Advanced Paediatric Occupational Therapist

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Job Purpose:

The post holder works as part of the Community Paediatric Occupational Therapy Service.  The post holder works autonomously with emphasis being placed on multi-disciplinary working and multi-agency collaboration and has specific responsibility for:-

·         Holding their own clinical caseload.

·         Clinical supervision and development of more junior staff

Brief overview of post

The post holder will carry out highly specialist assessments and treatment and provide advice for children on their caseload in mainstream schools, special schools and other community settings. They will attend multi-agency meetings and relevant discussions, including EHCP meetings and Tribunals if required.

 The post holder will lead on projects as required. This will be undertaken with the coproduction and service redesign team working with various stakeholders such as families, education staff and other health professionals.  .

Main Duties and Responsibilities

Patient contact:

Will receive regular supervision from the Paediatric Occupational Therapy Team Lead  but will be expected to work autonomously to:

·         Provide advanced specialist, evidence based assessment, treatment and/or advice to children (aged 0 - school leaving age), referred to the Paediatric Occupational Therapy team in liaison with families and other professionals within a multi-agency framework.  Children may present with severe life limiting, physical, multi-sensory disabilities and present with long term severe/complex postural, functional and independence needs.

·         Appropriate involvement in Education Health Care Plans and the Education Tribunal process.

·         Manage clinical risk within own caseload with support

·         Work collaboratively with multi-disciplinary / agency teams to provide a co-ordinated and integrated approach to patient care, e.g. health, social services, education, voluntary sector and families.

·         To provide highly specialist spontaneous and planned advice, teaching and instruction to relatives, carers and other professionals in order to promote understanding of the aims of Occupational Therapy and to ensure a consistent approach to the child’s care. 

·         To work with and provide advanced specialist information to members of the multi-disciplinary team regarding the child’s functional ability in order to:-

-        reach a working diagnosis

-        enable subsequent management of any deficit

-        deliver a comprehensive and co-ordinated treatment programme to each child. This is based on their clinical need and may include, where appropriate participation in case conferences, school reviews and discharge planning.

·         Use advanced clinical judgement/reasoning for the assessment and recommendation, of specialist equipment e.g. postural seating and toileting equipment, from budgets such as education or social services.  To review and monitor the specialist equipment to ensure it meets the child’s complex changing needs.  To report any issues affecting health and safety to the provider. This includes the training of children and staff in the safe use of the equipment.

 ·         Work with children and families to identify Occupational Therapy child centred SMART goals and to formulate and recommend the best course of intervention.  These should address Occupational performance and skill deficits, enabling children to develop/improve in the areas of self-care, access to the National Curriculum, life skills, play and leisure activities.

·         To monitor, evaluate and modify specialised, individually tailored treatment (evidence based) in order to measure progress using outcome measures to ensure intervention is effective and complimentary to the child’s development, lifestyle and educational programme.

·         To assess child/carer understanding of treatment plans, gain informed consent and have the capacity to work within a legal framework with children and their families/carers who lack capacity to consent to treatment

·         To facilitate a child’s return to school following discharge from Hospitals (local and Regional) following acute admissions and surgery in liaison with relevant services including Hospital staff, Special Needs Community Nurse, Physiotherapist, Education Staff and Speech and Language Therapists

·         To contribute to the planned admissions to hospital in collaboration with other members of the multidisciplinary team to ensure the child’s care plan meets their needs and optimises the outcome of their stay

·         To ensure a holistic approach is used with children and their parents/carers and other relevant professionals

·         To follow Trust procedures for incident reporting,  and safeguarding  asking for support from appropriate other personnel, in order to report the incident 

 ·         To provide advanced specialist assessment, treatment, and/or advice to children referred to the Paediatric Occupational Therapy team in liaison with families and other professionals within a multi-agency framework. Children may present with severe/complex physical, learning, social/emotional and behavioural difficulties e.g. neuromuscular conditions, musculoskeletal conditions, developmental conditions, perceptual difficulties and genetic abnormalities, Muscular Dystrophy, Cerebral Palsy, Developmental Co-ordination Disorder, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder or Autistic Spectrum Disorder.

·         To take an active role in and organise/lead/present as appropriate:

o   staff meetings

o   peer review

o   external courses

·         Will be expected to manage and prioritise own workload balancing other clinical, non-clinical and professional demands. Often working under pressure and to tight deadlines.  Will use supervision with a Paediatric Occupational Therapy Team Lead as needed.

·         To manage the Occupational Therapy waiting list, receiving, prioritising and allocating referrals as delegated.

·         Work alone in different environments including patient’s own homes, nurseries, and schools.

·         Refer on to other professionals / agencies as required.

·       Seek assistance from colleagues where further advice or support is sought with regard to patient care.

·       Decide on appropriate clinical and non-clinical tasks to be delegated e.g. to assistants, carers, admin staff, school staff.

·       Professionally and legally be responsible and accountable for all aspects of own work

·       To demonstrate the ability to critically evaluate and benchmark current clinical practice against national guidelines, standards and Evidence Based Practice and Best Practice.