Occupational Therapist (Part-time)

A vacancy exists for an Occupational Therapist to join our multidisciplinary team for a 3 days a week position. This is a fixed-term position, with the possibility for permanency following this fixed-term period. You will be joining a therapy team of three Occupational Therapists, four Speech and Language Therapists, three Counsellors and a Multi-Therapy Assistant that work across three school sites. 

Burlington House School is an independent school for pupils aged 7-21 that is mainstream in structure and specialist in nature. We work across three sites, our Senior School site has about 80 pupils between Year 8- 11, whilst our Sixth Form site has just over 60 pupils in Year 12-14. Our brand new Prep School opened in September 2022 and currently has around 40 pupils from Year 3- 7.

Our OT services work with pupils with a wide range of needs, including but not limited to:

• Specific Learning Difficulties (SpLD): dyslexia, dyscalculia, dysgraphia,
• Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder / Attention Deficit Disorder
• Developmental Coordination Disorder.
• Speech, language and communication difficulties
• Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) with the primary need being social communication and interaction 
• Pupils who have sensory processing difficulties impacting on emotional regulation, and attention and concentration

Purpose of the position 

• To effectively manage a caseload of pupils with a range of needs including; providing a high quality standard of Occupational Therapy (OT) assessment, and intervention using clinical reasoning, evidence-based and child-centred principles. 

• To be responsible for promoting the Occupational Therapist role within the multidisciplinary team, and providing targeted and universal Occupational Therapy intervention within the classroom and wider school setting. 

Responsibilities will include (but not be limited to):

• To complete OT assessment with pupils upon their admission to the school, to ascertain their OT related needs pertaining to the school setting, and to produce written reports to a high standard based on this assessment. 
• To attend pupil’s Annual Review meetings/ Education, Health and Care Plan meetings and provide feedback and reports as required. 
• To interpret, and implement the OT provision requirements identified in Education, Health, and Care Plans. 
• To produce short-term targets on a termly basis for pupils on your caseload with the aim of working towards identified long-term targets (as outlined in their EHCP or OT reports). 
• To provide individualised OT intervention to a high standard within the context of a school setting including providing direct intervention (1:1 or 2:1 in format), and providing individualised strategies, programmes or advice as appropriate. 
• To keep accurate, up-to-date documentation of all OT intervention.
• To liaise with school staff including teachers and learning support assistants, and parents as required throughout the OT process. 
• To provide targeted OT intervention to a range of pupils including running OT small group interventions on a weekly basis, addressing key functional skill areas required for school-based occupations (e.g. handwriting, gross motor skills, fine motor skills). 
• To provide universal OT intervention as part of the OT service within the school context including; providing training, advice and guidance to all educational staff as required to ensure pupils' physical, sensory and functional needs are supported within the school environment. To provide to staff working with pupils with classroom-based strategies, interventions and accommodations to support pupils completion of school-based occupations. 
• To work with the Multi-Therapy Assistant and allocate appropriate tasks and duties as part of managing your caseload.
• To work as part of the multidisciplinary team within the school, including working collaboratively with a team of Counsellors and Speech and Language Therapists. 
• To attend staff meetings, parents’ evenings and other events as requested by the Headmaster, and to attend school in-service training. 
• To complete and maintain your own CPD professional development and portfolio. 
• To contribute to the development of the OT Service within the school, ensuring services remain in line with best quality practise. 

Personal Specification

Qualifications/Requirements:

• Occupational Therapy degree.
• HCPC registration.
• Enhanced DBS checks (completed as part of the onboarding process in the school). 
• Experience of working with a paediatric caseload. 
• Experience of independently managing a clinical caseload.

Experience:

It would be an advantage but not required  if applicants has:

• Experience of working as part of a multi-disciplinary team
• Experience or knowledge of Ayres Sensory Integration with training in module 1
• Experience of working with pupils diagnosis:
• Developmental Coordination Disorder
• Autism Spectrum Disorder 
• Sensory processing difficulties
• Social communication and language difficulties
• Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder / Attention deficit disorder
• Anxiety
• Trauma and attachment difficulties
• Emotional regulation difficulties

As part of your role you will receive access ongoing supervision, opportunity to work within an MDT and be part of an exciting and dynamic team. Your training and development will be supported by the school, and OT department.