Job summary
- Main area
- Adult Mental Health
- Grade
- NHS AfC: Band 7
- Contract
- Permanent
- Hours
- Full time
- Flexible working
- Compressed hours
- Job ref
- 346-DDA-123-25-A
- Employer
- Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- West Park Hospital
- Town
- Darlington
- Salary
- £47,810 - £54,710 per annum
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 10/12/2025 23:59
Employer heading
Clinical Specialist Occupational Therapist
NHS AfC: Band 7
We are the Mental Health & Learning Disability NHS Trust for County Durham and Darlington, Teesside, North Yorkshire, York and Selby.
From education and prevention, to crisis and specialist care —our talented and compassionate teams work in partnership with our patients, communities and partners to help the people of our region feel safe, understood, believed in and cared for.
We nurture the recovery journey of anyone in need of our help. In Our Trust, everyone has a say in how they are supported and treated because we listen to every person in our care until they feel understood. Our patients, their families and carers work together with us towards better mental health.
We’re committed to new thinking that improves the wellbeing of our region. We connect with our communities and partners to get mental health care right, in areas that really need it.
We won’t rest until everyone in our region has the mental health care they need, to lead their best possible life.
Job overview
This exciting opportunity will give the successful applicant the chance to lead significant change within the Darlington Community Mental Health Teams; Darlington Community HUB and Darlington Community Treatment & Intervention Team. We hope to create a true Occupational Therapy offer within our service and hope you would like to join our positive and supportive team to help us make this happen.
As a Clinical Specialist Occupational Therapist in TEWV you will be professionally and clinically accountable for a complex caseload, assessing occupational performance and delivering specialist occupational interventions, providing clinical leadership and advice in own specialist area, demonstrating adherence to the Trust Values at all times and operating as a leader in the team, service and organisation.
Main duties of the job
To provide clinical leadership and advice in own specialist area.
To provide clinical supervision and specialist training for occupational therapy staff within the designated specialty and other healthcare professionals.
To be responsible for managing a highly specialist caseload, triaging and prioritising referrals, completing evidence-based assessments and interventions to address key occupational areas of self-care, productivity and leisure.
To use client-centred approaches to co-producing negotiated occupational goals and evaluate these with service users collaboratively.
To contribute to multi-disciplinary team working
To contribute to and lead on service improvement and quality initiatives
To use the Trust electronic patient record system
To abide by all Trust policies and procedures
To be able to respond flexibly and creatively to challenges.
To oversee and supervise a Band 6 Occupational Therapist and a Band 3 Occupational Therapy Assistant (not yet in post) - working across the Darlington Teams.
Working for our organisation
An exciting opportunity has arisen for a competent, confident, and enthusiastic Band 7 Clinical Specialist Occupational Therapist to join our teams.
We are looking for an OT who can demonstrate a highly developed knowledge and understanding of, and experience working with a wide range of mental health conditions and support us to develop our OT provision and offer to the population of Darlington.
The post holder will provide evidence-based OT assessment and interventions as part of the OT Pathway. They will have the vision, energy, and inspiration to develop imaginative solutions to delivering occupational therapy in this clinical specialty. They will contribute to collaborative plans to manage risk as part of the MDT.
They will be part of the leadership team where an expectation of ability to utilise skills including supervision of staff, development and delivery of training and service evaluation and development both within the team and wider within the trust and local sectors.
Supervision is provided by the Trust Professional Head of OT and lead OT for the service. The post holder will attend Learning and Governance Networks to ensure fidelity to core OT delivery, enhance CPD and contribute to the wider OT service developments.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Professionally accountable for own occupational therapy caseload, working autonomously in a variety of community settings. Service users have complex needs that require highly specialist occupational therapy skills to enable them to maintain, restore or create a balance between their abilities and the demands of their occupation and environment in the areas of self-care, productivity and leisure. Service users have diverse presentations and a range of mental health conditions and/or learning disabilities.
To have responsibility for ensuring that the highest professional standards and attitudes towards the care of service users and their carers are maintained at all times and that care is delivered in accordance with evidence based practice and a client-centred approach by all members of the occupational therapy team.
To provide clinical leadership and advice in own specialist area.
To have responsibility for providing clinical supervision and specialist training for occupational therapy staff within the designated specialty and other healthcare professionals, as agreed.
To lead clinical audit, development of professional practice and quality improvement in own specialist area.
To promote at all times a positive image of people with mental health conditions and learning disabilities.
To promote at all times a positive image of the Occupational Therapy Service and the wider Trust.
Additional contact :- Paul Meylan - Lead Occupational Therapist Durham and Darlington Adult mental health - [email protected]
Person specification
Qualifications/Experience
Essential criteria
- Pre-registration qualification in occupational therapy as recognised by HCPC)
- Registration with HCPC.
- Evidence of post-registration Masters level learning
- Or in the absence of masters level learning • equivalent experience in relevant area. E.g. relevant level 7 courses, researcher role, quality improvement activity, leading service development, project management, strategic leadership, NICE involvement, service evaluation
- International English Language Testing System (IELTS) level 7 (SLT =8) for International recruits
- And the following - Substantial clinical experience of complex occupational therapy delivery in relevant specialist area in collaboration with people who use our services, families, and relevant others.
Desirable criteria
- Experience of working in Multidisciplinary Team
- Complex clinical risk assessment and application in practice
- Comprehensive awareness of professional standards and their application to practice.
- Experience of participating in quality improvement activities, service development, and/or project management.
- Experience of participating in clinical governance activities including clinical audit, quality assurance of practice
- Participation in research and development e.g., critical appraisal of research papers, service evaluation, small scale or large-scale research.
- Highly competent in clinical supervision of staff and/or students.
- Substantial experience in design and delivery of high quality and effective training
- Substantial experience of application of relevant legislation (i.e. Mental Health Act and Mental Capacity Act) in practice
Knowledge
Essential criteria
- Significant experience of supporting people with mental health conditions, learning disability or autism
- Significant understanding of the needs of people who use our services with mental health conditions or learning disabilities or autism
Desirable criteria
- Substantial knowledge of evidence- based practice in designated specialist area
Employer certification / accreditation badges
Applicant requirements
You must have appropriate UK professional registration.
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.
Documents to download
Further details / informal visits contact
- Name
- Claire Watson
- Job title
- Community Team Manager
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Telephone number
- 01325 552322
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