Therapy Team Lead

Overview

Go back Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust

The closing date is 28 September 2025

We have an exciting opportunity for an experienced Physiotherapist or Occupational Therapist to join the Acute Therapy Service to Lead an innovative project within an off-site facility at Chase Heys to promote the 'Home First' Discharge to Assess model.

The successful post-holder will be an experienced clinician who has had substantial experience working as a Band 6 or current Band 7 within acute services and can demonstrate a responsive and flexible approach to current NHS challenges.

A keen interest in service development and involving/encouraging more junior staff is essential. The successful post-holder will support staff to be innovative and utilise their skills to their best advantage, to show case integrated and new ways of working.

This is a fantastic opportunity for an individual with an interest in leadership and service development, to work closely with system partners to continue to steer and shape the therapy team and discharge to assess model.

The successful post holder will be supported and will receive supervision by the Medical and Surgical Therapy Team Lead and Clinical Therapy Management to succeed in their role.

Main duties of the job

1. We are looking for a dynamic individual to join the Acute Therapy Team to provide clinical expertise and to support the service with patient flow.
2. The successful candidate will lead the Discharge to Assess Therapy Team at Chase Heys, Southport, with complex assessment, interventions and discharges providing expert clinical advice and guidance in line with evidence based practice.
3. The individual will have a clinical role, supporting a HomeFirst model of care and will be a key link between the acute and community services to promote patient-centred outcomes.
4. In addition, the candidate will have daily operational responsibility in line managing a team of Physiotherapists, Occupational Therapists, Assistant Practitioners and Therapy Assistants. In this realm you will be responsible for supervision, education and training and will have opportunity to develop the current service.

About us

The Secretary of State has approved the partnership between St Helens & Knowsley Teaching Hospitals and Southport & Ormskirk Hospitals.

From 1st July we have come together as a single organisation under the name Mersey & West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.

The Trust delivers acute hospital care, intermediate care, community, and primary care services to a population of over 600,000 people with a combined workforce of around 9000 dedicated and skilled staff from 17 locations including Whiston, Southport & Formby, St Helens, Ormskirk and Newton hospitals.

The Trust provides regional services for burns, plastic surgery and spinal injuries to more than 4 million people across Mersey and West Lancashire, Cheshire, the Isle of Man and North Wales.

Our Vision is to deliver 5 Star Patient Care:

• CARE that is evidence based, high quality and compassionate
• SAFETY that is of the highest standards
• COMMUNICATION that is open, inclusive and respectful
• SYSTEMS that are efficient, patient centred and reliable
• PATHWAYS that are best practice and embedded, but also respect the individual needs of patients

Our achievements include:

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

Job responsibilities

1. To provide a broad range of expert, complex therapeutic advice to patients and carers for a wide range of medical conditions to meet varying complex needs.
2. To support the Discharge to Assess Therapy Team in making recommendations to other Health Professionals regarding therapy needs of patients.
3. To ensure effective internal and external 2-way communication with patients, carers and all other Health and Social Care Professionals to negotiate, review and adapt care plans and in all aspects of patient care ensuring the holistic care of patients.
4. To demonstrate skills of active listening and respond to verbal and non-verbal cues of your patients or their carers, recognising and dealing with their concerns.
5. To provide and receive complex information which requires empathy and reassurance. Communicating where there may be barriers to understanding, or when patients/their carers may be finding difficulty dealing with their diagnosis and where skills such as motivational interviewing and counselling are required.
6. To accurately record all assessments and interventions on Therapy records, and in relevant nursing and medical records in line with Trust Policy, ensuring that the data is inputted onto the Trusts data collection/Information systems.
7. To lead and contribute to the production and evaluation of resources produced by the department e.g. information and training packs, advice leaflets etc.
8. Liaise with Therapists across the region and refer to other health professionals to ensure appropriate care pathways for those patients seeking information outside your area of skills and knowledge.
9. Liaise with colleagues at other Hospitals to ensure a seamless transfer of care between hospitals.
10. To be a member of the multi-disciplinary team and actively participate in M.D.T. meetings and case conferences.

Person Specification
Qualifications

• Degree in Physiotherapy or Occupational Therapy
• HCPC Registration
• Leadership qualification or equivalent experience
• Clinical Educator Qualification
• Evidence of Continued Professional Development within specialism

Knowledge and Experience

• Extensive post-graduate acute healthcare experience and knowledge
• Experience in leadership and supervising staff
• Experience of service development
• Experience of leading audit

Skills and Abilities

• Ability to initiate evidence based practice within clinical area and demonstrates experience in developing local care pathway
• Excellent teaching and presentation skills
• Excellent communication skills, ability to work closely with the MDT.

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

£47,810 to £54,710 per annum, pro rata

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