Highly Specialist Occupational Therapist
Job summary
0.8 WTE | Fixed-Term 9-Month Contract (Maternity Leave Cover) Are you an experienced Band 7 Occupational Therapist or Physiotherapist with a background in urgent response, admission avoidance, acute medicine, or emergency care? Do you enjoy autonomous decision-making, managing clinical complexity, and demonstrating leadership within dynamic multidisciplinary team?
The @home Service is at the forefront of community healthcare transformation, delivering rapid assessment and intervention to support people with complex and urgent health and social needs to remain safely at home. Working in line with the NHS vision for integrated community care, we provide responsive, high-quality care that reduces unnecessary hospital admissions.
We are seeking a highly skilled and motivated clinician with advanced assessment, clinical reasoning, and risk management skills. As a senior member of the team, you will demonstrate advanced assessment and clinical reasoning, provide clinical leadership, contribute to service development, and support colleagues through shared learning and professional expertise.
This role is ideally suited to an ambitious clinician who is passionate about innovative community practice and thrives in a fast-paced environment. If you are looking for an opportunity to make a real impact and utilise your clinical and leadership skills within a forward-thinking urgent community response service, we would love to hear from you.
Main duties of the job
Provide Occupational Therapy/Physiotherapy assessment, intervention, and care planning for patients in the community, delivering high-quality, person-centred care within professional scope. Work both autonomously and collaboratively with colleagues acrosshealth and social care to ensure seamless, coordinated care and positive patient experiences in patients' homes.
Demonstrate strong clinical judgement in triaging referrals, prioritising resources, and ensuring timely allocation of care based on clinical need. Undertake the Therapist in Charge role, providing clinical leadership, oversight of the therapy caseload, and supporting safe, effective service delivery. Supervise and line manage junior therapists and support workers, offering professional support, clinical guidance, and student mentorship.
Act as a senior therapy resource, supporting complex case management, shared learning, and workforce development. Contribute to service improvement, audit, research, and evidence-based practice initiatives to enhance quality and outcomes. Maintain ongoing professional development across the four pillars of practice through supervision, reflection, and multidisciplinary working.
About us
GSTT @home is an innovative hospital-at-home service, bringing together health and social care professionals to deliver responsive, multidisciplinary care in patients' homes, reducing the need for hospital admission while supporting people to remain independent. The service operates seven days a week, with therapists participating in a four-week rota that includes weekend working.
This 0.8 WTE fixed-term role would be expected to work predominantly between 08:00 and 18:30 as a guide. We recognise the importance of work-life balance and are happy to discuss flexible working arrangements to support individual needs where possible.
What we offer: Collaborative Environment: Work alongside passionate health and social care professionals, committed to patient-centred care Continuous Growth: Contribute to expanding and improving urgent community response services within Lambeth and Southwark Career development : Access opportunities for professional and personal development within a supportive team Meaningful impact: Make a real difference to people with urgent and complex needs Supportive Leadership: Benefit from the guidance and mentorship of experienced therapy leads
Job responsibilities
Please refer to the full job description for a comprehensive summary of the essential and desirable criteria for this role.
Main headings include: Professional and clinical responsibilities Communication Service Development - Research / Audit / Quality Staff management and Leadership Education and Training Personal and professional development key relationships include Deputy Head of Nursing, Deputy Chief AHP, Therapy Lead Practitioners, Service Lead and Deputy Service Leads and Matrons, Clinical Nurse Specialists and Practitioners, Allied Health Professionals, @home GPs, Consultants and Junior Medical Staff, Social Workers and Social Services, Nursing and Rehabilitation Support Workes, Practice Development Nurses, and various community and acute therapy and nursing teams.
General points to note: This job may involve frequent exposure to unpleasant working conditions, e.g. bodily fluids, unpleasant smells, exposure to variant weather conditions, and within a fast-paced environment. Being community-based, you will visit patients in their own homes across Lambeth and Southwark.
Travel within the boroughs can be achieved by public transport and/or trust-provided or your personal vehicle for those holding a valid UK driving licence.
Person Specification
Experience · Essential
Experience of working with adults and older people with chronic conditions and complex co-morbidities Post-graduate/rehabilitation experience at minimum Band 6 in all core areas: neurology, orthopedics, respiratory, and care of the elderly Experience in devising, delivering and evaluating training both within the service and to other agencies Extensive experience in the application of manual handling techniques in line with Manual Handling Guidelines. Demonstrated experience in line management, supervision, mentoring and education of junior therapists and AHP students
Desirable
Previous experience in urgent/rapid response, A&E, acute medicine or similar
Skills · Essential
Demonstrated ability to manage a complex and constantly changing workload of clinical and non-clinical duties demonstrating excellent time management, prioritisation and organisational skills Ability to manage risk appropriately, applying clinical reasoning and critical analysis to support decision making Able to develop effective therapeutic and working relationships, demonstrating empathy, active listening and motivational skills Ability to use an evidence-based approach including clinical outcome measures to evaluate outcomes Ability to adopt innovative and flexible working practices and lead and implement successful change management Knowledge and application of a wide range of approaches to manage patient complexity, demonstrated by advanced clinical reasoning Understanding of Clinical Governance and the implications for services including experience in quality improvement and audit Demonstrated advanced clinical reasoning and assessment, including complex patients
Desirable
Knowledge of current national policies and directives relevant to intermediate care and UCR Qualifications/Knowledge
Essential
Recognised Occupational Therapy/Physiotherapy degree qualification or equivalent Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) registration Recognised post-graduate qualification in specialist clinical area
Desirable
Member of relevant Clinical Interest Group e.g. RCOT, CSP, other related to specialist clinical 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.
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) .
UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).
