Specialist Occupational Therapist

Go back Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust

Specialist Occupational Therapist

The closing date is 28 September 2025

An exciting opportunity has arisen for an enthusiastic, hardworking, motivated Occupational Therapist to join our Trauma and Orthopaedic Team.

The team provides an inpatient service to a dedicated Trauma and Orthopaedic ward, an outreach service for our patients being discharged into the community and in reach to Fracture Clinic.

This post is an excellent opportunity for an experienced Band 5 or a current Band 6 looking for a challenge and aiming to develop not only their specialist skills but also managerial and leadership skills.

As a forward-thinking team, we provide a 7 day service.

The successful candidate will become an integral member of the Multi-Disciplinary Team, promoting a positive experience and outcomes for our patients.

Main duties of the job

The successful candidate will:

• Deliver a high standard of evidence based care
• Be confident in their assessment and decision making
• Work with the MDT in leading and supporting others in the discharge planning process including making recommendations about individual rehabilitation needs and discharge/placement requirements.
• Work closely with senior therapy colleagues to ensure the efficient running of the team and department. This will include coordination of the workloads within the team.
• Identify areas to improve and develop and lead in projects to achieve change.
• Supervise therapy assistants, rotational Occupational Therapists and students on clinical placement within the speciality .
• The ability to work closely with Physiotherapists and undertake generic therapy assessments and treatments to a high level.
• Haveprevious experience of working with Orthopaedic patients.
• Have the ability to work flexibly and adaptably to changing working patterns.

The successful candidate will have some experience in the trauma and orthopaedic field, be able to communicate effectively and have good organisational and time management skills. The ability to work both individually and as a member of a team and to prioritise activity is a key requirement of this post.

In return for your hard work and dedication we can offer a friendly and welcoming team and all the support and continuing professional development you will need to make a difference to patients and staff

About us

Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust serves a population of over 600,000 with a workforce of over 9000 dedicated and skilled staff across 21 sites.

We strongly believe that the communities we serve should all have access to Five Star Patient Care.

Our services:

Acute Care

Providing emergency and maternity services at Whiston, Southport and Ormskirk hospitals, and medical and surgical specialties across all our sites.

Primary Care

Providing primary care services at Marshalls Cross Medical Centre situated in St Helens Hospital.

Community Services

Providing adult community services for St Helens and a wheelchair service in Chorley, South Ribble, and West Lancashire. Our inpatient unit at Newton Community Hospital is where patients needing acute hospital beds can continue rehabilitation, freeing up space for more unwell patients. We also provide urgent care at our Urgent Treatment Centre located in St Helens town centre.

Specialist Regional Services

We provide the Mersey Regional Burns & Plastic Surgery Unit at Whiston Hospital and the Spinal Injuries Unit at Southport Hospital to more than 4 million people across the whole of Merseyside, West Lancashire, Cheshire, Isle of Man and North Wales.

Achievements:

• Rated Outstanding by CQC Inspection August 2018
• Top 100 places to work in the NHS (NHS Employers & Health Service Journal)
• National Preceptorship Accreditation (2023) for Nursing & AHP Preceptorship Programme

Job responsibilities

KEY DUTIES

• To be professional and legally responsible and accountable for all aspects of your own work including the management of patients/clients in your care.
• To ensure a high standard of clinical care for the patients/clients under your care, and support more junior staff to do likewise.
• To undertake a comprehensive assessment of patients/clients including those with diverse or complex presentations/multi pathologies; use specialist clinical reasoning skills and appropriate assessment techniques to provide an accurate diagnosis of their condition.
• Formulate and deliver an individual treatment programme using assessment, reasoning skills and treatment skills based on a sound knowledge of evidence-based practice and treatment options. Formulate an initial diagnosis and prognoses to recommend best course of intervention and develop comprehensive discharge plans.
• To take delegated responsibility from the Band 7 clinician for managing patients/clients with conditions and be responsible for providing specialist assessment and treatment plans for patients with these conditions.
• Evaluate patient progress, reassess, and alter treatment programmes as required.
• To have the ability to undertake self-directed/lone working in a variety of locations.

CLINICAL & PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES

• To maintain Professional Registration
• To work within Trust clinical guidelines, HCPC and Registrant Body guidelines and to have a working knowledge of national and local standards and monitor own and others quality of practise against these.
• To be responsible for a designated area of work, as delegated by a senior clinician. Plan and organise efficiently and effectively patient/client caseload, and use of time for self and more junior staff.
• To be responsible for equipment used in carrying out clinical duties, and to adhere to policy, including competence to use equipment and to ensure the safe use of equipment by others through teaching, training and supervision of practice.
• To provide spontaneous and planned advice, teaching and instruction to relatives, carers and other professionals to promote understanding of the aims of treatment and to ensure a consistent approach to patient care.
• To provide specialist clinical advice to colleagues working within other clinical areas
• To provide specialist clinical advice, teaching, and training to other members of the MDT regarding the management of patients
• To train, supervise and performance manage more junior staff and students. This will include the use of formal appraisal documentation.
• To communicate effectively with patients and carers to maximise potential and to ensure understanding of their condition.
• To assess capacity, gain valid informed consent and can work within a legal framework with patients/clients who lack capacity to consent to treatment.
• To communicate highly sensitive information effectively with all patient groups/clients/carers where there may be difficulties in accepting or understanding information.
• To maintain tact and diplomacy and use highly developed communication skills when working in situations which may become hostile/antagonistic including potential complaints as per Trust Policy

ADMINISTRATIVE RESPONSIBILITIES

• To maintain accurate, comprehensive, and up to date documentation, in line with legal and local requirements, and communicate assessment and treatment results to the appropriate disciplines in the form of reports and letters.
• To undertake as directed the collection of appropriate data and statistics for the use of the department.
• To communicate effectively and work collaboratively with the Multi-Disciplinary Team (MDT) to ensure delivery of a co-ordinated multidisciplinary service. This will include participating in a variety of MDT, internal and external agency meetings, and forums plus other forms of verbal/written communication as necessary including report writing and referrals to other agencies.

TEACHING & TRAINING RESPONSBILITIES

• To maintain own clinical professional development (CPD) by keeping abreast of any new trends and developments and incorporate them as appropriate into your work. To support junior staff to do likewise.
• To be an active member of relevant training programmes attending and delivering presentations and training sessions at staff meetings, tutorials, and by attending external courses and being a reflective practitioner
• To participate in the supervision scheme as supervisor and supervisee

LINE MANAGEMENT/SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES

• To demonstrate leadership by means of:
• Delivering change within sphere of practice, when and where indicated, to improve service delivery.
• Influencing, motivating, supporting, and enabling others to contribute towards the effectiveness and success of the Therapy Team
• To provide specialist advice and guidance in working with colleagues locally to ensure best practice across all disciplines in the assessment, treatment, and long-term management of patients/ clients within sphere of practice.
• To deputise for the band 7 in terms of operational issues
• To take responsibility for their own specialist and complex decision making and the decisions of their team which effect service delivery
• To undertake any other duties that might be considered appropriate by senior staff.
• To participate in working parties developing policy changes within speciality which will impact on all service users.

CLINICAL GOVERNANCE, RESEARCH & AUDIT

• To adhere to the appropriate Registrant Body code of Ethics and Professional Conduct and facilitate compliance of staff with local and national standards of practice.
• Implement policy and service development changes as directed.
• To demonstrate a sound understanding of clinical governance and risk management and apply to work situation.
• To undertake the measurement and evaluation of your work and current practices using evidence-based practice projects, audit, and outcome measures under the guidance of senior staff. Make recommendations for change and to implement change.
• To comply with the organisational and departmental policies and procedures and to be involved in the reviewing and updating as appropriate.
• To support research activity within the Service
• To engage actively in practice development, evaluation, audit, and research activities relevant to service to promote evidence-based practice.

Person SpecificationQualifications

• Degree in Occupational Therapist
• HCPC registration
• Clinical Educators Certificate
• Post Grad accredited study e.g. MSc in relevant health studies

Knowledge & Experience

• Advanced clinical knowledge relevant to the care environment and evidence of evidence based practise in relevant health setting
• Knowledge of relevant national policies and guidance and relevant assessment tools
• Evidence of effective working within an MDT
• Experience of Service development
• Relevant Continuous Professional Development
• Audit and research in a clinical area

Skills

• Demonstrates ability to motivate team performance to achieve objectives
• Ability to prioritise and work to deadlines
• Ability to communicate effectively in a variety of settings
• Accurate record keeping, report writing and IT skills including presentation skills
• Have a flexible approach to working with good time management

Other

• Ability to travel various hospital locations by own car/ assisted driver

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust

£38,682 to £46,580 a yearPer Annum, Pro Rata

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