Occupational Therapist

Job description

Job responsibilities

Key Tasks

Referrals

· Be proactive in developing strong links with all local agencies to encourage referrals, recognising what they need to be confident in the service to make appropriate referrals.

· Work in partnership with all local agencies to raise awareness of social prescribing and how partnership working can reduce pressure on statutory services, improve health outcomes and enable a holistic approach to care.

· Provide referral agencies with regular updates about social prescribing, including training for their staff and how to access information to encourage appropriate referrals.

· Seek regular feedback about the quality of service and impact of social prescribing on referral agencies.

· Be proactive in encouraging self-referrals and connecting with all local communities, particularly those communities that statutory agencies may find hard to reach.

Provide personalised support

· Meet people on a one-to-one basis, making home visits where appropriate within organisations’ policies and procedures. Give people time to tell their stories and focus on ‘what matters to me’.

· Help people identify the wider issues that impact on their health and wellbeing, such as debt, poor housing, being unemployed, loneliness and caring responsibilities.

· Work with the person, their families and carers and consider how they can all be supported through social prescribing.

· Help people maintain or regain independence through living skills, adaptations, enablement approaches and simple safeguards.

· Work with individuals to co-produce a simple personalised support plan – based on the person’s priorities, interests, values and motivations – including what they can expect from the groups, activities and services they are being connected to and what the person can do for themselves to improve their health and wellbeing.

· Where appropriate, physically introduce people to community groups, activities and statutory services, ensuring they are comfortable. Follow up to ensure they are happy, able to engage, included and receiving good support.

· Where people may be eligible for a personal health budget, help them to explore this option as a way of providing funded, personalised support to be independent, including helping people to gain skills for meaningful employment, where appropriate.

Support community groups and VCSE organisations to receive referrals

· Forge strong links with local VCSE organisations, community and neighbourhood level groups, utilising their networks and building on what’s already available to create a map or menu of community groups and assets. Use these opportunities to promote micro-commissioning or small grants if available.

· Develop supportive relationships with local VCSE organisations, community groups and statutory services, to make timely, appropriate and supported referrals for the person being introduced.

· Ensure that local community groups and VCSE organisations being referred to have basic procedures in place for ensuring that vulnerable individuals are safe and, where there are safeguarding concerns, work with all partners to deal appropriately with issues. Where such policies and procedures are not in place, support groups to work towards this standard before referrals are made to them.

· Check that community groups and VCSE organisations meet in insured premises and that health and safety requirements are in place. Where such policies and procedures are not in place, support groups to work towards this standard before referrals are made to them.

· Support local groups to act in accordance with information governance policies and procedures, ensuring compliance with GDPR.

Work collectively with all local partners to ensure community groups are strong and sustainable

· Work with GPs, PCNs and wider Multi-Disciplinary teams as required.

· Work with commissioners and local partners to identify unmet needs within the community and gaps in community provision and support development of new groups and services where needed, through small grants for community groups, micro-commissioning and development support.

· Encourage people who have been connected to community support through social prescribing to volunteer and give their time freely to others, in order to build their skills and confidence, and strengthen community resilience.

· Develop a team of volunteers within your service to provide ‘buddying support’ for people, starting new groups and finding creative community solutions to local issues.

· Encourage people, their families and carers to provide peer support and to do things together, such as setting up new community groups or volunteering.

· Provide a regular ‘confidence survey’ to community groups receiving referrals, to ensure that they are strong, sustained and have the support they need to be part of social prescribing.

Data capture

· Work sensitively with people, their families and carers to capture key information, enabling tracking of the impact of social prescribing on their health and wellbeing.

· Encourage people, their families and carers to provide feedback and to share their stories about the impact of social prescribing on their lives.

· Support referral agencies to provide appropriate information about the person they are referring. Use the case management system to track the person’s progress. Provide appropriate feedback to referral agencies about the people they referred.

· Work closely with GP practices within the PCN to ensure that social prescribing referral codes are inputted to System One and that the person’s use of the NHS can be tracked, adhering to data protection legislation and data sharing agreements with the clinical commissioning group (CCG).

Team Leadership/ Line Management

· Lead on individual and group supervision, ensuring accurate records are kept.

· Represent the GPA SPLW team at events/ meetings.

· Lead on service development.

· Support personal development.

· Deal with performance issues/ grievance in conjunction with HR Manager.

· Work closely with PCN colleagues to resolve service issues.

· Audit use of SPLW time/ rotas.

· Monitor caseloads and advocate for SPLWs with PCNs as necessary.

Person Specification

Personal Qualities

Essential

• Committed to reducing health inequalities and proactively working to reach people from all communities
• Able to support people in a way that inspires trust and confidence, motivating others to reach their potential
• Have a strong awareness and understanding of when it is appropriate or necessary to refer people back to other health professionals/agencies
• Able to work from an asset-based approach, building on existing community and personal assets
• Demonstrates personal accountability, emotional resilience and works well under pressure
• Able to work flexibly and enthusiastically within a team or on own initiative
• Understanding of the needs of small volunteer-led community groups and ability to support their development

Qualifications

Essential

• Degree in Occupational Therapy
• State Registration with the HCPC
• Demonstrable commitment to professional and personal development

Desirable

• Training in motivational coaching and interviewing or equivalent experience

Experience

Essential

• Experience of line management and team leadership
• Experience of service development
• Experience of working directly in a community development context, adult health and social care, learning support or public health/health improvement (including unpaid work)
• Experience of data collection and providing monitoring information to assess the impact of services
• Experience of supporting people (including unpaid work)

Desirable

• Experience of working with the VCSE sector (in a paid or unpaid capacity)

Skills and Knowledge

Essential

• Good knowledge of IT
• Knowledge of the personalised care approach
• Able to prioritise and manage own workload
• Demonstrable first-class record keeping skills
• Able to communicate effectively, both verbally and in writing
• Knowledge of and ability to work to policies and procedures

Desirable

• Understanding of the wider determinants of health, including social, economic and environmental factors and their impact on communities
• Knowledge of community development approaches
• Knowledge of SystmOne clinical system
• Knowledge of VCSE and community services in the locality

Other

Essential

• Meets DBS reference standards
• Car driver with access to own transport

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

UK Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).

Employer details

Employer name

General Practice Alliance Ltd

Address

129 Hazeldene Road

Northampton

Northamptonshire

NN2 7PB

Employer's website

http://www.northantsgpalliance.com/ (Opens in a new tab)