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 ethnically diverse, 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.
Job overview
PLEASE NOTE: This is a community based post which will require the post holder to travel regularly between multiple sites to perform duties.
Come and join us at Leigh Moss Community Hub, based at Leigh Moss Hospital, Liverpool L14 5NX.
We are excited to be recruiting a full time Band 6 Occupational Therapist to work within our Community Mental Health Team.
We can offer you a dynamic and flexible clinical role that interfaces with both dementia care pathways and mental health care pathways across the Liverpool and Kirby footprint.
Whilst working autonomously you will carry a complex case load, You will be situated within the multidisciplinary team and have full support from a range of professionals including Consultant Psychiatrist, Mental Health Nurses, Physio, SALT and Support Workers. Your fellow Occupational Therapists meet regularly and will also be a great source of support and leadership.
Our working hours are Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm.
Advert
The post holder will effectively manage a caseload of clients with complex needs as an autonomous practitioner, using evidence based/client centred principles to assess, plan, implement and evaluate interventions.
The post holder will provide leadership for junior staff, when appropriate, through supervision and appraisal, and participate in planning, development and evaluation of OT services within a designated
area/team, holding responsibility for defined projects.
The post holder will maintain close links with other team members and liaise with external agencies and contribute to the maintenance and development of the Trust OT Service.
Working for our organisation
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
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Clinical
To work with clients to identify OT goals as part of the overall care plan, using specialist mental health and OT assessment tools.
To plan and implement client centred individual and/or group interventions, using graded activity to achieve therapeutic goals.
To monitor, evaluate and modify treatment in order to measure progress and ensure effectiveness of intervention.
To apply a high level of understanding of the effect of disability and provide training and advice on lifestyle changes and adaptations to the client's social and physical environment.
To assess the occupational needs of a defined client group and establish and evaluate appropriate treatment programmes.
To provide clinical advice, expertise and leadership within your team.
To co-ordinate the care of a defined group of service users carrying out their assessment and planning, implementing and evaluating their care under the guidelines of CPA without supervision. To act as care coordinator (when required) normally for the more complex cases e.g. those service users subject to CPA.
To monitor and offer professional advice and leadership to all team members with regards to their caseloads and working practices.
To ensure that the service users care plan is developed to meet the assessed need of the individual. To monitor, via performance management, the care plans developed for service users by all sector members to ensure that they are appropriate and of a high standard.
To liaise with family members, carers and significant others as necessary when completing the assessment and developing a care plan. To be a point of contact for service users and carers that have concerns regarding their care, making every effort to resolve their concerns sensitively and
promptly, referring to and informing the Team Manager as necessary.
To develop a risk management plan for service users under your care, taking note of the contributions from other members of the team. Ensure that all significant people are aware of the risk management plan and are actioning it appropriately.
To monitor and work with all team members to ensure that service user risk is managed appropriately and that risk management plans are of a high quality.
To lead the systematic monitoring and evaluation of service users under the care of the sector you have responsibility for.
To have an in-depth knowledge of the Mental Health Act. To support service users and their carers when the Mental Health Act is being used to admit the service user to hospital. To support staff involved in the application of the Mental Health Act, ensuring that they are aware of and fulfilling their duties.
To monitor the provision of a range of therapeutic activities for service users by supervision of sector members' caseloads and via audit.
To use skills gained through training and experience to de-escalate situations where service users become physically or verbally aggressive. Use your judgement, gained from experience, to establish if a service user requires assessment by a medic or possibly hospital admission.
To use skills gained through experience to deal with service users who become angry, hostile or distressed.
To ensure all sector members get appropriate support following violent incidents and liaise with the Team Manager to ensure any identified actions arising from such incidents are implemented.
To participate in and/or lead service user reviews ensuring that service user needs are met and that the team has all the relevant information on which to base their clinical decisions.
To develop care plans that enable service users to reach and maintain their optimum level of health and independence to help them to remain in the community in their chosen setting or return to this on discharge.
To react pro-actively in cases of service user crisis and put in place immediate plans to resolve the situation.
Communication
To promote awareness of the role of OT within the MDT negotiating priorities where appropriate.
To ensure a seamless approach by liaising with other professionals as required.
To use verbal and non-verbal communication skills established through training and experience to impart sensitive information e.g., diagnosis or symptoms to service users and their families.
To offer support to other staff to do this.
To check understanding of information where there are often barriers to effective communications due to distress or psychiatric symptoms in service users or where there is resistance in staff. This may also be necessary when English is not the first language.
To use skills established through training and experience to give and receive information, adhering to the Caldicott guidelines, to other individuals with regard to a service users care in reviews and
multi-disciplinary meetings. These individuals may be external to the Trust.
Documentation
To ensure that up to date written and electronic records and activity data are maintained in accordance with Professional and Trust standards and provide specialist OT reports relevant to practice setting.
To ensure that all relevant information with regards to a service users care and treatment is documented accurately and legibly into the health record. Supervise and monitor the entries made by sector members through performance management and audit.
Professional Ethics
To comply with the COT Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct and national and local policies and procedures.
To adhere to the Trust Policy on Confidentiality.
Leadership, Supervision & Appraisal
In line with local guidelines review and reflect on own practice and performance through effective use of professional and operational supervision and appraisal.
To provide effective guidance, supervision and appraisals for junior staff as required.
Training Staff & Student
To lead in the induction, training of students and other staff both within or external to the Trust.
To be responsible for the supervision and written assessment of OT students on practice
placement within the Trust.
To contribute to the provision of teaching sessions in order to pass on knowledge and skills
Service Development & Delivery
To participate in the operational planning, and implementation of policy and service development within your team, leading on delegated projects within your team.
To provide reports and statistical returns to a variety of departments as requested.
Professional Development
To apply specialist skills and knowledge in order to establish professional competence and fitness to practise as a specialist OT.
To demonstrate ongoing personal development through participation in internal and external development opportunities, recording learning outcomes in a portfolio.
To participate in the implementation of the Trust's PDP process for all staff in your sector.
Service Governance, Quality, Standards
To contribute in the Trust's Directorate's and team's service governance arrangements and quality agenda, including the setting and monitoring of practice standards.
To apply national guidelines/ legislation relating to health and social care in mental health service provision.
Ensure that work is conducted in line with Trust Equality and Diversity policy, reporting incidents and complaints as required.
To tackle unsatisfactory performance promptly and constructively in your sector, liaising with Team Manager.
To participate in the investigation process regarding the disciplinary procedure and service users/carer complaints.
Line Management, Staff, Budget
To be responsible for maintaining stock, advising on resources to carry out the job.
To co-ordinate the day-to-day activities of junior staff where applicable.
Research and Practice Development
To undertake research and/or audit projects relevant to OT and/ or service area, disseminating findings at local level.
To broaden research and development skills through participation in local audit and research projects.
Please ensure you check the email account from which you apply for all correspondence. All information regarding your application will come from not NHS Jobs.
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 vacancies from further applications when we have received a minimum number of applications from which to make a shortlist. Please ensure you apply without delay if you wish to be considered for this role.
The Trust expects all post holders who require an enhanced DBS for their role and work in Children's & Young People services to subscribe to the DBS Update Service. You will be required to enrol for this service for a fee of £16 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.
Applicants requiring sponsorship may wish to determine the likelihood of obtaining sponsorship for this position by assessing themselves against the criteria on the website -
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.
Please note: new entrants to the NHS will commence on the first pay point of the relevant band.