Advanced Occupational Therapy Support Worker: Sponsorship Available

Barts Health NHS Trust

Job Summary

The opportunity has arisen for us to recruit a full time (37.5 hours a week) Band 4 Advanced Occupational Therapy Support Worker to join the Barts Heart Centre and Respiratory Team at St Bartholomew’s Hospital. We are seeking enthusiastic, self-motivated and caring individual to join our team to deliver this exciting, evolving service. This post is to assess, rehabilitate and manage patients to optimise their level of function and support appropriate discharge from hospital to home.

The role includes completing cognitive assessments, mood screens, rehabilitation, functional activities, early physical interventions, relaxation techniques, goal setting and co-ordination of rehabilitation with multi-disciplinary team members.

The occupational therapy team is forward thinking, dynamic and always striving to deliver innovative, highly specialist care. The team is participating in international, multi-centre research and invests in a variety of quality improvement projects.

We have an opportunity for you to join a rewarding and enjoyable position working for Barts Health; the largest Trust in England – specifically at the St. Bartholomew’s site. The role will involve working within the Barts Heart Centre and Respiratory occupational therapy team. You will work closely alongside therapy colleagues and other service pathways within St Bartholomew’s site to provide high-quality patient centered care.

 

Main duties of the job

As part of the therapy team, you will be responsible for the delivery of a high-quality occupational therapy service within Barts Heart Centre. You will work as part of the team to treat a wide variety of patients under the direction of senior therapists as well as autonomously to support patients in their assessment, rehabilitation and management, using advanced communication and therapeutic handling skills. The role will involve working across the different specialties within Barts Heart Centre and Respiratory with experience to be gained within the following areas – cardiology, cardiothoracics, respiratory, critical care and thoracic surgery.

For our world-class service, we need a world-class workforce. We are looking for previous relevant experience as a therapy assistant or support worker and experience of working with patients with complex healthcare needs in a physical health or rehabilitation setting. You will be a motivated team player and possess excellent verbal and written communication skills, with empathy and compassion at the heart of the care that you provide.

There is an established CPD programme for support workers with opportunities for personal development and involvement with development of other support workers within the department.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

  • GCSE Maths and English or a good standard of written English, numeracy and IT skills
  • Formal technical qualification, e.g. City & Guilds, or NVQ in a Health related field, or equivalent skills acquired through in-service development or experience

Experience

Essential

  • Relevant experience of working as a therapy assistant or support worker in a physical health setting.
  • Extensive experience of working with patients with complex healthcare needs in a rehabilitation setting.
  • Experience of working with patients from a diverse multicultural community
  • Experience of using highly skilled handling to facilitate client movement and/or rehabilitation
  • Experience of transferring learnt skills to a practical environment

Desirable

  • NHS experience
  • Experience in teaching or education to therapy support staff or other disciplines

Skills

Essential

  • Able to demonstrate clinical reasoning skills to facilitate decision making processes
  • Able to demonstrate skills in the assessment and treatment of patients without direct supervision
  • High standard of patient handling skills
  • Good knowledge of medical terminology
  • Good knowledge of medical conditions and a proven ability to expand and develop this knowledge within a specialised area
  • Knowledge of the needs of different ethnic minority groups and cultural issues
  • Good verbal and written communication
  • Ability to document clear, concise, and legal, medical records to national standards
  • Basic IT skills
  • Presentation Skills
  • Ability to organise self and others and manage time effectively
  • Ability to form good relationship with patients

Desirable

  • Experience in supporting or mentoring others within a work setting
  • Understanding of self-management in long term health conditions

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.

Certificate of Sponsorship

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: 20 May 2026

To apply for this job please visit apps.trac.jobs.