Trust Wide Professional Lead Of Occupational Therapy

A fantastic opportunity has arisen in a professional senior leadership role. We are looking for an outstanding , passionate and innovative Professional Lead for Occupational Therapy.
We recently celebrated winning the Mental Health Excellence award for our Occupation Matters Programme.
This role ensures that the occupational therapists across the organisation have the leadership, clinical and governance structures in place so they are able to practice in a safe, effective and efficient way, delivering high quality services across Communities, Hospitals and Specialist Services, Learning Disability, and Children and Young Peoples Services., This role would suit someone who
+ has a passion for ensuring the delivery of high quality occupatioanl therapy services and who enjoys managing and supporting people to achieve their potential.
+ who is committed to improving services and maintaining staff well-being.
+ can think strategically and deliver services in line with the national and local agenda.
+ is able to oversee transformation work and deliver on complex service development/projects.
+ is able to take a collective leadership approach, engaging key stalker holders and ensuring that people who use services and their carers/family are at the heart of everything that we do.
+ who is able to provide professional supervision to the lead and highly specialist occupational therapist across the organisation, along with supervision for occupational therapists within services that do not have a lead occupational therapist attached to them, The post holder will be a highly experienced and competent occupational therapist & will be expected to:
· Be accountable for the delivery of a high quality, safe and efficient occupational therapy service across the divisions
· Provide compassionate and collective leadership to the occupation therapy service, across all the divisions in the Trust
· Ensure that the occupational therapy assessment, formulations and interventions are evidence based, outcome measured and evaluated so that people who access services and their carers are provided with high quality services, adapting this to meet the changing needs of the population
· Provide highly developed specialist professional advice, guidance and consultation for people who have complex occupational needs, working alongside the lead occupational therapist for that speciality, which will contribute to the person's formulation and intervention plan
· Ensure that there are clear occupational therapy pathways for each division within the organisation, which are in line with the Trust's clinical strategy, and the local and national agenda
· Share best practice and embed learning into service delivery to ensure a consistent and coordinated approach to occupational therapy service provision, across the multiple sites in each division, ensuring that there is parity and timely access
· Ensure that the necessary systems, protocols and policies for the delivery of a safe & supportive service are in place, understood & adhered to throughout the professional group
· Lead and inspire staff to provide a pro-active and responsive high-quality service, contributing to ongoing audit, evaluation and service development
· Lead on complex audits of occupational therapy interventions to improve practice and service delivery across the divisions.
· Analysis, interpret and compare highly complex factors in a range of situations relevant to occupational therapy, where there may be conflicting opinions.
· Keep up to date with and contribute to the latest research and practice developments relevant to occupational therapy in mental health and learning disability, and encouraging a research culture throughout the occupational therapy service
· Understand and interpret the national picture in relation to health and social care policies and agendas. Implement and suggest changes to policies and protocols at a local level and within specialist areas
· Champion and lead on transformation work, service development and clinical initiatives related to this role to enable the services to deliver high quality interventions
· Maintain an effective and supportive supervision structure ensuring arrangements are in place for all occupational therapy staff to receive regular supervision, appraisal and have their personal development plans and training needs identified and where possible met
· Provide professional supervision to the lead and highly specialist occupational therapist across the organisation, along with supervision for occupational therapists within services that do not have a lead occupational therapist attached to them
· Provide professional advice, guidance and work alongside service managers, clinical leads and Human Resources regarding performance management issues of occupational therapists across the divisions, liaising with HCPC as required
· Lead on the recruitment of the lead and highly specialist occupational therapists across the divisions, and provide guidance and address recruitment/workforce issues related to occupational therapy across the services/divisions
· To monitor spend within the occupational therapy workforce to ensure effective use of resources and feedback report to steer spending trends at a higher level
· Identify clinical and workforce risks within the occupational therapy service, escalating as required, developing and implementing plans to manage identified risks
· Identify the continuing professional development needs of the occupational therapy service, delivering relevant training, to ensure the workforce have the skills to deliver effective and safe interventions
· Understand the health, well-being, equally and diversity needs of the workforce and promote a culture of compassion, resilience and enable people to speak up and share challenges
· Chair the Lead Occupational Therapy meeting to ensure there is a coherent, effective and efficient approach to the delivery of the occupational therapy service across divisions
· Develop strong connections and work alongside the Associate Director for Therapies in each division and the Director of Therapies, along with supporting partnership working with other organisations
· Contribute to the wider vision for the AHP workforce, by working collaboratively with other AHP and professional leads within Surrey Heartlands and nationally, contributing to national strategies.
· Enhance the national profile of the SABP occupational therapy service so that the Trust is seen as a great place to work
· Represent the occupational therapy service at both Trust-wide and national meetings, communicating effectively the unique contribution of this profession and how this meets the population health needs
· Contribute to service redesigns and Trust bids for new services by effectively communicating the occupational therapy offer and workforce requirements
· Communicate highly complex, highly sensitive and highly contentious information to a range of different stalk holder where there could be significant barriers to acceptance which need to be overcome using the highest level of interpersonal and communication skills.
· Ensure the availability of high quality student practice placements and Return to Practice placement in liaison with the AHP Education Manager, making connections with local universities and attending appropriate events
· Promote the profession to the next generation though ensuring that occupational therapy is represented at careers fairs and providing work experience placements
We are seeking to enrich the diversity of our Trust to better reflect demographic needs of the populations we serve and to enhance the skills of our workforce. We actively encourage applicants with underrepresented personal characteristics to apply for this role if you match the job description. Please note that you are not restricted from applying for this role if you do not identify with these characteristics and all applicants will be considered fairly against the job description.
As a flexible working and friendly organisation, we want to ensure that you can work in a way that is best for us, our patients, and for you. Speak to us about how we might be able to accommodate a flexible working arrangement whether that's job share, part time or any other flexible working patterns.

Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust is the leading provider of health and social care services for people of all ages with mental ill-health and learning disabilities in Surrey and North East Hampshire. We also provide social care services for people with a learning disability in Croydon and ASD and ADHD assessment services in Hampshire.
We actively seek to engage people who use our services and our communities in improving the mental wellbeing of the local population. We work closely with other NHS and voluntary sector organisations who provide services and support people who use services and carers.
Candidates who are shortlisted will be invited to attend a virtual assessment centre day on 30 or 31 January which will inform who will be invited to interview - interviews will be held w/c 10 January 2025