Senior Occupational Therapist Bognor Lifelong Services Team

Job Description

About us

Our Lifelong Services Teams have a unique focus, supporting children, young people and adults with lifelong physical disabilities, learning disabilities and autism. We know that a dedicated and strengths-based approach to disability, working in partnership with individuals and their families, can make a positive difference, enabling individuals to live a good life, as defined by them. We believe the best staff get the best outcomes and we’re looking to strengthen our teams today.

We provide a working environment that values professional supervision and support. Innovation and evidence-based practice underpins what we do, and we maintain an environment within which our occupational therapists can develop and progress in their careers. We are looking for exceptional staff who share our passion for the customer group we support and who can help us to be even better than we are today. If you look for the opportunities when other people see challenges, then we will support you to progress and develop throughout your occupational therapy career.

About the role

Salary: £35,454 to £36,882 per annum
Working Pattern: Part time, 28 hours per week
Contract Type: Permanent
Location: Chichester or Littlehampton office base with county wide travel

Although this is a Countywide team we take into account people's office base where possible when allocating cases, and an office base of Chichester or Littlehampton is available for this role. Business mileage can be claimed for travel.

In this exciting opportunity, you will work as part of a strong and dynamic service, working across the lifespan of disability, helping children, young people, and adults to live independent and productive lives. You will be expected to undertake strengths-based assessments utilizing Occupational Therapy skills and knowledge to develop and implement a plan of support, aimed at improving wellbeing and delivering outcomes. The plan may include advice, information, the provision of assistive equipment and recommendations for home adaptation.

You’ll be expected to use up to date evidence-based practice to inform your intervention and where appropriate carry out risk assessments and undertake assessments under the appropriate children’s or adults’ legislation. Maintaining continual professional development (CPD) and sharing best practice with colleagues to deliver positive outcomes for residents in West Sussex is key.
Linking people back into their communities, removing barriers to engagement and providing interventions that support resilience and maintain wellbeing is also essential to this role.

You will possess the ability to communicate effectively in complex situations, have compassion and empathy to support peoples who access our services, and be able to manage your own health and well-being due to the emotional demands of the role. You will have an excellent theoretical, practical and procedural knowledge of occupational therapy, and a good understanding of the necessity of working with partnership agencies including health, housing, education and statutory, voluntary and independent agencies. There will also be a requirement for you to work flexibly and autonomously using your own initiative where appropriate to support people, carers, and families.

You will be required to travel throughout the County including to locations that are not

always easily accessible by public transport. The role will also involve complex physical interventions, including transporting, demonstrating, and using community equipment.

You will be required to evidence expert knowledge through your Continuing Professional Development (CPD) and evidence of a specialist post-qualifying

award (e.g., Practice Educator, Approved Mental Health Professional or Best Interest Assessor) or other suitable experience. You will be able to provide

supervision for unregistered and registered social care practitioners, including mentoring and coaching of students and apprentices.

Experience, skills, qualifications and knowledge

Please cover how you meet each of the key skills, qualifications and experience with examples in your application as these are the short-listing criteria.

Qualifications and/or experience:
• Diploma/BSc Occupational Therapy or recognised equivalent Occupational Therapy qualification.

• Registration with Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC).

• Experience of undertaking assessments in complex situations and occupational therapy intervention planning, implementation, and review by means of creative and pragmatic solutions.

• Extensive experience of working in partnership with those who access the service and maintaining a focus on the needs and strengths of the people, and the outcomes they want to achieve, whilst handling conflict and disagreement.

• Experience of managing risk within a risk enablement approach.

• Excellent, up-to-date working knowledge of relevant legislation e.g., Care Act (2014), Mental Capacity Act (2005) etc.

• Valid, full driving licence.

Please click here to read the full job description

Rewards and benefits

For a full list of the benefits offered to you as a West Sussex County Council employee you can find them on our Rewards and Benefits page.

Further information

For an informal conversation or for further information regarding the role, please contact Lucy Hughes (Team Manager) at lucy.hughes@westsussex.gov.uk. For issues or queries regarding your application please contact hrrecruitment@westsussex.gov.uk.

To apply, upload your CV and complete the application explaining the skills and experience you can bring to the role ensuring that any gaps in employment are covered in your CV. Please ensure you have saved the job description attached to the main advert on our website as, once the job has closed, you may not have the opportunity to download again. If we receive a high volume of applications we may close the job advert earlier than planned.

We recognise applicants may use AI tools to support their application. This might include assistance with structuring content, improving clarity, or checking spelling and grammar.

The council values authentic applications, in your own words, which reflect your experience and skills and how these align with our values. During assessment and interview stages, candidates may be asked to expand upon, or demonstrate, the experience they have described in their application. To help you structure your responses, use this guidance on the STARR technique. Applications found to contain misleading, false or wholly AI-generated content may be rejected.

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults. This post is subject to HCPC registration, an enhanced DBS check, 5 years referencing and a health check.

West Sussex County Council is an equal opportunities employer committed to promoting an environment that is inclusive and free from all forms of unlawful or unfair discrimination and values the diversity of its people. We actively welcome applications from people of all backgrounds and take every possible step to ensure that no individual will be disadvantaged.

For information regarding your eligibility to apply for this role under our Disability or Veteran’s Guaranteed Interview Scheme (if you meet the essential criteria), this can be found on our application help page.

Note for Recruitment Agencies: We prefer to hire people directly, but we do have a supplier list for when we need a helping hand. We'll be in touch directly if we need you!