Occupational Therapist Senior

Job description

Job Introduction

We are seeking a Senior or Experienced Occupational Therapist to work in within the Independent Living Service to ensure we provide Brighton & Hove residents access to the best occupational therapy support, community equipment and adaptations.

Post: 37 hrs Permanent Position as an Experienced or Senior Occupational Therapist

Salary: £41,177 - £44,253 / £45,529 - £48,738 pro-rota depending on appointment as Experienced or Senior Occupational Therapist

Based in Hove Town Hall

Interview date: tbc September 2026

For an informal discussion about the job please contact Olivia Bird Principal Occupational Therapist on 07717 480899 email [email protected]

About us

We are a small, friendly and supportive Independent Living Service providing creative solutions to enable residents with a wide spectrum of need to continue to live safely and independently with a good quality of life for as long as possible.

Our ethos in Brighton & Hove is to put the individual at the centre of our professional practice, as well as actively encourage staff within the team to work together with other colleagues and partners across Health and Adult Social Care, as to better meet their needs. The provision of equipment and adaptations are central to the delivery of our shared goals, as we work alongside our modern and efficient Integrated Equipment Service to achieve this.

We provide regular supervision, with access to peer support groups and encourage access to learning and service development opportunities. As an integrated team we can offer opportunities of working in different ways, such as working with Children, Adaptations and at the Front Door, as well as ecouraging service development.

It is an exciting time to join us as we look to continue to improve our integrated service offer to our residents. Currently, we are working to support new online systems which will provide more choice and options for individuals approaching the service. We are particularly keen to develop our digital offer, which you would have the opportunity to contribute towards, amongst other service projects.

Are you an Occupational Therapist?

Are you committed to supporting people to maintain their independence at home?

Are you looking for an opportunity to further develop your knowledge and skills and work alongside commissioners and other clinical staff to ensure that people receive the best equipment options and adaptations available?

If so, we would like to hear from you.

About you:

You will be expected to manage a diverse caseload, including complex cases. This will involve:

• Carrying out assessments of individuals needs including, functional abilities, moving and handling and housing assessments.
• Prescribing appropriate equipment and recommending minor and major adaptations to maintain people in their own homes.
• Providing information and advice to empower individuals to manage their health conditions/disabilities.
• Preparing reports/ assessments with clearly presented clinical reasoning.
• Formal and informal supervision of Occupational Therapy Assistants within the Service
• Contributing to specific project work and improvements to the service.

Essential qualities:

• Be a qualified Occupational Therapist and hold current HCPC registration.
• Have experience of working in community-based settings with a broad range of assessing functional needs.
• Experience of working with individuals with a range of complex manual handling needs, including an awareness of reduced handling/ singled handed care.
• Be an excellent communicator both orally and written.
• Be able to build effective working relationships with individuals, colleagues and other professionals across the NHS, Adult Social Care and the third sector.
• Experience of working independently, as well as part of a team.
• Be able to effectively organise and prioritise your workload.
• Have good ICT and time management skills.

What staff say about us

Experienced Occupational Therapist:

I have worked in Independent Living for a few years now in my first OT role since qualifying and I am very happy that I joined such a friendly, supportive and welcoming team.

I have greatly appreciated the opportunity to develop professionally through training, supervision and peer support while working autonomously and collaboratively with an extremely diverse client base.

Experienced Occupational Therapist:

Independent Living is a very friendly and welcoming team. There are good opportunities for career development with plenty of support. It's a great team to work in with lots of collaboration and peer support activities, from regular forums to group learning and skill sharing.

Working with us

We also offer you a range of benefits including:

• A comprehensive induction programme.
• A manageable caseload.
• The opportunity to enhance your knowledge and skills.
• Paid time off to undertake regular CPD days.
• Regular supportive team meetings.
• One-to-one supervision sessions.
• Access to peer forums to support continued learning.
• Annual appraisal
• Generous holiday of 25 days a year increasing to 27 days after 5 years' service.
• Paid mileage expenses plus.
• A range of other staff benefits.

Interested?

Then why not apply to join us.

We welcome applications from all sections of the community but particularly encourage applicants from a BAMER or White Other background as well as those who identify as disabled, male or trans as these groups are currently under-represented in our Directorate workforce.

For an informal discussion about the job please contact Olivia Bird on 07717 480899 or email [email protected]

Encouraging a diverse workforce

Our city is known and loved for its diversity. Not only is the mixture of people, culture and skills vital to the economic and social development of the city, it's what makes Brighton & Hove such a great place to live, work and visit. We are committed to developing and retaining a workforce that is representative of the diverse communities we serve so we welcome applications from individuals from all backgrounds. In order to achieve our aims of proportionate representation, we particularly encourage applicants from a BME or White Other background as well as those who identify as disabled, male or trans.

Find out more about our commitment to being a fair and inclusive place to work where everyone can achieve their potential by reading about our fair and inclusive actions, our anti-racism strategy and the work we are doing to encourage a diverse workforce (brighton-hove.gov.uk).

Why work for us?

As a council, we want to:
• be connected
• be confident
• be innovative and creative
• be diverse and inclusive
• be healthy and psychologically safe
For more information about our values and the benefits of working at the council, visit Why work for us which gives details of our wellbeing support, our benefits including leave and pensions as well as details of our training and development.

How to apply

Please read our Apply for a job at the council pages carefully. They give you all the guidance you need to complete your application as well as information on what will happen after you've submitted your application and at interview.

As part of your application, you will need to provide your education and career history and answer some application/shortlisting questions. Your answers to the application/shortlisting questions are the most important part of your application as they will be used in the shortlisting process to assess whether you meet the essential requirements for the role that are set out in the person specification and to decide whether you should be offered an interview. Before you start your application, please read our Shortlisting questions guidance (brighton-hove.gov.uk) as this gives important advice which will increase your chance of success in the shortlisting process.

AI advice for candidates

We are interested in hearing about your experience and skills in your own words. While we value people who know how to use AI, we ask that you minimise using it in your application.

We are keen to hear how your experience and skills align to our values and the skills and experience needed to perform well in our roles with clear real examples from you. To support you in this, we have guidance on using the STAR model which can help you ensure you are telling us your whole story. We also provide clarity on the skills we are looking for in our adverts and in the job description/person specification attached to each job advert.

All the applications we receive are read by at least two hiring managers and we do not use AI in this process. Our experience of reading applications is that those that have heavily used AI contain generic paragraphs that are strikingly similar to other applicants' responses. This makes it extremely difficult to differentiate between applications, and doesn't give us enough evidence of your individual skills. There is a risk that we will therefore not be able to shortlist you. Instead, we recommend you ensure your application stands out by presenting clear examples of your actual skills and experiences in your own words.

Additional information

Your starting salary will be pro rata if the above position is less than 37 hours or term-time only.

DBS statement options:

1)Enhanced DBS -both child and adult keep

Please note that this post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974, and is subject to a Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) Check.

We are a workplace that supports flexibility and employee wellbeing in the way we work whilst providing the best service for our customers. Team and service working arrangements are designed to support both employee work life balance and team collaboration. These would be part of your individual working arrangements alongside any personal preference agreed with your manager in advance of joining. Your contractual location will be the designated council office for your team and travel to and from your contractual location would be at your own expense.

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