About this role
Job summary
Paediatric Occupational Therapist - Critical Care Discharge Coordinator
Help children with complex needs get home safely and sooner.
This is an exciting and innovative role working across East Kent Hospitals University Trust and Medway NHS Foundation Trust, supporting children and young people requiring critical care. As a key member of the multidisciplinary team, you will coordinate complex discharge pathways, improve patient flow and help ensure children receive the right care, in the right place, at the right time.
We are looking for an experienced and motivated Occupational Therapist who thrives on collaboration, problem-solving and making a real difference to children and families. You will work closely with hospitals, community services, tertiary centres and regional networks to coordinate care, reduce delays, support admission avoidance and deliver care closer to home.
The ideal candidate will have excellent communication and organisational skills, experience of complex discharge planning, and the ability to build strong relationships across organisations. You will be compassionate, proactive and confident managing competing priorities while supporting children with complex health needs and their families.
In return, you'll have the opportunity to shape a developing service, work across two Trusts, influence system-wide improvement and make a lasting impact on the experiences and outcomes of children and young people across Kent and Medway.
Main duties of the job
What You'll Do
As the Paediatric Occupational Therapist - Critical Care Discharge Coordinator, you will help children and young people with complex critical care needs transition safely from hospital to home or onward care. Working across East Kent Hospitals and Medway NHS Foundation Trust, you will coordinate complex discharge pathways, improve patient flow and work with multidisciplinary teams to ensure children receive the right care, in the right place, at the right time.
You will work closely with hospital teams, community services and specialist centres to coordinate care, support equipment provision and improve discharge processes. You will also contribute to service improvement, audit and pathway development across the paediatric critical care network.
What We're Looking For
We're looking for an experienced Occupational Therapist who is passionate about improving outcomes for children and families.
You will have experience supporting children with complex needs, coordinating care across multiple services and managing complex discharge pathways. You will be an excellent communicator, highly organised, able to build effective relationships across organisations and committed to delivering compassionate, family-centred care.
This is a unique opportunity to work across two Trusts, influence service development and make a lasting difference to children and young people across Kent and Medway.
About us
We are one of the largest hospital trusts in England, with five hospitals and community clinics serving a local population of around 800,000 people. Our vision is 'great healthcare from great people'. Everything we do is guided by our values: 'People feel cared for, safe, respected and confident that we are making a difference'. We have a new way of working at East Kent Hospitals, called 'We care'. It's about empowering frontline staff to lead improvements day-to-day. We're looking for compassionate people to be part of our improvement journey for the patients, families and carers we care for every day.
Please note that if you require a Certificate of Sponsorship to work in the UK you must declare this on your application form, even if you currently have a certificate of sponsorship or a work permit for another role and are already working in the country. Please note we are only able to sponsor candidates for a Skilled Worker Visa for roles that are eligible at the time of application.
Job description
Job responsibilities
Duties and Responsibilities
- Coordinate complex discharge pathways for children and young people requiring critical care, ensuring safe, timely transfers between hospital, community and specialist services.
- Act as a key point of contact for children, families and carers throughout admission, discharge and repatriation processes.
- Work with multidisciplinary teams to improve patient flow, reduce delays and promote care closer to home.
- Support children with complex needs, including coordinating equipment, referrals and ongoing packages of care.
- Provide clinical leadership for therapy services within paediatric critical care pathways.
- Contribute to service improvement, audit, data collection and the development of discharge pathways and standards of care.
- Promote safe, effective and family-centred care through collaboration, education and evidence-based practice.
Key Relationships
The post holder will work closely with:
- Children, young people, families and carers.
- Paediatric critical care, paediatric ward and neonatal teams.
- Occupational Therapy, Physiotherapy, Speech and Language Therapy and wider Allied Health Professional teams.
- Discharge teams, safeguarding teams, operational managers and senior clinicians.
- Community children's nursing teams, hospices and primary care services.
- Tertiary centres, transport services, STPN, STRS and partner organisations across Kent and Medway.
This role requires strong partnership working across organisations to ensure children with complex needs receive coordinated, seamless care and are discharged safely and efficiently.
Person Specification
Qualifications and training
Essential
- Registered Occupational Therapist with current HCPC registration
- Degree in Occupational Therapy (or equivalent professional qualification)
- Evidence of continuous and ongoing professional development relevant to paediatric critical care
- First degree or equivalent within therapies.
Desirable
- Master's degree or postgraduate study relevant to paediatrics or critical care
- Leadership qualification
Clinical skills and experience
Essential
- Substantial Paediatric Critical Care L2 experience at Band 6
- Experience of discharge planning / patient flow coordination within acute paediatric, neonatal or critical care services.
- Experience of working across organisational boundaries and with multiple agencies / providers.
- Understanding of paediatric critical care pathways and the needs of children and young people with complex care needs.
- Experience of supporting families through complex discharge processes including equipment provision.
- Experience of data collection, audit or service improvement.
Desirable
- Previous Band 7 experience within critical care L2/L3
- Clinical supervision Evidence of presentations at local, regional/ national level
Governance
Essential
- Understanding of safeguarding, information governance and risk management
- Knowledge of quality improvement and governance processes relevant to patient flow and discharge
Desirable
- Experience developing clinical guidelines/protocols
- Managing incidents and complaints
Personal and professional attributes
Essential
- Ability to coordinate complex pathways and manage competing priorities.
- Ability to work and travel across multiple sites/complex organisations including travel as required
- Full UK Driving License
Desirable
- Presentation at regional/national forums
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.
Certificate of Sponsorship
Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).
From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).
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
East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust
Address
William Harvey Hospital
Ashford
TN24 0LZ
United Kingdom
Employer's website
https://www.ekhuft.nhs.uk/patients-and-visitors/ (Opens in a new tab)