Children's Occupational Therapist

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Main Duties and Responsibilities 

Nature of work 

To provide specialised children’s occupational therapy assessment and treatment for children.

To assess and prescribe specialist equipment for home and school to support function and participation (e.g. positioning, beds, toilet and bathing, hoists and slings, safety) and link with the housing specialists within the service to ensure a fully integrated service.

To work in a variety of settings such as clinics, mainstream schools/nurseries, special schools/nurseries, client’s homes and other community settings

To appropriately delegate work/tasks to Therapy Assistants, maintaining oversight of their input with children and young people.

To formulate and deliver an individual occupational therapy programme based on a sound knowledge of evidence based practice and treatment approaches using  clinical assessment, reasoning skills and knowledge of treatment modalities available, e.g. CO-OP approach, COPM, neurodevelopmental therapy, sensory integration therapy (in line with strongest evidence and RCOT guidelines) and other alternatives (with appropriate support from senior colleague)

To participate in training/lecturing programmes, with support from senior colleagues, for Occupational Therapists staff, Occupational Therapy students, medical students, doctors, teachers and learning support assistants in schools and parents/carers.

To participate in the planning, development and evaluation of the children and young peoples Occupational Therapy service.

Where appropriate, to act as a key worker for CYP on their caseload, ensuring that there is effective communication between all members of the team and that a coordinated approach is in place.

To complete assessments with support from senior occupational therapist to inform the SEN tribunal process

The nature of children’s practice will require the post holder to bend, stretch, lift children’s limbs, crawl, kneel, work in confined spaces and at times work from the floor employing light physical effort on a day-to-day basis.

Planning

To plan their own diary and prioritise their caseload in line with the service Core offer.

To participate in the planning, development and evaluation of the children and young people’s Occupational Therapy service.

To work as an autonomous practitioner supported by regular clinical and management supervision.

To comply with departmental and Organisational policies and procedures.

Specific projects 

To participate in defined, delegated projects.

To liaise with Team Leaders to ensure that all children referred into the Occupational Therapy service receive an equitable service.

Communication

To provide excellent communication with Children and Young People, Parents, carers, schools, local education authority, social services, acute hospitals, paediatricians, physiotherapists, speech and language therapists, pre-school teachers, psychologists (clinical and educational) and child and family nurses.

Often information handled will be sensitive and highly complex. Occasionally children are seen with extremely sensitive rare and complex medical conditions this requires communication at a high level with specialist doctors and national centres of excellence.

To investigate and manage concerns, incidents and complaints recognising limitations and referring to more senior colleagues, where appropriate.

To provide clear, concise written reports for other agencies for statutory processes to meet legal requirements, e.g. Education, Health and Care Plan, Tribunal cases.

Contribute to EEC’s internal communication strategies ensuring effective two-way communication and engagement within the organisation

Contribute to EEC’s external communication strategies working with the Head of Communications to raise awareness and promote the reputation of EEC’s services  

People Management

To be involved in the supervision of junior Occupational Therapists (alongside the team leader Occupational Therapist).

To be involved in the supervision of occupational therapy students in their clinical practice.

Maintain their own professional development and ensure complies with mandatory requirement to take part in appraisal process

To provide support, guidance and training to therapy assistants assessing and evaluating competence and delegating work appropriately.

To participate in the staff appraisal scheme as an appraiser for therapy assistants, where appropriate.

To support in the recruitment of therapy assistants and administrative staff, where appropriate.

To train educational assistants to support the child’s goals in the educational setting.

Research & Development Activity

To maintain own professional development and requirement to take part in appraisal and KSF process

To participate in evidence-based audit and research projects to further own and team’s clinical practice.  To have support from senior colleagues to make recommendations to the clinical lead of the service for changes to practise by the team. This may lead the implementation of specific changes to practise or contribute to service protocols.

To participate in undertaking the measurement and evaluation of own work and current practices through the use of evidence-based practice projects, audit and outcome measures, with support from senior colleagues.

To be responsible for maintaining own competency to practice through CPD activities, and to maintain a portfolio which reflects personal development.

To maintain and develop current knowledge of evidenced-based practice in children’s occupational therapy developing specialist knowledge of particular conditions and patient types.

To participate in the staff appraisal scheme as an appraisee and be responsible for complying with his agreed personal development programmes to meet set knowledge and competencies.

To be an active member of the in-service training programme by attendance at, and participation in, in-service training programmes, tutorials, individual training sessions, external courses and peer review, ensuring delivery of feedback following attendance at external courses.

To be competent in carrying out literature searches and to actively maintain/update specialist knowledge.

Clinical and Practice Governance

Observe and maintain strict confidentiality with regards to any patient/family/staff/records and information in line with the requirements of the Data Protection Act.

Any data that is taken/shared as part of a phone call or transported, faxed or transferred electronically must be undertaken with regard to the Trust Information Governance and Information Security policies.   

The post holder must adhere to the Trust risk assessment and risk management processes

The post holder must adhere to infection control policies and procedures

It is a condition of your employment that you are currently registered with HCPC and it is your responsibility to maintain your professional registration.

Undertake mandatory training and any other training relevant to the role as required by East of England Community Health and Care NHS Trust. 

The post holder must participate in clinical and safeguarding audits as required

Provide patients and their families /carers with information on standards they should expect from the team  

Participate in clinical supervision on a regular basis 

The post holder is required to participate in relevant emergency preparedness process for their team.