Professional Lead for Allied Health Professionals and Social Workers

Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust has been rated as Good by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

We are a responsive and innovative Foundation Trust that places our values of Caring, Safe and Excellent at the heart of everything we do. We take great pride in our staff and believe that investing in you is key to us achieving our vision of outstanding care delivered by outstanding people.

We work with a wide range of partner organisations to deliver care and support to people in their own homes and from a number of hospitals and community bases. We focus on delivering care as close to home as possible for people of all ages across Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Swindon, Wiltshire, Bath and North East Somerset.

We actively support anti-racism, equality, diversity, and inclusion so, if you’re excited about this job opportunity and you meet our Trust values, but feel unsure about applying, then please get in touch and we will be happy to have a conversation with you.

We are also committed to increasing diversity in the workforce, that is why we actively encourage applications from those groups of people who are currently under-represented, which include amongst others: people with disabilities; men from all socio-economic backgrounds; people from diverse ethnic backgrounds; and people from the LGBTQIA+ community.

Good luck and we hope to hear from you.

Job overview

We are looking for an experienced and passionate Occupational Therapist or Social Worker to provide professional leadership to our AHPs and social workers in our Forensic Directorate – which includes the Thames Valley Forensic Mental Health Service and Thames Valley Prisons Mental Health Service.

We provide mental health care in secure settings, and the community, for men and women whose needs relate to their mental health, learning disabilities & autism, and risk.

You will be a member of the Forensic Directorate multi-disciplinary senior leadership team, and part of, and well supported by, the AHP leadership team across the other directorates in the Trust - a welcoming and passionate group of AHPs: flexible, supportive and open to creative solutions.

Reporting directly to the Director of Forensic Mental Health, you will be joining a well-established team, strongly committed to an integrated and reflective model of multi-disciplinary leadership, in which the unique contribution of an AHP perspective is highly valued.

Main duties of the job

You will have the skills to provide excellent professional leadership and champion the values of AHPs in our services. Our largest group of AHPs in the directorate is currently Occupational Therapy, however we want to develop our services to embed AHPs throughout our provision, to meet the needs of the people who use our range of services.

This post is an ideal opportunity for an experienced Occupational Therapist or Social Worker to contribute to the strategic leadership of a directorate. You will contribute to a holistic approach to leadership, strategic planning, and operational delivery of the Forensic Directorate through your membership of the multi-disciplinary leadership team, supporting a culture of collective leadership, promoting directorate values, service strategy, plans, and priorities.

You will have excellent opportunities to gain experience through participating and leading in quality improvement networks and workstreams across the For Me Adult Secure Provider Collaborative.

Working for our organisation

Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust provides physical, mental health and social care for people of all ages across Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Swindon, Wiltshire, Bath and North East Somerset.

Our services are delivered at community bases, hospitals, clinics and people’s homes, delivering care as close to home as possible

Our values are: “Caring, safe and excellent”

At Oxford Health we offer a wide range of benefits designed to support your career and wellbeing. These include:

• Excellent opportunities for career progression
• Access to tailored individual and Trust wide learning and development
• 27 days annual leave, plus bank holidays, rising to 33 days with continuous service
• NHS Discount across a wide range of shops, restaurants and retailers
• Competitive pension scheme
• Lease car scheme
• Cycle to work scheme
• Employee Assistance Programme
• Mental Health First Aiders
• Staff accommodation (please note waiting lists may apply)
• Staff networking and support groups hosted by our Equality, Diversity & Inclusion team

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Oxford Health offers great opportunities for continued development and has an in-house master’s degree programme as well as access to wider CPD funding.

See attached JD for further details.

Person specification

Qualifications – Academic/Skills/Professional

• HCPC Registration/Social Work England Qualification & MSc or equivalent higher degree in an AHP profession.

• Post-graduate qualification/ courses in management/leadership related field.eg, Prince 2, Leadership
• Evidence of participation in research/audit/Quality Improvement/ service evaluation/ publications

Knowledge Requirements

• Good understanding of forensic mental health and learning disability care pathways, including interfaces between hospitals and other providers, integrated care systems, NHS-led Provider Collaboratives and the impact that any failure in the system will have on patients/carers.
• Robust understanding of all aspects of clinical governance including quality, audit, and risk/safety management.
• In depth understanding of complex health, social care, and criminal justice systems.

Further Training or Job Related Aptitude and Skills

• Evidence of continuing professional development; up to date knowledge of current health policy, clinical practice, and research developments in relation to AHP/Social Work in mental health and learning disability contexts.
• Demonstrable team-working skills and ability to lead and manage a range of individuals some of whom may work across specialty and organisational boundaries.
• Sophisticated communication and presentation skills and ability to present to a wide range of audiences in different situations, using a range of media.

Experience

• Experience of working in mental health services.
• Significant management experience effective (complex) staff management and supervision.
• Significant experience of delivering change in the context of service redesign, to improve outcomes for patients, working with management teams, clinical staff, service users and other stakeholders.
• Experience of working as part of a multi-disciplinary senior leadership team, able to provide an AHP/Social Work perspective to strategic planning, service development, & operational delivery.

• Experience of programme or project leadership or management.
• Experience of working with people with learning disabilities/autism, and awareness of current policy & practice in this field.

Personal Qualities

• Experience of a variety of platforms for managing electronic data and I.T. applications, including well-developed skills in the use of all Microsoft Office applications.
• Able to plan, set objectives and review performance in a highly complex and changeable environment with many, often conflicting, priorities.
• All new starters have a thorough induction process, both local and Trust wide, which aims to create a positive supportive working environment allowing new employees to learn key elements of their role over a reasonable timescale.
• Appointment to this post is subject to the trust receiving satisfactory references covering 3 years of employment or study. Please ask your referees to respond promptly to reference requests.
• Employees are expected to undertake mandatory and statutory training related to their role.
• We are ambitious in our pursuit of excellence, driven by the belief that a fair, just and fully inclusive organisational culture enables our teams to deliver the best quality of care and services possible and we work hard to ensure that our diverse workforce reflects the communities that we serve.
• We welcome applications from all sections of the community, are an Equal Opportunities employer with a number of internal networking groups to support our employees and where possible will always look to make reasonable adjustments in order that you can fulfil the role to recognise your full potential. All our employees are committed to demonstrating through their behaviour our core values – safe, caring and excellent.
• Oxford Health is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults, we expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.
• Oxford is a world-renowned centre of excellence for research. Oxford Health works closely with the University of Oxford department of Psychiatry and the Department of Primary care, has a Biomedical Research Centre dedicated to improving mental health and the NIHR Clinical Research Facility at the Warneford site. The Trust also hosts the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) which carries out applied research that directly impacts patient health and wellbeing