Specialist Paediatric Occupational Therapist

The Therapies In Schools (TIS) service is an innovative PT and OT model of service which is commissioned by West Sussex County Council and delivered by Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust. It's aim is to provide additional therapeutic input into schools to support the teachers and carers to integrate therapeutic goals into heart of curricular activities and at home.

TIS is an additional service to the current NHS provision and aims to work flexibly to meet ever changing demands as they arise. A key part of TIS is to provide accredited training to all education staff and offers opportunities for families and carers to access the training too.

We wish to recruit a part time Band 7 Occupational Therapist with the necessary skills and experience to join our friendly and innovative TIS team, working in a Special School and College in Burgess Hill.

We offer regular in-service training, peer supervision and clinical support. There are dedicated paediatric special interest groups and the Paediatric Occupational Therapy service is supported by a Countywide Professional Lead.

The hours available are three days a week term time only. Term time only roles are paid spread across a full year to ensure your pay does not change from month to month.

Main duties of the job

This is a wonderful opportunity to gain experience of working with a diverse range of children and young people within specialist school settings.

Please look at the Woodlands Meed school website to understand the needs of the young people you will be supporting.

Your role will be to provide a universal approach through delivering accredited training to school staff, some targeted work through group work and ad hoc needs, and a small caseload of intensive work to support families in crisis or needing enhanced support due to a change in circumstance.

Your role is in addition to the existing NHS provision provided by the Child Development Centre (CDC) therapists, and so working collaboratively with the CDC therapists is vital. You'll work in your main allocated school and college, do occasional home visits where needed, and may at times support your team members in other schools.

You will need to be flexible in your availability to attend occasional parents evening events, parent carer forum liaisons and host parent coffee mornings/network groups.

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?o Positive 2024 NHS Staff Survey results, highlighting compassionate leadership and wellbeingo Varied environments: community hospitals, patients' homes, and bases across Sussexo Flexible working options: part-time, flexi-time, annualised hours, and flexi-retiremento Excellent training, development, and research opportunitieso Cost-effective workplace nurseries in Crawley, Hove, and Brightono Active EMBRACE, Disability & Wellbeing, LGBTQIA+, and Religion & Belief networkso Level 3 Disability Confident Leader and Veteran Aware Trusto Beautiful Sussex location near the South Downs and coast

Our values--Compassionate Care, Working Together, Achieving Ambitions, Delivering Excellence--guide everything we do.