Job summary
- Main area
- Rehabilitation
- Grade
- NHS AfC: Band 7
- Contract
- Permanent
- Hours
- Part time - 22.5 hours per week (Monday - Friday)
- Job ref
- 150-GM2143-UPC
- Employer
- Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- Crawley Hospital
- Town
- Crawley
- Salary
- £47,810 - £54,710 per annum / pro rata
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 13/10/2025 23:59
Employer heading
Clinical Lead Occupational Therapist
NHS AfC: Band 7
Job overview
Occupational Therapist – Clinical Lead (Band 7) | Intermediate Care Units
Are you an experienced Occupational Therapist ready to take the next step in your career?
Do you thrive in a dynamic, supportive environment where patient-centred rehabilitation is the focus? Would you like to develop your leadership skills while continuing to work clinically? If so, we have the perfect opportunity for you!
We are seeking an innovative, enthusiastic, and organised Occupational Therapist to join our Intermediate Care Units (ICUs) at Crawley and Horsham Hospitals as a Clinical Lead. This is an exciting leadership position where you will play a pivotal role in shaping and developing the therapy service, while continuing to deliver hands-on, high-quality clinical care.
Main duties of the job
As a Clinical Lead, you will:
• Provide clinical and professional leadership to the therapy team within the ICUs
• Work collaboratively within a multi-disciplinary team, promoting a culture of rehabilitation and patient independence
• Deliver expert, complex occupational therapy assessments and interventions for a varied caseload
• Support and supervise staff through mentoring, coaching, and in-service training
• Lead on service development initiatives, including group activity plans and discharge planning
• Champion best practices in rehabilitation and contribute to achieving Trust-wide service delivery targets
Working for our organisation
We are the main provider of NHS community services across East and West Sussex, with 6,000 staff serving 1.3 million people. We deliver essential care to adults and children, helping them manage their health, avoid hospital admissions, and reduce hospital stays.
Our Trust vision is to provide excellent care at the heart of the community. We offer opportunities across medical, clinical, support, and corporate services.
Why work for us?
• Positive 2024 NHS Staff Survey results, highlighting compassionate leadership and wellbeing
• Varied environments: community hospitals, patients’ homes, and bases across Sussex
• Flexible working options: part-time, flexi-time, annualised hours, and flexi-retirement
• Excellent training, development, and research opportunities
• Accredited Living Wage Employer, we ensure fair pay for all our staff
• Cost-effective workplace nurseries in Crawley, Hove, and Brighton
• Active EMBRACE, Disability & Wellbeing, LGBTQIA+, and Religion & Belief networks
• Level 3 Disability Confident Leader and Veteran Aware Trust
Our values—Compassionate Care, Working Together, Achieving Ambitions, Delivering Excellence—guide everything we do.
We embrace diversity and encourage applications from all backgrounds, particularly from ethnically diverse, disabled, and LGBTQIA+ individuals. We aim to create an inclusive environment and support reasonable adjustments during recruitment.
This post may close early if sufficient applications are received.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
We’re looking for a passionate Occupational Therapist who:
• Has extensive experience working with complex rehabilitation and frailty
• Demonstrates excellent clinical reasoning, leadership, and communication skills
• Is motivated to lead, inspire, and support a diverse therapy team
• Embraces change and have a positive, proactive approach to service improvement
• Enjoys working as part of a collaborative MDT and is committed to delivering high-quality patient care
We will provide:
• A friendly, welcoming team environment with strong peer support
• Opportunities for ongoing professional development through internal and external CPD
• Protected leadership time to support service development and staff supervision
• A chance to contribute to the evolution of a forward-thinking Intermediate Care service
• Access to mentoring, supervision, and leadership development programmes
Person specification
Education
Essential criteria
- Degree/ post graduate diploma/ or equivalent in Occupational Therapy
- Current HCPC Registration
- Evidence of a range of clinical competencies appropriate for the role
- Post Registration qualification/ training to masters level in a relevant field or equivalent post graduate training or experience
- • Evidence of continued professional development
- Evidence of leadership education/ development or a willingness to undertake this
Experience
Essential criteria
- Significant experience providing clinical leadership to a team.
- Significant experience of working in the specialist clinical setting
- Significant experience of supervision provision
- • Experience of leading within a multi-professional team/ collaborative working
- Experience of delivering quality improvement, innovation and productivity
- Evidence of active participation in audit and clinically relevant research
Desirable criteria
- Minimum of 4 years post graduate experience
Skills
Essential criteria
- Demonstrable expertise within clinical area underpinned by theory and significant experience
- Use of advanced reasoning and assessment skills demonstrated in knowledge and experience shown in a wide range of approaches to treatments, management of conditions and situations
- Demonstrates excellent leadership and ability to empower others in practice
- IT skills, with the ability to use a number of databases, excel, word and internet
- Excellent written communication skills with the ability to record actions and decisions accurately
- Demonstrates excellence in communication skills with an ability to negotiate and manage conflict
- Knowledge of Clinical governance, risk management and clinical audit
- Demonstrate a commitment of lifelong learning and development with documented evidence of CPD
- Awareness of professional responsibilities and boundaries
Desirable criteria
- Driver/car owner
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.
Application numbers
Documents to download
Further details / informal visits contact
- Name
- Claire Anderson
- Job title
- Operational Team LEad
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Telephone number
- 07884828361
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