Band 6 Specialist Occupational Therapist Sherwood FoundationNHS

Job summary

Cognus Limited is a Local Authority Traded Company, which is commissioned by the London Borough of Sutton to provide education services to early years providers, mainstream schools and specialist education settings in Sutton. Wholly owned by the local authority, we deliver a wide range of high-quality services to deliver excellent practice that improve the lives of children, young people, and families in Sutton and beyond.

We are currently recruiting occupational therapists to support the delivery of occupational therapy provision at Sherwood Foundation School, as part of our Transdisciplinary Team, working with dedicated teaching staff, occupational therapists, speech and language therapists and wellbeing practitioners, helping children aged 4-19 years with complex needs.

This is an exciting opportunity to be part of a dynamic team providing innovative therapy interventions following evidence-based practise and an embedded model of therapy in order to best support the pupils needs.

Sherwood Foundation consists of 3 campuses in Sutton providing education for children and young people with complex physical and severe learning disabilities, autistic pupils and moderate learning difficulties.

Cognus Therapies provides a robust supervision framework with all posts receiving Managerial and Clinical Supervision. Regular time is allocated for Continuing Professional Development.

Main duties of the job

To advise and support school staff and other therapists on the education and therapeutic interventions of children and young people with OT Needs including

Completion of baseline and transition assessments to identify the strengths, needs, outcomes and provision for students with complex communication profiles

Providing reports to referrers and other agencies involved in the child/young persons care and advice on appropriate differentiation of and access to the curriculum.

Plan, create and deliver a wide range of tailored interventions and/ or therapy programmes where direct OT input is indicated and effectively hand over prescribed programmes through training and modelling with teaching staff, parents and carers.

To monitor and record child or young persons progress and effectiveness of intervention through goal setting, outcome measurement and evaluation of practice and to communicate these with key stakeholders.

To be aware of changing trends in treatment and promote Evidence Based Practice; embedding this into own specialist area of work in order to provide the highest standard of care to service users.

To participate in clinical audit, service development activities and research programmes as required.

Job description

Working within a multidisciplinary team of Occupational Therapists and Speech Therapists the post holder will have the opportunity to work in local schools and colleges across the 4 years to 25 years age range or with a smaller age range within this.

Advising and supporting a range of schools/settings with children and young people with Occupational Therapy Needs (OT Needs) including a possible cohort with ASD, or PMLD to manage their caseload to ensure that intended outcomes are delivered within agreed service standards.

Raising awareness of the needs of and strategies available for children and young people with OT Needs.

PRINCIPAL ACCOUNTABILITIES:

To personally undertake a case load of referrals to include:

Visiting and assessing children and young people with OT Needs.

To appropriately identify service provision in line with child and young persons needs at specialist, targeted or universal level of support.

Delivery of specialist programmes on an individual and/or small group basis.

Advice and treatment for children and young people with functional difficulties and sensory processing needs.

Offering advice to parents and carers as well as teaching staff at a targeted or universal level.

Maintaining children/young peoples records to a high standard.

Specific Duties:

To advise and support school staff on the education of children and young people with OT Needs including:

Screening and prioritising new referrals in order to determine the need and level of therapy provision required in line with service criteria.

At the point of referral, gathering relevant information regarding previous and current input from health and social care services.

Carrying out a range of non-standardised and standardised assessments and interpreting a range of factors relating to the child or young persons condition; focusing on access to education.

Providing reports to referrers and other agencies involved in the child/young persons care and advice on appropriate differentiation of and access to the curriculum.

Plan, create and deliver a wide range of tailored interventions and/ or therapy programmes where direct OT input is indicated and effectively hand over prescribed programmes through training and modelling with teaching staff, parents and carers.

To maintain effective liaison with all partners e.g. parents/ carers, professionals in Education, Health, Social Care and other Services with particular regard to Safeguarding and best practice.

To monitor and record child or young persons progress and effectiveness of intervention through goal setting, outcome measurement and evaluation of practice and to communicate these with key stakeholders.

Collaboration with a range of partner agencies to create effective transition support for specific children and young people.

Promotion of effective inclusion of children and young people into all aspects of the school curriculum.

To attend and contribute to team meetings as required.

Training and Development Responsibility

To be aware of changing trends in treatment and promote Evidence Based Practice; embedding this into own specialist area of work in order to provide the highest standard of care to service users.

Embedding legislative change and key developments relating to improved outcomes for children and young people with OT Needs.

To participate in clinical audit, service development activities and research programmes as required.

To engage with continual professional development as identified through managerial and clinical supervision and appraisal, including attending training and courses as agreed.

To comply with the Cognus Limited mandatory training requirements.

As part of the therapies team to plan, deliver and evaluate training sessions for schools and educational providers.

About us

Cognus Limited is a Local Authority Traded Company, which is commissioned by the London Borough of Sutton to provide education services to early years providers, mainstream schools and specialist education settings in Sutton. Wholly owned by the local authority, we deliver a wide range of high-quality services to deliver excellent practice that improve the lives of children, young people, and families in Sutton and beyond.

Sherwood Foundation School prides itself on its individualised, trans-disciplinary approach to learning; with the child/ young person and their family at the heart of our practice. We are dedicated to using strengths based, relationship and play focused, person-centred practices to support the learning and growth of our pupils. We aim to create a school culture and learning environment that facilitates the active engagement and participation of our learners, using motivating and meaningful activities that support the development of regulation, communication, social skills, cognitive abilities and life skills in preparation for adulthood.

We offer

A friendly, supportive and collaborative working environment

The opportunity to deliver a wide range of evidence-based interventions with your caseload and develop highly specialist assessment and intervention skills

Onsite support from an enthusiastic and dedicated team of experienced staff

Regular supervision, continued professional development and training