Advanced Children's Occupational Therapy - Bedfordshire and Luton

A Vacancy at East of England Community Health and Care NHS Trust (Cambridgeshire).

East of England Community Health and Care Trust is establishingExperts at Hand, a national SEND reform project that recognises the vital role of Occupational Therapy in early years, mainstream schools and further education.

This is an exciting opportunity for an experienced Children’s Occupational Therapist with a passion for innovation, workforce development and system-wide working. The post holder will act as a named Occupational Therapy Expert at Hand for a cluster of settings, providing consultation, training, coaching and targeted interventions.

The role includes clinical leadership responsibilities, supervision of Newly Qualified OTs, support practitioners and apprentices, alongside contributing to service development and evaluation. The post holder will play a key role in developing and delivering the Experts at Hand model across Luton and Bedfordshire as part of the SEND reform programme.

In addition, the post holder will manage a small caseload of children requiring short-term targeted-plus intervention, working closely with specialist services within a tiered model of support.

As part of a multidisciplinary system partnership, the post holder will work alongside Educational Psychology, Speech and Language Therapy, CAMHS and Local Authority colleagues to deliver a robust offer.

Interviews will take place in 2 parts. Virtual Stakeholder panel 6th October and formal face to face interview 15th October 2026.

· The post holder will act as a named Expert at Hand for a cluster of settings, providing consultation, training, coaching and targeted intervention. The role includes clinical leadership responsibilities, including supervision of support practitioners and contribution to service development and evaluation.

· You will act as a whole service specialist advisor and resource to educational personnel, relating to improving a child/young person’s ability to function and participate.

· You will work with educational staff to support the formulation and delivery of intervention to children/young people based on sound knowledge of evidence-based practice and treatment approaches using clinical assessment, reasoning skills and knowledge of treating modalities.

Rated ‘Outstanding’ by the Care Quality Commission, we are proud to provide high quality innovative services across most of the east of England that enable people to receive care closer to home and live healthier lives.

There’s one reason why our services are outstanding – and that’s our amazing staff who, for the seventh year running, rated us incredibly highly in the national staff survey.

If you share our passion for innovative and high-quality care delivery, then please submit your application and join us on our exciting journey as a leading-edge specialist community provider. All are welcome to apply and our promise to you is a culture which prioritises staff engagement and development.

Please be aware that East of England Community Health and Care NHS Trust will never ask applicants to pay fees at any stage of the recruitment process, including job applications, sponsorship arrangements, or employment offers. All recruitment communications and job applications should only be made through our official careers website and published contact details.

If you receive a suspicious job offer or recruitment-related communication, do not make any payments, share personal information, or provide identity documents. We encourage you to report the matter to your local police or relevant law enforcement agency. Any concerns relating to potential recruitment fraud should also be reported to our Local Counter Fraud Specialist (LCFS) as soon as possible.

Clinical / EaH Role

1. Act as a named Expert at Hand for a cluster of schools and early years settings.

2. Provide highly specialised consultation, advice and support to education staff to enable inclusive practice.

3. Support the implementation of the graduated response across universal, targeted and specialist levels.

4. Participate in Team Around the School (TAS) and multi-agency meetings.

5. Undertake all aspects of clinical duties as an autonomous practitioner, holding responsibility for a small caseload of targeted plus children for short term interventions without direct supervision.

6. Using specialist knowledge to make clear judgements and analysis on the information provided.

7. To assess and prescribe specialist equipment to support function and participation.

8. To appropriately delegate work/tasks to therapy assistants, maintaining oversight of their input with children and young people.

9. The nature of children’s practice will require the post holder to bend, stretch, lift children’s limbs, crawl, kneel, work in confined spaces and at times work from the floor employing light physical effort on a day to day basis.

Universal and Targeted Offer

1. Develop and deliver training programmes for school staff and parents/carers.

2. Undertake environmental audits for settings as required (access and sensory).

3. Provide coaching and modelling of strategies within education settings.

4. Deliver and oversee targeted intervention programmes (group and individual).

5. Coproduce the targeted offer with clusters of neighbourhood settings.

Workforce Development

1. Support the induction, supervision and competency development of registered band 5/6 therapists and Support Practitioners and apprentices.

2. Build capacity within education settings through coaching and mentoring.

3. Contribute to the development of champions within schools/settings.

4. To communicate effectively and work closely with Parent Carer Forum representatives, upskilling this workforce as parent carer navigators/ambassadors.

5. Work closely with the Clinical Lead and Head of Service to identify gaps in knowledge and training for education, early years and parent carer settings.

Specialist Clinical Practice

1. Provide a highly specialised holistic assessment and intervention for children with complex needs

2. To act as a whole service specialist advisor and resource in an area of expertise and how this relates to function and participation

3.

4. Support appropriate escalations and referrals into other specialist services.

5. Maintain HCPC/RCOT registration and professional standards (where applicable).

6. Hold a small caseload of short term targeted plus children

7. To provide excellent communication and provide direct advice to parents, carers, education and early years practitioners.

8. Utilise appropriate patient outcome measures to evaluate the effectiveness of interventions.

Service Development & Governance

• Contribute to audit, outcome measurement and evaluation of the EAH model.
• Support data collection and reporting of service impact.
• Participate in service development, quality improvement and pathway development.
• Working closely with the Clinical Lead and Head of Service to shape and develop Standard Operating Procedures and Policies within the department.

Communication

1. Communicate complex clinical information clearly to parents, carers, education staff and professionals.

2. Provide a high level of clinical knowledge, mentorship,, supervision, and support to Band 4, Band 5 and Band 6 therapists, while coordinating the day-to-day delivery of the service.

3. Build strong relationships across education, health and SEND partnerships.

4. Provide professional advice to support decision-making regarding children’s needs.

5. Maintain clear and accurate clinical records in line with service standards.

6. Communicate professionally as an expert representative within the Multi-Disciplinary Team around the school with SALT, Education Psychologists, Education staff and CAMHS.

7. Maintain clear and accurate outcome measures for intervention, training and delivery of the EAH model.

8. To investigate and manage concerns, incidents and complaints recognising limitations and referring to clinical lead/service manager where appropriate

9. Occasionally children are seen with extremely sensitive rare and complex medical conditions this requires communication at a high level with specialist doctors and national centres of excellence

Budgetary Responsibility

1. To monitor stock levels in own service area and request new equipment as appropriate.

2. Does not hold budgetary responsibility but is aware of the need to plan non- pay expenditure.

People Management

1. Provide line management, supervision, and support to Band 6, band 5 Therapists and Band 4 Support Practitioners/Apprentices, including responsibility for recruitment, attendance management, wellbeing, performance management, capability, and disciplinary processes.

2. (duplication of above)Provide supervision, support, and coaching to students within the Occupational Therapy Service, facilitating their learning and professional development.

3. Provide mentoring, guidance, and professional support to junior colleagues to support their development and clinical practice.

4. Promote and maintain mandatory training compliance across the team in line with Trust requirements.

5. Identify learning and development needs within the service and develop and deliver training plans to address knowledge and skills gaps.

This advert closes on Tuesday 22 Sep 2026