Paediatric Occupational Therapist (development post)

Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust celebrates diversity and promotes equal opportunities; we are committed to challenging and eliminating racism and other forms of discrimination and advancing and promoting equality of opportunity in the provision of services and creating an inclusive environment for all employees. We believe that everyone has the right to be treated with dignity and respect.
We take positive action to support disadvantaged groups and also particularly encourage applications from ethnic minorities, disabled and LGBTQIA+ people that are under-represented in our workforce. Furthermore we welcome applications from reservists and ex-armed forces personnel as we recognise the benefits of the values, skills, training and experience that they bring to their work with us. We encourage all applicants to share their equality information with us.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------, An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Paediatric Occupational Therapist to work in a development post from band 5 to band 6 within the paediatric therapy team.
This post is offered as a traineeship under Agenda for Change terms and conditions: annex 21, with an amended starting salary (70% of top of band 6) and 18 month development programme to work towards the band 6 competencies. Following successful completion of the required competencies, the successful candidate will progress to the band 6 role at the base of the band 6 pay scale.
The paediatric therapy team work with children and young people aged from 0-19 who live in the St Helens and Knowsley areas and have difficulties with their fine motor skills, activities of daily living or sensory needs. We are a community team and work in a variety of locations, including special and mainstream schools, clinics, and patients homes., To provide high quality, specialist services to children and young people in a variety of settings (including patients homes, schools, nurseries, children's centres and clinics ) as a member of Community Health Services (CHS) and Specialist Child Health Services (including Speech and Language Therapists, Physiotherapist's and Nurses).
To demonstrate an integrated approach to patient care, working collaboratively with external agencies, such as Social Care and Education.
To take responsibility for managing children and young people with particular conditions and be responsible for providing specialist assessments and treatment plans for children and young people with these conditions.
Caseloads will include children with developmental and sensory conditions among others.
To provide specialist advice, education and competency based training to others including parents, carers and other professionals regarding the management and care of children and young people.
To supervise other members of the therapy service including junior staff and students, Work with individuals, families, carers, communities, special educational schools and other agencies to undertake a comprehensive generic and specialist assessment of patients/clients using clinical reasoning skills and a range of appropriate assessment techniques to provide an accurate diagnosis of their condition.
Formulate and deliver an individual treatment programme using specialist assessment, reasoning skills and treatment skills based on a sound knowledge of evidence based practice and a range of treatment options.
Evaluate patient progress, reassess and alter treatment programmes using an accepted/ appropriate range of techniques as required reporting back to and have regular support and advice from senior clinician.
To demonstrate the promotion of healthy lifestyle practices to the general public by the utilisation of their teaching & brief intervention skills.
Prioritise health problems and intervene appropriately to assist the patient in complex, urgent or emergency situations, including initiation of effective emergency care.
Work within own sphere of practice
Managerial/Leadership (including financial / physical resources and staffing)
To demonstrate leadership by means of:
+ Support & 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 team.
To provide specialist advice and guidance; to work with colleagues to ensure best practice across all disciplines in the assessment, treatment and long term management of a complex paediatric case load.
The post holder will be expected to work autonomously with a defined workload, prioritise own workload and ensure effective time management strategies are embedded in own practice.
To manage resources to ensure they relate to the overall objectives and responsibilities of the team.
To train, supervise and performance manage staff and students. This will include the use of more formal appraisal documentation
To undertake any other duties that might be considered appropriate by senior staff
Clinical
To be responsible for the assessment of care needs and the development, implementation and evaluation of programmes of care without supervision and act as a named practitioner
To implement care/intervention based on research and from any post registration course undertaken.
To be responsible for equipment used in carrying out clinical duties, ensuring competence to use the equipment and that of other practitioners using the equipment.
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 professional clinical advice as appropriate
Learning and Development
To maintain own professional/ personal 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
Ensure all mandatory training is accessed and kept up to date
To be an active member of relevant training programmes attending and delivering presentations at staff meetings/tutorials and by attending relevant professional short courses and being a reflective practitioner
To participate in the supervision scheme as supervisee and supervisor when appropriate.
Clinical Governance/Research Audit
To adhere to the appropriate Registrant Body code of Ethics and Professional Conduct and comply with local and national standards of practice
Support the formulation and implementation of clinical and operational practices and procedure as appropriate.
Ensure the principles of Clinical Governance are incorporated in service delivery by maintaining a high quality service based on agreed clinical standards
Identify and minimise clinical and non-clinical risk to minimise risk of harm to patients, staff & visitors.
Undertake the measurement and evaluation of your work and current practices through the use of evidence based practice projects, audit and outcome measures.
To support research activity and assist in developing a research and evidence based culture within the Service
To participate in practice development, evaluation, audit and research activities relevant to service to promote evidence based practice
Communication
To communicate effectively with patients and carers to maximise potential and to ensure understanding of their condition.
To communicate effectively and work collaboratively within the team, other members of the Trust, Social Care Providers and secondary care partners. Educate professionals to ensure delivery of a co-ordinated multi-disciplinary integrated service. This will include forms of verbal/written report writing, referrals to other agencies.
Demonstrates professional sensitivity and empathy during the emotional demand of high exposure to distressing circumstances on a day-to-day basis, for example when patients are receiving "bad news".
To assess capacity, gain valid informed consent and have the ability to work within a legal framework with patients and carers who may have difficulties understanding complex information due to speech and language difficulties, sensory loss, learning difficulties, depression etc. Acts as an advocate for the patient and continually demonstrates effective communication skills with patients, carers and others.
Maintain accurate, legible, concise and contemporaneous records in accordance with Registrant Bodies guidelines.
To maintain tact and diplomacy and use highly developed communication skills when working in situations which may become hostile/antagonistic.
To respect confidential information obtained during the course of your work and refrain from discussing such information without the consent of the patient / client or a person entitled to act on their behalf, except where disclosure is required by Law or by the order of a Court or is necessary in the public interest.
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Only those applicants who demonstrate clearly how they meet our person specification will be shortlisted for interview.
As a Disability Confident Employer, we offer a guaranteed interview scheme for applicants who consider themselves to be disabled who meet the minimum (essential) criteria for the role in the person specification. If you would like your application to be considered under the Trust's guaranteed interview scheme you can indicate this in the personal information section of your online application form.
Should you require a reasonable adjustment to our recruitment process please email [email protected] to ensure that measures can be put in place to support you.
We reserve the right to close any vacancy earlier than advertised in exceptional circumstances once we have received a high volume of applications.
The Trust expects all post holders who require an enhanced DBS for their role subscribe to the DBS Update Service. You will be required to enrol for this service for a fee of £13 per year and maintain registration. Trans applicants who require a DBS check and do not want to reveal details of their previous identity can contact the DBS Sensitive Applications Team or email [email protected]) with their application number once they have completed their DBS application form. The team can prevent any previous identity showing on the DBS Certificate, unless the applicant has a conviction under their previous details in which case this will need to be disclosed.
Flexible working requests will be considered for all roles.
Please be advised that the use of Artificial Intelligence on applications is monitored and if you choose to use this, you must declare this on your application form.

You will be expected to work towards the band 6 competencies and formulate and deliver individual treatment programmes using assessment, reasoning skills and treatment skills based on a sound knowledge of evidence based practice and a range of treatment options.

Mersey Care is one of the largest trusts providing physical health and mental health services in the North West, serving more than 1.4 million people across our region and are also commissioned for services that cover the North West, North Wales and the Midlands.
We offer specialist inpatient and community services that support physical and mental health and specialist inpatient mental health, learning disability, addiction and brain injury services. Mersey Care is one of only three trusts in the UK that offer high secure mental health facilities.
At the heart of all we do is our commitment to 'perfect care' - care that is safe, effective, positively experienced, timely, equitable and efficient. We support our staff to do the best job they can and work alongside service users, their families, and carers to design and develop future services together. We're currently delivering a programme of organisational and service transformation to significantly improve the quality of the services we provide and safely reduce cost as we do so.
Flexible working requests will be considered for all roles.