Job Summary
This exciting opportunity will give the successful applicant the chance to lead significant change within the Darlington Community Mental Health Teams; Darlington Community HUB and Darlington Community Treatment & Intervention Team. We hope to create a true Occupational Therapy offer within our service and hope you would like to join our positive and supportive team to help us make this happen.
As a Clinical Specialist Occupational Therapist in TEWV you will be professionally and clinically accountable for a complex caseload, assessing occupational performance and delivering specialist occupational interventions, providing clinical leadership and advice in own specialist area, demonstrating adherence to the Trust Values at all times and operating as a leader in the team, service and organisation.
Main duties of the job
To provide clinical leadership and advice in own specialist area.
To provide clinical supervision and specialist training for occupational therapy staff within the designated specialty and other healthcare professionals.
To be responsible for managing a highly specialist caseload, triaging and prioritising referrals, completing evidence-based assessments and interventions to address key occupational areas of self-care, productivity and leisure.
To use client-centred approaches to co-producing negotiated occupational goals and evaluate these with service users collaboratively.
To contribute to multi-disciplinary team working
To contribute to and lead on service improvement and quality initiatives
To use the Trust electronic patient record system
To abide by all Trust policies and procedures
To be able to respond flexibly and creatively to challenges.
To oversee and supervise a Band 6 Occupational Therapist and a Band 3 Occupational Therapy Assistant (not yet in post) – working across the Darlington Teams.
Person Specification
Qualifications/Experience
Essential
- Pre-registration qualification in occupational therapy as recognised by HCPC)
- Registration with HCPC.
- Evidence of post-registration Masters level learning
- Or in the absence of masters level learning o equivalent experience in relevant area. E.g. relevant level 7 courses, researcher role, quality improvement activity, leading service development, project management, strategic leadership, NICE involvement, service evaluation
- International English Language Testing System (IELTS) level 7 (SLT =8) for International recruits
- And the following – Substantial clinical experience of complex occupational therapy delivery in relevant specialist area in collaboration with people who use our services, families, and relevant others.
Desirable
- Experience of working in Multidisciplinary Team
- Complex clinical risk assessment and application in practice
- Comprehensive awareness of professional standards and their application to practice.
- Experience of participating in quality improvement activities, service development, and/or project management.
- Experience of participating in clinical governance activities including clinical audit, quality assurance of practice
- Participation in research and development e.g., critical appraisal of research papers, service evaluation, small scale or large-scale research.
- Highly competent in clinical supervision of staff and/or students.
- Substantial experience in design and delivery of high quality and effective training
- Substantial experience of application of relevant legislation (i.e. Mental Health Act and Mental Capacity Act) in practice
Knowledge
Essential
- Significant experience of supporting people with mental health conditions, learning disability or autism
- Significant understanding of the needs of people who use our services with mental health conditions or learning disabilities or autism
Desirable
- Substantial knowledge of evidence- based practice in designated specialist area
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.
Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).
From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).
Closing Date: 10 December 2025
