Highly Specialist Occupational Therapist

As a College, we believe that young adults should be respected and have their individual choices, needs and aspirations reflected in the education opportunities made available to them. We encourage independence in all our learners and support them to achieve their full potential through a high-quality curriculum to develop their skills in living, work, community and communication. These skills planned to reflect the individual learners Educational and Health Care Plan target outcomes.

The Aurora Centre is South Thames College Group’s specialist, non-residential further education centre for young adults from 16-25. Our learners have moderate to severe learning disabilities and may have Autism, behaviours of concern or complex support needs.

As our Highly Specialist Occupational Therapist, you will work with the Head of Therapies and the High Needs departments to support students to successfully access their College course and achieve their outcomes for progression. As well as supporting students’ social integration at College, you will support their emotional wellbeing and work pro-actively to avoid behaviours of concern. You’ll adopt a person-centred approach to promote choice, independence, and inclusion, and provide advanced support and training to teaching staff and junior therapists with regard to occupational therapy needs.

As our Highly Specialist Occupational Therapist, you will hold a degree or equivalent qualification in Occupational Therapy and have experience of accessing learners with Learning Disabilities, Autism and Sensory Processing Difficulties. Registered with the Health Professions Council, you will have experience of devising and implementing evidence-based intervention for learners and of writing reports and support plans for a range of audiences and needs. We’d like you to be comfortable working as part of a multi-disciplinary team and thrive when it comes to supervising / managing Occupational Therapy colleagues.

Committed to the safeguarding and promotion of the welfare of children and young adults, you will have an awareness of the principles of Positive Behaviour Support and be able to use initiative, organise and prioritise own caseload. You will have knowledge of sensory and motor needs / learning strategies and have experience of planning and delivering training (both classroom and/or coaching and reflection).

Membership to the Royal College of Occupational Therapists is desirable, as is an interest in supporting workplace research projects and internal clinical practice audits.

This role will be primarily based at Merton College, however it will involve travel across all College sites.

Closing date for the return of an online application form is 3rd January 2022. 

The benefits package includes generous annual leave of 37 plus up to 7 additional days over Christmas/New Year as well as an additional 5 days Wellbeing leave to enhance employees’ physical and mental health. This leave is all in addition to Bank Holiday entitlement. There is an excellent pension scheme that receives a significant financial contribution from the employer (Teachers Pensions or Local Government Pension Scheme), subsidised sports facilities and professional development and training plus a salary sacrifice cycle to work scheme.

South Thames Colleges Group is an equal opportunities employer and is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults.

The South Thames Colleges Group is made up of Carshalton College, Kingston College, Merton College and South Thames College, which merged on 1 August 2017. South Thames Colleges Group is one of London’s largest providers of post-16 education and training and is an ongoing and significant contributor to its local communities. We aim to put students’ success at the heart of everything we do.

We are looking for hard-working and collaborative people who can join our team and help challenge our students to progress and achieve.

When you click on ‘Apply’, you will be forwarded to the application page which sits on a platform hosted by an external partner called Blue Octopus who support STCG throughout the recruitment process.