Occupational Therapist
We love what we do and we think you will, too!
At Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust (GHC), we provide joined-up mental health, physical health and learning disability services to people of all ages across Gloucestershire. We run community hospitals and provide care and support in people’s own homes and in a range of other locations across the county.
We are on a mission to enable people to live the best life they can and we have a vision to work together to provide outstanding care. We put people at the heart of our services, focusing on personalised care by asking ‘what matters to you’.
We’re passionate about making sure that everyone can contribute to achieving our mission and we are continually working to support healthy and happy high-quality teams in all areas of the Trust.
Our application process aims to understand each candidates knowledge, skills and experience. We have found that candidates that use AI to generate their answers can lack specificity and fail to address key criteria outlined in the job description.
It is really important to personalise your application to convey your individual skills, knowledge, and experiences effectively and for us to understand why you are applying for this role with GHC. We discourage over reliance on AI-generated applications as it will lessen your chances of success in securing an interview with us .
Job overview
Charlton Lane Hospital is a 48 bed acute hospital for Older Adults with a range of complex functional and organic mental health conditions. The Occupational Therapy team work across 3 wards and have a fully equipped Therapy Department (Occupational Therapy, Physiotherapy, Speech & Language Therapy and Psychology).
An exciting opportunity has arisen for a highly motivated, passionate Occupational Therapist or Return to Practise occupational therapist to join our team of person-centred clinicians.
This post would welcome applicants returning to practice and new graduates. We invite you to get in touch to arrange a telephone call or a visit to hear more about the post.
Occupational Therapists at Charlton Lane Hospital provide specialist assessment and interventions underpinned by the Model of Human Occupation and work closely with the Multi-Disciplinary Team to coordinate and ensure safe and effective discharge from hospital for our patients.
The successful candidate will be a reflective practitioner, able to demonstrate effective clinical reasoning skills, be able to apply theory to practice, demonstrate effective and sensitive communication with patients, carers’ and colleagues and be able to demonstrate occupation focussed practice.
In return, you will receive clinical and developmental supervision and will be supported to apply evidence-based practice within this rewarding clinical area.
Main duties of the job
You will have the opportunity to utilise your core Occupational Therapy skills whilst also having the opportunity to develop innovative services in a department-based environment.
Provide specialist Occupational Therapy to service users with severe / complex mental health needs and / or learning disabilities.
Provide evidence based, occupational therapy assessment and intervention to optimise the service users’ ability to engage with their environment in line with the principles of social inclusion and / or recovery
Contribute to the training and support of primary and secondary health care professionals, social care providers, and families to assist them to better meet the health needs of service users.
See attached Job Description and Person Specification for more details.
Working for our organisation
We have in excess of 5000 staff working over 50 sites, providing a diverse range of services. We strive to support an organisational culture that is welcoming, builds and celebrates inclusivity and diversity and provides a sense of belonging and trust.
The annual NHS Staff Survey gives our people the opportunity to tell us about their experience working at the Trust. For the 2023 survey just over 2800 colleagues gave us their views (58.5%). It was great to see from the results that colleagues are saying that:
- 89.7% believe they are making a positive difference to patients/service users;
- 73.3% would recommend the organisation as a place to work;
- 82.4% agree that care of patients and service users is the organisations priority;
- 76.7% would be happy with the standard of care for a friend or relative
Our results put us as 5th nationally as a Community, Mental Health and Learning Disabilities NHS Employer of Choice and 1st equal amongst all NHS Provider Trusts in the South West. However, we know we have more to do and will continue to drive forward our commitment to making GHC a Great Place to Work.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Provide Occupational Therapy assessment and treatment for people who face significant Occupational Performance and environmental challenges as detailed in relevant Integrated Care Pathway.
Manage own caseload under supervision of clinical specialist / senior occupational therapist.
Develop, implement and evaluate care plans in conjunction with service users, carers and other professionals ensuring individual needs are met.
Ensure risks associated with interventions and environment are assessed and managed in collaboration with multi-disciplinary team.
Maintain accurate, informative and contemporaneous records of all interventions.
Initiate referrals to other services and provide substantive letters, and formal reports as required within Trust and Professional standards.
Contribute to the fieldwork education of occupational therapy undergraduates and other students.
Person specification
Qualifications
Essential criteria- Degree / Diploma in Occupational Therapy
- HCPC Registration
Experience
Essential criteria- Experience of working with service users with severe / complex mental health needs or learning disabilities
- Experience in a range of mental health of learning disability settings
When joining us, as well as becoming part of a team that makes a difference, we also offer:
- Free car parking at many of our sites
- 27 days leave plus bank holidays, increasing up to 33 days with long service
- A broad range of training and development opportunities, including apprenticeships up to Level 7 qualification.
- A multi-professional preceptorship programme for all Newly Qualified; Nurses, Nursing Associates, Internationally Educated Practitioners, Allied Health Professionals and Return to Practice Practitioners.
- Generous NHS pension and enhanced pay when if you work unsocial hours
- Flexible, family friendly and agile working opportunities
- Recognition and long service awards
- Fast Track physiotherapy
- Our Wellbeing line
- Access to discounts and salary sacrifice schemes; including Cycle to Work, Car scheme and discounts on travel, leisure and retailers.
Applicants are advised to apply early as if a large number of applications are received for this post, we reserve the right to close the vacancy prior to the advertised date. Good luck with your application.
For more information please see the attached 'Additional Information for Applicants' document.