Home First Occupational Therapist
Job summary
Join an exciting new service that launched on 1 September 2026 and help shape the future of care closer to home. We are looking for an enthusiastic Occupational Therapist to join our new countywide Home First service. This is an exciting opportunity to work within an innovative multidisciplinary team supporting people to recover, regain independence and remain safely in their own homes following hospital discharge.
Working across acute, community and home settings, you will provide timely assessment, rehabilitation and intervention for adults with a range of physical, functional and rehabilitation needs. You will play a key role in supporting safe discharge planning, admission avoidance and preventing unnecessary hospital readmissions, whilst working closely with health, social care and voluntary sector partners.
This role offers the opportunity to work in a dynamic and supportive environment where you can develop your clinical skills, influence patient outcomes and contribute to the successful delivery of a new integrated service designed to improve patient flow and independence across Gloucestershire. This position is available for West Gloucestershire, based in Gloucester.
This role will be part of a rota working weekends and also in-reaching to our acute hospitals to improve patient transitions from hospital to home.
Main duties of the job
As a member of the Home First team, you will assess, plan, deliver and evaluate rehabilitation and therapy interventions for adults within acute, community and home settings, supporting individuals to maximise independence and achieve their goals.
You will manage a varied clinical caseload, undertaking holistic assessments, risk assessments and treatment planning for people with a range of physical, neurological, orthopaedic, medical and rehabilitation needs. Working autonomously and alongside the multidisciplinary team, you will support safe and timely discharge planning, admission avoidance and the prevention of unnecessary hospital readmissions.
The role involves providing rehabilitation, equipment assessment, advice and education to patients, carers and partner organisations, whilst ensuring accurate clinical records and outcome measures are maintained. You will contribute to clinical governance, quality improvement, audit and service development activities, whilst maintaining high professional standards and evidence-based practice.
The post holder will also support and supervise therapy assistants, students and other learners as appropriate, contributing to workforce development and the delivery of high-quality patient-centred care. The successful candidate will be flexible, proactive and committed to helping people remain independent within their own homes while working within a fast-paced, developing service operating across a 7-day model.
About us
We have a skilled and dedicated workforce of over 5000 colleagues working in a diverse range of services over 55 sites and within people's homes. We strive to enable a welcoming workplace culture that builds and celebrates civility, inclusivity and diversity, while providing a sense of belonging and trust.
Annual staff surveys, regular Pulse surveys and other engagement opportunities provide our people with lots of opportunity to tell us about their experiences of working with us. In the latest staff survey, 61% of colleagues gave us their views.
It was great to hear that: 72% of colleagues would recommend the Trust as a place to work, ranking us 1st for Provider Trusts in the South West region on this question. 76% would recommend the standard of care provided in our services if a friend or relative needed treatment, also ranking us 1st in the South West region. 81% said that care of patients and service users is the Trust's priority, compared with an average in comparable NHS Trusts in England of 64%.
This high-level overview shows we are in a healthy position, with higher scores than average for comparable organisations, alongside a great response rate, indicating good staff engagement. However, we also know we have plenty of room for improvement in many areas.
To that end, we continue to prioritise and invest in our commitment to genuinely becoming a Great Place to Work with consistent top-quartile performance in the annual staff survey and Pulse surveys.
Job responsibilities
The qualification, training & experience requirements for the role are underlined in the Job Description/Person Specification. The Trust aims to recruit and retain the best possible staff who, through the application of their skills, qualification and experience, will make a positive contribution to our business of providing quality health care services.
It is the Trusts view that the costs associated with moving house in order to take up a post with us should not restrict our ability to recruit the excellent people we need; therefore, we support staff to relocate with our relocation policy. This post requires the post holder to be able to undertake all statutory and mandatory training and post holders must be able to undertake physical interventions.
Fitness for physical intervention will be assessed by Occupational Health. To ensure you fully understand how the Trust, as a Data Controller, will process and store your data please read the attached document Applicant and Staff
