Occupational Therapist - Practice Lead
Are you an OT who believes the best care happens when clinical expertise meets everyday support?
Does it make you proud to see colleagues and teams grow in confidence and capability?
* Salary: £47,810 to £54,710 (dependent on experience)
* Location: Based in South or West Yorkshire with travel across branches as required
* Hours: Full-time (37.5 hours) preferred – flexible working considered
* Contract: Permanent
* Reporting to: Director for Business Development (with clinical supervision and support)
* Registration: HCPC registered Occupational Therapist
About Be Caring
Be Caring, operating across the North of England, is the UK's largest employee-owned provider of social care. We're a social enterprise, committed to making a lasting difference in our communities - for the people we support, our colleagues, and the wider system.
Our mission is to be care-giving day-makers, hope-builders, smile-givers, life-changers, community-warriors with the will to make a difference.
Values and Culture
Our values are: Be Kind, Be Proud, Be the Best You Can Be, Be Happy, Be Safe, Be Involved. This role is about improving lives through better everyday support – not "paper compliance." We want someone who leads with our values:
* Be Kind: supportive coaching, respectful communication
* Be Proud / Be the Best You Can Be: evidence-based, high standards, always improving
* Be Safe: clear escalation, good documentation, confident risk management
* Be Involved: partnership working, shared learning, co-design
About the Role
We're looking for an experienced Occupational Therapist to join us as our Practice Lead across Yorkshire (Sheffield, Leeds and Bradford) – someone who will bridge the gap between clinical guidance and practical, person-centred care.
This is a role where you'll genuinely shape how we deliver safer, more confident support – particularly around mobility, activity and falls prevention. You'll work with our care teams, trainers, and service managers to design practical approaches that non-registered colleagues can implement safely and effectively.
But it's bigger than that. You'll also play a vital role in practice education – supporting OT students in non-traditional placements, building partnerships with local therapy teams, and helping create the next generation of therapists who understand social care.
The Big Picture
We want to help our teams deliver safer, more confident, more consistent support – especially where mobility and activity can reduce falls risk and frailty. You'll lead the design and rollout of exercise and mobility plans that care workers can implement safely, supported by a clear competency framework, observation and sign-off, and escalation protocols.
You'll work closely with our Service Managers, Quality Leads, Care Assessors, Trainers, Continuous Improvement Team and Clinical Lead. You'll also oversee a 'high-risk' register of people who need additional support – providing temporary clinical oversight, direct training and guidance until their support is stable and sustainable.
About You
We're looking for a confident, values-led OT who enjoys developing others and improving systems – someone who can make clinical guidance practical and accessible for non-clinical teams.
You'll bring:
* HCPC registration and a recognised OT qualification
* Strong post-registration experience (community/rehab/adults; social care experience welcome)
* Excellent clinical reasoning and risk management, particularly around mobility, moving & handling, functional activity, and falls prevention
* Experience supporting others to learn (students, colleagues, apprentices) and confidence giving structured feedback
* The ability to design and deliver training that's engaging, supportive and accessible for different learning styles
* Great partnership skills – you build trust and can work across organisations and disciplines
Nice to have (not essential):
* Practice educator qualification (or willingness to work towards it)
* Experience in audit/quality improvement or implementing competency frameworks
* Experience in delegated care models or governance in community settings
What You'll Be Doing
1) Delegated Care and Clinical Assurance
* Translate national clinical guidance into practical mobility and exercise plans that non-clinical teams can follow safely
* Support teams to take basic health measures (within agreed governance) and ensure escalation protocols are understood and followed
* Co-design, deliver and observe train-the-trainer activity in branch so delivery is high quality, consistent and safe
* Provide advice and guidance across the organisation on optimised care, mobility, risk reduction and practical adaptations
2) Education and Workforce Development
* Lead approaches to prevent falls and reduce frailty, embedding practical prevention into everyday support
* Design and deliver therapy-based training for Trainers, care workers, coaches and assessors – focused on safe mobility support, exercise implementation and confidence-building
* Develop and roll out a clear competency framework for non-registered staff to support delegated care (pilot in South Yorkshire, then scale across Yorkshire and beyond)
* Complete clinical observation and sign off competencies for non-registered colleagues to ensure safe, effective mobility support and consistent practice
* Provide matrix support to teams on site and in branch – practical coaching, troubleshooting and confidence-building
* Act as Practice Lead and "Long Arm Educator" for OT students on 10-week placements in non-traditional settings, providing oversight, assessment and weekly reflective learning
3) Partnerships, Pathways and System Working
* Build and maintain working relationships with Community Therapy teams, Local Authority OTs and Social Work teams to support smooth pathways and shared learning
* Support safe hospital discharge by ensuring mobility and equipment plans are understood and applied, and that communication routes are clear
* Act as a liaison between NHS partners and Higher Education Institutions to coordinate and evaluate student placement quality and learning outcomes
* Contribute to integrated partnership approaches (e.g., Sheffield delegated care partnership) to provide confidence and assurance for all parties
4) Quality Improvement, Falls Prevention and Data Monitoring
* Work with our central Continuous Improvement Team to audit practice and learning/competency compliance, identifying improvement opportunities
* Support (and where needed, help implement) processes for monitoring falls data, identifying trends and triggering follow-up actions
* Participate in bi-monthly high-risk client meetings to review risks, implement plans and assessments, and coordinate equipment requests for people at high risk of falls
* Support appropriate equipment requests and environmental adaptations through the correct routes
What We Offer
* A role with real impact and an opportunity to shape delegated care approaches and practice education in non-traditional settings
* Supportive, values-led culture in an employee-owned organisation
* Variety across training, clinical oversight, partnership working and quality improvement
* Flexible working where possible
* Career development in an organisation that genuinely invests in its people
Ready to Apply?
If you're an OT who's passionate about workforce development, safer mobility support and building confident delegated care – and you want a role where values and people come first – we'd love to hear from you.