Main area Children’s Occupational Therapy Grade Band 7 Contract 2 years (initially 2 years fixed term with potential to extend) Hours
- Full time
- Part time
- Job share
- Flexible working
- Home or remote working
- Compressed hours
- Term time hours
- Annualised hours
37.5 hours per week (Consideration given to all working patterns including whole year or term time only, full time or part time. There will be an expectation of some remote working and in person delivery.) Job ref 448-BCHS-8280422
Employer East of England Community Health and Care NHS Trust (Cambridgeshire) Employer type NHS Site Woburn Court Town Kempston Bedfordshire Salary £49,387 – £56,515 pro-rata if candidate is part time or Term Time Only. Salary period Yearly Closing 22/09/2026 23:59 Interview date 06/10/2026
Advanced Children’s Occupational Therapy – Bedfordshire and Luton
Band 7
East of England Community Health and Care NHS Trust delivers expert healthcare in people’s homes, community hospitals and local settings across the East of England.
Our nurses, therapists, clinicians, support teams and partners work together to provide coordinated care that supports independence, recovery and wellbeing. We believe people are best cared for close to home, in the communities where they live and belong.
By combining professional expertise with strong local relationships, we help people stay well, feel supported and access the right care at the right time. Expert healthcare, close to home, trusted by our communities.
Different ideas, experiences and backgrounds make us stronger and more creative and applications from all walks of life are welcomed. Our processes ensure that all applicants are treated fairly at every stage of the recruitment process.
East of England Community Health and Care NHS Trust is committed to creating a modern and inclusive work environment. We actively promote flexible working opportunities where possible to meet the needs and wishes of our workforce and maintain and improve their wellbeing. We also offer flexible working patterns and we would encourage you to discuss this with the recruiting manager before or during the application process if this would interest you.
We welcome applications from people who share our values and can help us deliver outstanding care in our local community.
Before applying for this vacancy, please make sure you’re familiar with ongoing GOV.uk sponsorship eligibility criteria which will impact the organisations ability to provide sponsorship, whether this is currently or in the future.
Please note, our selection processes are in place to ensure we recruit candidates with the right values and skills. Please be advised that the use of AI in applications is monitored. We remain watchful of candidates who misuse these tools to generate an application that doesn’t accurately reflect their skills.
Please note all new starters will be subject to a 6 month probationary period.
Job overview
East of England Community Health and Care Trust is establishing Experts 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 intervention.
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.
Main duties of the job
- 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.
Working for our organisation
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.
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.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Clinical / EaH Role
- Act as a named Expert at Hand for a cluster of schools and early years settings.
- Provide highly specialised consultation, advice and support to education staff to enable inclusive practice.
- Support the implementation of the graduated response across universal, targeted and specialist levels.
- Participate in Team Around the School (TAS) and multi-agency meetings.
- 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.
- Using specialist knowledge to make clear judgements and analysis on the information provided.
- To assess and prescribe specialist equipment to support function and participation.
- To appropriately delegate work/tasks to therapy assistants, maintaining oversight of their input with children and young people.
- 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
- Develop and deliver training programmes for school staff and parents/carers.
- Undertake environmental audits for settings as required (access and sensory).
- Provide coaching and modelling of strategies within education settings.
- Deliver and oversee targeted intervention programmes (group and individual).
- Coproduce the targeted offer with clusters of neighbourhood settings.
Workforce Development
- Support the induction, supervision and competency development of registered band 5/6 therapists and Support Practitioners and apprentices.
- Build capacity within education settings through coaching and mentoring.
- Contribute to the development of champions within schools/settings.
- To communicate
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