Occupational Therapist Salary - £44,075 - £49,282 (Grade 7) Hours - 37 Contract type - full time, permanent Work Style - Field: working in communities across the city and our base at Albert Road Wolverhampton City Council has new and exciting opportunities within our Occupational Therapy Service. We’re expanding and looking for experienced, motivated practitioners who want to lead practice, develop others, and make a tangible impact across our community. About the opportunity As an Occupational Therapist, you’ll help lead the duty function, working from our Albert Road base or from home. You’ll provide professional oversight of the duty service by triaging new connections, offering clinical guidance, and supporting Duty Support and Assessment Officers to deliver timely early support. Your role will focus on ensuring that people receive the right level of advice, signposting or assessment at the earliest stage, helping to prevent escalation and promote independence in line with Care Act principles and best practice. What you’ll do Lead the daily duty function, acting as the point of clinical oversight for new connections coming into the service. Triaging enquiries to determine risk, urgency and the most appropriate next steps, ensuring people receive timely support or signposting. Provide clinical advice and decision‑making to Duty Support and Assessment Officers, supporting them to manage early conversations safely and effectively. Screen new referrals to identify whether a person requires early advice, proportionate OT input, or allocation for a full functional assessment. Offer early support, including advice, environmental strategies, access to community resources, and basic problem‑solving to prevent escalation. Identify urgent needs (e.g., safety risks, deterioration, equipment needs) and prioritise them appropriately. Ensure information gathering is proportionate and aligned with Care Act principles, focusing on strengths, functional ability, and immediate barriers. Record clear clinical triage decisions, risk considerations, and rationales in line with professional standards. Support demand management, ensuring that workflow is safe, efficient and reduces unnecessary waiting for full OT assessments. Liaise with partner teams (e.g., Independent Living, Reablement, Social Care duty) when cross‑team responses are required. Contribute to service improvement, identifying themes, gaps or risks arising through duty and feeding these back to the leadership team. Maintain a person‑centred approach, ensuring people receive the right support at the right time, with a strong focus on prevention and early intervention. What you’ll bring HCPC registration and substantial post‑qualification experience in adult social care. Proven ability to manage complex risk, apply clinical reasoning, and achieve outcomes that matter to people and carers. A collaborative mindset and enthusiasm for innovation and continuous improvement. Why Wolverhampton? Be part of a growing and innovative team that values creativity, compassion and evidence‑informed practice. Supportive leadership, structured supervision and CPD; opportunities to shape services across our new integrated pathways. Apply today and help us create a service that’s fit for the future—focused on outcomes, built on trust, and making independence possible for Wolverhampton residents. Please note as part of the process you will need to prepare a presentation. For full details of the responsibilities and requirements of this role please see the attached Job Description and Person Specification. Should you wish to discuss this opportunity further, please contact Parminder Bhandal Parminder.Bhandal@wolverhampton.gov.uk NJC Pay Award for 2026 / 2027: The annual pay increases for 2026/27 for NJC Local Government Employees are currently being negotiated and, once agreed, will be effective from 1 April 2026. Our working arrangements All council roles are allocated to either a fixed, field or flexible work style. Some roles are agile which enable and empower employees to maximise their performance and productivity, whilst maintaining a healthy work life balance. Roles with a fixed workstyle work in a fixed permanent council location. Roles with a field workstyle are usually allocated where employees are required to be out working in the community with a minimum requirement for 'touch down' space at any council location. Roles with a flexible workstyle have a flexible base location to meet the needs of the business and employees can work from a mixture of home or any council office, partner/client, or external location, as required to meet service requirements. Please refer to the Job Description for further information on the workstyle assigned to the role you are applying for. For more information about working for our organisation including the culture of the Council, the Council plan and vision, staff equality forums, core HR policies and much more please click here. Diversity We are committed to building a workforce that is reflective of the diverse community we serve. We want to attract the best applications from people of all backgrounds and underrepresented groups because we strongly believe in adding value through diversity, inclusion, and equality. Our employees enable us to deliver services that are accessible, inclusive, and reflective of Wolverhampton residents. Our status as a Disability Confident Employer showcases our commitment to people with disabilities or health conditions, advocating for their opportunities and potential. We've received the Stonewall Gold Award, emphasising our dedication to the LGBT community by nurturing an inspiring, inclusive, and equal workplace. As of March 2023, the RACE Code Quality Mark signifies our active engagement with racial equality. These recognitions validate our continuous efforts towards fostering an inclusive work environment that respects and values our diverse employees. As part of our commitment as a Disability Confident employer, a Gold Award Armed Forces employer and our commitment to supporting care leavers - we offer a guaranteed interview as long as your application meets the essential criteria for the post. We encourage, inspire and value an inclusive culture here at the council where employees can flourish, thrive and be themselves. We have four staff equality forums for employees to join. These help to ensure our employees have a voice, they feel empowered to speak up and where everyone is treated with respect - Learn more about the staff equality forums here Recruitment of Ex-Offenders We are committed to the fair treatment of all our employees, potential employees, or users of our service regardless of offending background. The Council uses the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) for any vacancies that require a DBS check to obtain information about applicants to assess their suitability for employment in positions of trust. We do not discriminate unfairly against any individual on the basis of a conviction or any other information revealed as a result of a DBS disclosure - Learn more here Employment Information & Support If you are considering applying for an apprenticeship or a role where the salary is (Grade 2-5), and would like to visit us to learn about the application, interview process and what it is like to work for the council, please click on this link to find out more - Learn more here Attached documents Occupational Therapist JD PS.pdf