R1399 - Freelance Paediatric Occupational Therapist 

Down's South London, a small parent-run charity, is seeking a passionate, experienced Paediatric Occupational Therapist to work collaboratively with our other therapists to provide specialist support and advice within the MDT clinical team, and create a positive caring environment, where babies and children with Down syndrome and their caregivers receive a high quality, professional service.

The DSL Occupational Therapy Role:

• Freelance role requires 2 days a week during term time only (unless otherwise specified); 3 terms per academic year and each term is 10 weeks long
• Working hours: Tuesdays & Thursdays, from 8:45am - 5.00pm with 30 minutes unpaid lunch break (7.75 hrs per day)
• The successful candidate will be expected to work collaboratively with our other therapists to provide specialist support and advice within the MDT clinical team, and create a positive caring environment, where children and their caregivers receive a high quality, professional service.

Key Responsibilities

1. To be professionally and legally responsible for all aspects of your work as per HCPC and other professional bodies requirements.
2. To always comply with the Occupational Therapy/ Health Professionals codes of professional conduct
3. To manage and prioritise your own clinical caseload efficiently and effectively.
4. To assess, develop and implement specialist Occupational Therapy treatment for the caseload, and integrate this into the MDT group therapy sessions.
5. To use safe, evidence and research-based approaches in assessment and therapy provision.
6. To provide specialist advice to caregivers where necessary
7. To communicate effectively with all other clinical and charitable personnel and with external personnel from other agencies.
8. To keep abreast of evidenced based practice in the Down’s Syndrome training area by use of relevant reading, attendance at in service training, external courses and database searches

The Person

Education/Qualifications:

Essential

• Degree/ Diploma in Occupational Therapy
• Valid Health and Care Professions Council Registration
• Member of the Royal College (or equivalent) Of Occupational Therapists
• Sensory Integration training
   

Desirable

• Evidence of completion of specialist short courses relevant to children with special needs / disability AND
• Evidence of Specialist course relevant for children with Down syndrome
• Membership of relevant CEN groups
• Supervision training
• Makaton Training/ awareness
• Bayleys Assessment Training

Experience

Essential

• Experience of working closely within a multidisciplinary team
• Post graduate experience of assessment, treatment and management of infants, children and young people with special needs including Down syndrome.
• Experience of working closely with parents / carers and families
• Effective caseload management experience.
• Experience of delivering Occupational Therapy within a clinic and / or community setting (or relevant)

• Substantial experience as a Band 6 or Band 7 Occupational Therapist in Paediatrics.
• Knowledge / experience in the use of relevant assessment and treatment approaches, including the use of standardised assessments (such as Bayleys)
• Experience of receiving and engage in regular supervision / reflective practice.  

Desirable

• Experience in supervising / training / teaching other OTs / healthcare professionals or multi skilled members of a team.
• Experience in contributing to policy, procedures, guidelines and clinical standards development.
• Experience in conducting audits and / or research.
• Experience in setting up new projects / initiatives

Skills and Knowledge

Essential

• Advanced skills in the assessment and treatment of paediatric patients with a variety of conditions or complex needs including Down syndrome.
• Sound knowledge of clinical practice and issues relating to the delivery of Occupational Therapy.
• Ability to set appropriate SMART therapy goals and targets.
• Ability to work autonomously.
• Ability to work as a team member and promote collaborative multi-disciplinary and multi-agency working.
• Ability to problem solve, prioritise and demonstrate clinical reasoning.
• Highly developed communication and reports writing skills, in verbal and written format.
• Ability to manage time effectively, prioritise workloads effectively, meet deadlines and deal with work pressures and demands.
• Excellent IT skills - Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel, clinical record keeping systems.
• Knowledge and understanding of the variety of specialist equipment available and be able to clinically reason which if any was most appropriate for the child.
• Knowledge and understanding of care pathways to facilitate appropriate referrals.
• Ability to maintain good communication and liaison between all MDT members regarding service provision and development and to promote a strong working relationship at all times.
• To clearly convey detailed knowledge of theory and of theory to practice to the team and families where appropriate, ensuring sensitive and complex information is shared in such a way that they can understand.
• To comply with health and safety policies including manual handling and infection control at all times.
• Knowledge of current policy and political drivers impacting on public health.

Desirable:

• Specialist skills and in-depth knowledge in working with children with Down syndrome
• Experience of working within a multi-disciplinary team specifically with Physiotherapists and Speech and Language Therapists.

Additional:

• Must be responsible for receiving external supervision in own private practice to ensure best practice,
• Must be able to demonstrate working within the HCPC standards for practice.
• Undertake regular CPD to ensure therapy is based within most current best practice

Detailed Job Description & Main Responsibilities

Therapy:

• Provide weekly -in term time (or as the post requires) evidence-based therapy in group and / or individual sessions within the DSL MDT model.
• Set timely, appropriate long, mid-term and short-term goals / targets and monitor & communicate progress.
• Keep timely notes for each child in line with the HCPC standards and within the DSL note keeping model.
• Work as an integral member of the multidisciplinary team providing holistic service to the child and their family / carer
• To make appropriate referrals to other services and clinicians outside of the DSL community as appropriate and with full informed consent of families.
• Carry out all aspects of therapy within professional standards and clinical guidelines, promote best practice and undertake all aspects of clinical duties as an autonomous practitioner within the MD Team.

Caseload Support:

• Work with the Clinical Manager to support the appropriate groupings and or treatment of children within the DSL model.

Communication:

• To communicate highly complex patient related information effectively to ensure collaborative working with DSL’s multidisciplinary team.
• Work within one’s own skill and knowledge area but demonstrate an understanding of the role and responsibility of MDT members.
• Ensure and promote good working relationships across the DSL team.

Maintaining Resources:

• Ensure therapy materials are safe and in full working order
• Provide suggestions of appropriate resources that can be used in therapy at DSL.
• Help set up / pack down the therapy room before and after each therapy day.
• Clean, tidy / sterilise equipment in between sessions.
• Re-set equipment after and before each session in readiness for groups.

Liaison with Families and Other Professionals

• Share information with others, observing confidentiality and data protection guidelines and having due regard for DSL’s guidance on sharing information with other professionals and families.
• Communicate highly complex condition related information in accessible ways to carers and families, and members of the multi-disciplinary team / other professions.
• To have due regard for the cultural and linguistic differences of children / families concerned
• To work closely with children, carers and families, involving them in decision-making regarding intervention approaches, demonstrating and ensuring that effective communication is achieved, particularly where barriers to understanding exist (i.e. hearing loss, communication difficulties, language other than English and learning difficulties).
• To form productive relationships with others in particular parents / carers who may be under stress and / or have challenging communication difficulties.
• Work in partnership with families, ensure all families are aware of their child’s targets and are enabled to carry out generalisation activities in between therapy sessions.
• Update families with any changes or helpful information in appropriate ways e.g. WhatsApp / email / face to face as appropriate.

Communication and Responsibilities towards Board of Trustees

• To deal with initial complaints sensitively, avoiding escalation where possible and reporting all concerns and complaints to Clinical Manager / Trustees.
• Attend and input / provide clinical updates to Board meetings as required.
• Support in the recruitment of self-employed therapists as needed.
• Follow all DSL policies and procedures and support Trustees in the drafting of these as appropriate.

Assessment:

• Use advanced clinical assessment, clinical reasoning skills and evidence-based knowledge to assess children with Down syndrome to formulate prognoses and recommendations for best form of clinical management.
• Ensure the assessment process is carried out effectively.
• Ensure families are aware of the purpose of assessment and are comfortable within the assessment framework.
• Be responsible for helping with scoring and analysing assessment data, comparing this to historic data, understanding trends and discuss this with Clinical Manager / Team.
• Ensure assessment data is used to ensure children are grouped or supported appropriately.
• Ensure assessment results / outcomes are shared sensitively with families in a way they can understand and find helpful.
• Use assessment outcomes to develop appropriate developmental targets for each child.

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

All potential post holders must declare any complaints made against them in previous work settings.