a culture of engagement. We have four staff networks, a corporate EDI Team and a suite of programmes and events which aim to insert the 5 aspirations:

• Improving representation at senior levels of staff with disabilities, from black, Asian, and ethnic minorities background, identify as LGBTQ+ and women, through improved recruitment and leadership development
• Widening access (anchor institution) and employability
• Improving the experience of staff with disability
• Improving the EDI literacy and confidence of trust staff through training and development
• Making equalities mainstream

Accountable to the Occupational Therapy Manager, Community Children and Young Peoples Specialist Services.

• To work as a Band 7 therapist in a range of clinical areas. The children will have a wide range of diagnosis and in-depth understanding and experience is needed in childrens occupational therapy, as well as the ability to work competently at a band 7 level across the service with a range of casework.
• To be responsible for providing highly specialist individual child focused assessments and intervention. Requiring integration of knowledge and understanding of child development, environment, disability and occupations, to address occupational performance skills, roles, contexts and activity demands.
• To contribute to the overall development of the occupational therapy service as the service evolves in line with organisational changes.
• To ensure the successful implementation of a specialist area of an occupational therapy clinical pathway alongside other service development initiatives.
• To contribute to the work of the Clinical Specialist Occupational Therapist in scoping for a designated occupational therapy services in areas of unmet need, supporting the training initiative in mainstream nurseries and schools and supporting the initiatives around enhanced provision and pilot study work on-going and planned.
• To co-ordinate the delivery of Occupational Therapy services to named children in the specialist neonatal and early years area of provision, holding an overview of the caseload.
• To provide support and guidance to other Occupational Therapists.
• To be responsible for providing highly specialist individual child focused assessments and…