Job Title: Senior Occupational Therapist

Job type: Senior

Specialism: Children in Care, Fostering, Child Protection, Mental Health, Sensory Integration, Multidisciplinary Working

Working pattern: 37.5 hours per week

Closing date is: 5pm 02.12.24

Salary: Aligned to HSE consolidated pay scale (March2023), dependent on experience. 58,599-68,998.

Reporting to: Clinical Lead OT

Location: Cork City & County

Job Description:

Childhood Matters are recruiting an Occupational Therapist to work across our child in care clinical services and strengthen our multidisciplinary team.

The successful candidate will be a member of Childhood Matters, providing high quality, trauma informed child and family support while working as part of a multidisciplinary team. They will be able to work within a therapeutic framework, and be highly self-reflective and able to model this with the foster carers/children/parents/staff they are working with.

Childhood Matters has a combination of site-based and home-based services. Interventions are attachment-focussed and incorporate dyadic and systemic ways of working with the child, carers and team around them, drawing on models such as Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP); Theraplay; Mentalisation-Based Treatment (MBT) approaches, Sensory Attachment Intervention (SAI), among others.

Our Multidisciplinary Team is currently comprised of clinical psychologists, assistant psychologists, social worker, a play therapist, child art psychotherapist and clinical specialist occupational therapist.

Successful candidates will take a key role in contributing to MDT discussions of each referred child’s needs as well as those of the system around them, formulating the presenting difficulties and considering appropriate intervention.

Childhood Matters is a trauma-informed and equal-opportunity employer. We offer competitive salary packages as well as benefits including enhanced maternity leave; pension contribution scheme; health care plans; flexible working hours; internal and externally provided training opportunities, and competitive annual leave entitlement.

The successful candidates will be expected to:

• Work as a member of the multi-disciplinary therapy team, providing high quality therapeutic input to children in care and their families/carers as well as offering support and guidance to the system around the child via telephone or video conference, email, consultation, professionals’ meetings, attending and participating in statutory Child in Care Reviews etc.
• Support and promote empirically-based practice within the team through engaging in consultation, supervision, formulation and training /education
• Be responsible for holding and managing a clinical caseload in consultation with the Clinical Leads, and exercise autonomous professional responsibility (where appropriate) for the planning and prioritising of own workload within the bounds of the service’s operational policies
• Promote the team’s trauma-informed and trauma-responsive ethos, supporting colleagues and other departments within the organisation as well as referred children/carers/networks
• Contribute to developing and maintaining equality of opportunity in working practices by complying with legislation and organisational policies. Advise colleagues about equality, diversity and human rights policies and procedures and ensure they are followed
• Facilitate support groups and learning opportunities for foster carers, families and children along with clinician colleagues

Person Specification

Role Requirements

Communication and Relationships

• Can quickly and easily develop therapeutic rapport with children and families
• Excellent English language skills

Knowledge, Training and Experience

• Qualified & CORU Registered Occupational Therapist

Analytical and Judgement Skills

• Able to operate in an environment of complex facts or situations,
• Able to interpret complex situations and compare / choose from a range of options
• High level of skills and compassion in assessing clients, relatives / carers
• Interprets client, family situation & develops appropriate formulation,
• Considers alternative expert opinions and research materials that may differ or present alternative approaches

Planning and Organisational Skills

• Plans and organises activities, potentially covering a range of complex requirements
• Formulates, adjusts plans or strategies
• Plans & prioritise own job / case workload, co-ordinates with other services as required
• Day to day supervision/ professional/ clinical supervision of other less experienced psychologists, assistant(s), trainees etc as required
• Is open to working out of hours

Responsibility for Information Resources

• Responsibility to update and maintain records of personally generated information
• Updates and maintains client records to the required standards
• Maintains data protection and confidentiality

Research & Development

• Responsibility to undertake R&D activities as required
• Develops and implements measures of impact of the service
• Develops new or modifies resources, training materials, tip sheets, forms, records, policies, procedures etc.

Emotional Resilience

• Appreciates and practices self-care and ongoing reflective practice
• Commitment and full engagement with reflective supervision

To apply:

Please submit your CV and Cover Letter to hr@childhood-matters.ie by 5pm Monday 02.12.24. Interviews planned for week commencing 9th December 2024.

For further information, or to discuss the post, please contact hr@childhood-matters.ie