Job overview

We have an exciting new opportunity to welcome a new staff member to our Children's Occupational Therapy Team. We are a small team of Occupational Therapists, admin and therapy assistant. We are advertising for an additional therapy assistant to join us. Children's Occupational Therapy is concerned with the promotion of independence for young people. Children's Occupational Therapists work with children who are experiencing difficulties with functional skills. This is where difficulties are impacting on their ability to complete daily activities/tasks. For example dressing, bathing, etc. We would like to welcome a therapy assistant to assist in delivering therapy interventions to children across Gateshead and support our OTs with their assessments. 

Main duties of the job

·         To work directly with children individually or in group sessions, to carry out interventions delegated by qualified Occupational Therapy staff.

·         To visit children in pre-school settings, Special Schools, Mainstream Schools, or child’s home jointly with or without qualified Occupational Therapy staff where applicable.

·         Setting up and clearing up after group or clinic sessions and ensuring appropriate equipment levels, cleaning and storage.

·         To assist with the running of Occupational Therapy groups including Motor skills groups, and where applicable run these groups in the absence of qualified Occupational Therapy staff.

·         To assist with the setting up and handing over specialist equipment where appropriate. 

To carry out essential team administration/clerical and domestic duties within the Team. 

Working for our organisation

Based in the North East of England we provide a range of hospital and community health services from our leading facilities, including the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Blaydon urgent care centre and Bensham Hospital, all within Gateshead.

Established in 2005, we were one of the first foundation trusts in the country and since then have consistently achieved the highest levels of care for patients.

We now employ around 4,800 staff and currently provide 444 hospital beds across the Gateshead region.

Our values should be the ‘golden thread’ which runs through everything we do – they are the core of who we are. Our five values can easily be remembered by the simple acronym ICORE; Innovation, Care, Openness, Respect, Engagement.

We have a number of staff networks including the Global Ethnic Majority (GEM) network, D-Ability network, LGBTQ+ Network and the Women’s Network, to challenge us and help us to constantly improve. Our Armed Forces network is one of our emerging networks.

The health and wellbeing of our staff is one of our highest priorities, and we offer a range of support and initiatives as part of our ‘Balance’ programme balancegateshead.com to cater for our diverse workforce, so that your individual needs can be supported, allowing you a happy and healthy working experience with us.