Occupational Therapist

Company: Leeds and York Partnership
Apply for the Occupational Therapist
Location: Leeds
Job Description:

Are you looking for mental health jobs in Leeds, York or with one of our regional services operating across the country? We have a range of NHS Job opportunities, placements and specialities in our clinical, research, and professional support teams across Leeds and York.

At Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (LYPFT), we strive to provide high-quality mental health and learning disability services as an employer of choice. We can only achieve this by putting our staff and the people using our services at the centre of everything we do. This starts with the people we employ. We recruit based on values and qualifications (where required) and believe lived experience is an advantage. We look for potential, not perfection, and this means that together, we are as diverse as the communities we care for.

Simply put, we seek out people who care, act with integrity and have the right skills. We want to add to our incredible colleagues, students and volunteers who share these principles, with people like you, who find empathy comes easily and who treat everyone with respect without thinking. Search our latest jobs to start your journey with us.

A rare and exciting opportunity has come up for an enthusiastic Occupational Therapist who has an interest in working in the community with people with complex mental health problems. You would be working within a multi-disciplinary team of mental health nurses, social work, psychology and psychiatrists

The Assertive Outreach Team (AOT) works with service users in the community who experience psychosis as their main issue, have not been able to engage with mental health services and have had repeated admissions to hospitals.

AOT operates with a team approach to flexibly and responsively support this group of service users in their mental health recovery and the OT role in the team is an essential component of this. As a band 5 in the team, you would not be acting as a care co-ordinator; therefore most of your time is set aside purely to deliver OT interventions with this client group.

We are looking for somebody who is passionate about the core values of Occupational Therapy in mental health, is confident working with a range of diverse service users and environments out in the community, and enjoys being part of a team. There is a well-established community group programme within the service, which you would be an integral part of facilitating and evaluating, as well as important link working with other mental health providers in the city.

Main duties of the job

We work with a client group who can be challenging and come with risk backgrounds which can leave them to be excluded from opportunities. The band 5 OT has an important function to try and work creatively with these factors to help promote social inclusion and improve the quality of life for people who can often be left out. A good understanding around the concept of therapeutic risk taking is important- there is a very supportive and experienced MDT, and you would be supervised by a band 6 OT in the team.

AOT are one team that forms the Complex Psychosis Pathway (CPP) along with Newsam Ward 5 (Level 2 Rehab & relocating to Parkside Lodge), Asket Croft and Asket House inpatient settings, (Level 1 Rehab), and the Community Rehabilitation Team

We would welcome any interested applicants to have a discussion either over the phone or to come and visit the team to find out more.

Working for our organisation

The Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (LYPFT) is the main provider of Mental Health and Learning Disability services in Leeds. We also provide specialist inpatient services in York and some highly specialised services across the country. As a teaching trust with strong links to local universities, we are a centre of excellence for teaching, research and development.

There are many benefits of working for LYPFT including fantastic employee wellbeing support, 27 – 33 days annual leave, flexible working and remote working arrangements, the NHS Pension Scheme, coaching, support and opportunities for career development and training and education support alongside a range of exclusive discounts and payment schemes including for cars, extra leave days and more NHS Discount Offers.

We also have a bank department, offering variety of roles in nursing, allied health professions, healthcare support worker and administration clerical. Permanent employees are automatically added to bank.

Applicants should be aware that individuals requiring a visa to work in the UK, the Trust only provides sponsorship for registered healthcare practitioner roles(this does not include Healthcare Support Workers). This is an essential requirement, and the Trust is unable to offer you a role if you do not meet Trust requirements for sponsorship and Home Office requirements for a visa.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The role of the Occupational Therapist is to work with the multi professional team and the Occupational Therapists to assess, plan, organise and deliver clinical care in line with the service pathways and as agreed with supervising clinician. The role is to work as a key member of the Assertive Outreach Team delivering occupational therapy interventions to individuals with complex, severe, and enduring mental health conditions.

  • To work as a member of the Assertive Outreach Teams in providing occupational therapy interventions in a city wide service for patients with highly complex, severe and persistent mental health problems seven days per week.
  • To utilize core OT specific skills in providing high quality assessment and treatment.
  • To promote and facilitate a group programme.
  • To act as a resource and advisor on available services.
  • To contribute to and promote partnership working.
  • To establish and maintain good working relationships with other community teams/agencies within the statutory voluntary and private sector.

Person specification

Qualifications

  • Relevant Occupational Therapy qualification and registration with the Health and Care Professions Council.

Skills

  • Community post requiring a car driver with a valid driving licence and access to a car for work purposes.
  • Is able to engage with people in creative and flexible ways.

Experience

  • Experience of successfully working with service users who experience complex psychosis.

Knowledge

  • Understands a range of OT assessments and interventions appropriate for the service user group.

Values

  • Tell us about a time when you spotted something small going wrong and did something to stop it becoming a bigger issue.
  • Tell us about a time when you realised a colleague or someone you know needed a bit of support and you offered to help.
  • Tell us about a time when you showed someone kindness or understanding.

Applications are welcomed from candidates who wish to apply for a position based on a smarter (Hybrid) or flexible working arrangement. Where candidates are successful at interview, flexible working arrangement requests will be taken into consideration and may be accommodated where the needs of the service allow.

Fixed Term Contracts for existing NHS Employees – temporary contracts for employees of LYPFT, or colleagues joining from another NHS Trust, will be offered on a secondment basis wherever possible. In the event this is not possible, an FTC would be issued and this would require a break in service of two weeks.

The purpose of a temporary is role could be for maternity cover, temporary funding or some other reason. At the end of which the need for the temporary work will cease. Temporary roles can stop, be extended and/or made permanent at any point during the period of work. Should the role become permanent then the post-holder will be informed of the process to be followed to convert the position to a permanent one.

All new employees are required to subscribe to the DBS Update Service.

Patient Safety is a priority at LYPFT with a focus on system-based improvement and creating opportunities for learning. We will ensure compassionate engagement with all those involved in an incident and all incidents are met with a proportionate response. LYPFT is committed to upholding its statutory responsibilities in relation to safeguarding adults and children. Please refer to job description for further information.

LYPFT is a member of the Disability Confident scheme and is committed to providing a fully inclusive and accessible recruitment process.

As part of the Trust’s commitment to its Gold Standard Armed Forces Covenant status, members of the Armed Forces Community are entitled to a guaranteed interview subject to meeting the role criteria.

We welcome applicants with lived experience of providing unpaid care and/or support to a family member or friend with a disability, health condition, frailty, mental health problem, addiction or other health needs.

Please note that the Trust reserves the right to close the vacancy before the closing date if enough applications are received. It is in the candidate’s best interest to apply as soon as possible. In submitting an application form, you authorize Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust to confirm any previous NHS service details via the ESR IAT process should you be appointed to the post.

In applying for a role please ensure that you only declare qualifications that are relevant to the role itself. We reserve the right to check all declared qualifications on an application form, whether they are directly relevant to the role or not.

Please note: The Trust does not offer reimbursement of interview expenses.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.

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Posted: October 17th, 2026