Job overview
Do you find joy in turning play into therapy? Perhaps you’ve transformed a school hall into a jungle adventure, or shared a make-believe feast with a superhero on the moon. In children’s occupational therapy, imagination isn’t just fun – it’s a powerful tool for growth, learning, and independence.
If you’re inspired by the idea of supporting children and young people to build confidence in self-care, learning, and play, this role could offer the creative and meaningful career move you’ve been waiting for.
We have an exciting opportunity for a Band 6 Occupational Therapist to join our Community Paediatric Occupational Therapy Team at Buckinghamshire NHS Trust on a fixed-term basis.
In this role, you’ll deliver universal, targeted, and specialist interventions for children with EHCPs in mainstream settings. You’ll manage your own caseload, provide specialist assessments and interventions, support colleagues and students, and contribute to training and service development alongside the leadership team.
We’re seeking a positive, proactive clinician with paediatric experience and a commitment to advancing occupational therapy for children and young people.
In return, we offer a supportive team environment that puts patient care first, values professional development, and champions the vital role of occupational therapy in children’s services.
Main duties of the job
As a Band 6 Paediatric Occupational Therapist, you will manage your own complex caseload of children and young people with a variety of conditions, using specialist clinical skills to provide assessments, interventions, and coaching to families, education staff, and other professionals. You will lead on supporting and training team members, supervise students and therapy assistants, and contribute to service development through evidence-based, multi-agency projects. The role requires strong prioritisation, organisational and communication skills to balance clinical duties with non-clinical responsibilities such as service improvement initiatives, resource development, and training delivery. Working closely with colleagues in Speech and Language Therapy, Physiotherapy, health, education, and social care, as well as the Buckinghamshire Integrated SEND team and tertiary centres, you will play a vital role in ensuring a successful multidisciplinary approach. You will provide universal and targeted advice within the SEND Code of Practice, design and deliver training to parents and practitioners, and embed yourself within the service’s clinical pathway by actively participating in team meetings, all while ensuring the delivery of a high-quality, child-centred occupational therapy service.
Working for our organisation
Why colleagues think we are
What does Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust offer you?
As part of our BHT family, you’ll benefit from learning and development opportunities to support your career progression.
Alongside NHS benefits of generous annual leave entitlement and pension scheme, you'll have access to NHS discount schemes.
We provide a range of health and wellbeing services to promote a healthy, happy workforce.
What do we stand for?
Our vision is to provide outstanding care, support healthy communities and be a great place to work.
Our mission is to provide personal and compassionate care every time.
We are working hard to increase diversity at all levels within the trust. We believe a diverse workforce can have a positive effect on both staff wellbeing and patient outcomes.
We welcome applications from black, Asian and minority ethnic candidates, LGBTQ+ candidates, candidates with disabilities and care-experienced candidates.
We make employment decisions by matching our service needs with the skills and experience of candidates, regardless of age, disability, gender, gender identity, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, or sexual orientation.
Person specification
Application and interview
Essential criteria
1. •Registered member of the Royal College of Occupational Therapists (RCOT) •Recognised Occupational Therapy degree qualification or equivalent •Health Professions Council Licence to Practice •Evidence of continuing professional development and personal development in the area of working with school aged children
application and interview
Essential criteria
2. •Clinical Experience of working in a range of settings •Evidence of good presentation skills •Evidence of supervision of others •Evidence of knowledge in safe guarding procedures •Demonstrates knowledge of specialist OT assessment tools relevant to the client group •Demonstrates knowledge of a range of appropriate therapeutic intervention •Demonstrates awareness of the roles of other professionals •Demonstrates awareness of standards of record keeping •Experience of coaching •Experience of delivering intervention/advice in person.
application and interview
Essential criteria
3. •Specialist knowledge of management of occupational performance and participation challenges for children and young people •Highly developed communication skills, written and verbal, to ensure effective liaison with multi-disciplinary team, children, young people and their families •Evidence of CPD and competence in using evidence base to inform clinical practice. •Demonstrate understanding of statutory/legal requirements for working with children and families and application in practice •Insight into local, regional and government initiatives relating to occupational therapy •Able to demonstrate empathy, motivate and persuade children with impaired cognitive or physical disabilities •Ability to write concise reports / referrals to ensure interpretation by other members of the multi-disciplinary team or Local Authority so that the child or young person can access the appropriate care and support. •The ability to prioritise & organise own work and monitor delegated work in a skill mix team. •Enthusiastic approach to professional and staff development •Ability to respond flexibly and professionally to unforeseen clinical and non-clinical situations •Able to demonstrate knowledge of clinical governance and clinical risk management principles •Ability to motivate, negotiate and reassure others •Ability to identify and manage stress in self and others •Able to listen to views and issues raised by families and work collaboratively to resolve these where possible
PPE requirements: Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust requires all colleagues to wear appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) in accordance with our infection prevention and control procedures.
COVID-19 and Flu vaccinations remain the best way to protect yourself, your family, your colleagues and of course our patients from the viruses when working in our healthcare settings. We encourage our staff to be vaccinated when recommended.
Application deadline: This post will close on the closing date stated at midnight, however if we receive a large number of applications or there is a change in circumstance, we may be required to close a job before the advertised date.
Application information: If you are offered a job, information will be transferred into the national NHS Electronic Staff Records (ESR) system.
Shortlisting: The monitoring and safeguarding sections are not made visible to the shortlisting panel. The safeguarding section may be made visible to the interview panel, dependent on the role being recruited into.
Travel expenses: It is Trust policy that travel expenses for interviews will not be reimbursed.
Smoking: All Trust sites are NO SMOKING. Smoking in all areas of the buildings and premises is prohibited.
Employer certification / accreditation badges