Senior Occupational Therapist

Job summary
EMERGE Leeds is recruiting a Band 6 Senior Occupational Therapist to work within its Complex Emotional Needs Service on a temporary basis to cover maternity leave, with an estimated start date of January 2027. The role focuses on supporting adults with complex emotional needs and interpersonal difficulties. We provide care coordination and a range of support and therapeutic interventions for young adults aged 18-25, alongside a groupwork offer consisting of DBT and Journey for adults aged 18+.

You will work collaboratively within a multidisciplinary and multiagency team supporting individuals with histories of trauma, self-harm, and complex interpersonal difficulties. The role requires creativity, flexibility, and strong relational skills to manage challenging dynamics.

The service promotes a reflective, supportive, and learning-focused culture. The Senior Occupational therapist will receive profession-specific supervision and training opportunities, and will contribute to staff supervision, training delivery, and practice education for Occupational therapy students.

Hybrid working is available. The role is based in Leeds, with regular travel across the city required.

Main duties of the job
The postholder will primarily contribute to the Journey group work offer. Journey is a 12-week occupational therapy group work program jointly facilitated by Emerge and Primary Care. The post holder will be responsible for supporting the ongoing development, facilitation, and quality assurance of group work, alongside providing guidance and support to junior staff. The postholder will also contribute to the EMERGE Care Coordination offer by providing specialist 1:1 Occupational Therapy interventions for service users under care coordination, including both sensory-based and relationally focused interventions.

About us
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.

Job responsibilities
We recruit people based on their values and qualifications (where required) and believe that their lived experience is an advantage, this means that together we are as diverse as the communities we care for. Simply put, when we employ caring people who act with integrity and have the right skills, we can give those with mental health challenges, learning disabilities and neurodiversity high-quality care and support to live fulfilling lives, and make our staff feel purposeful, happy and valued.

All our information is available in accessible formats. Please contact the Recruitment team View email address on meeveem.com

Attached to this advert is our candidates guide to values-based recruitment and supporting guidance on how to make a successful application.

If you require a reasonable adjustment, please contact the Recruitment Team or see the attached candidate guide to reasonable adjustments.

To find out more about the key responsibilities and the specific skills and experience youll need, look at the Job Description & Person Specification attachments under the Supporting Documents heading.

So that youre even more equipped to make an informed decision to apply to us, youll need to take time to read the Candidate Guide to Values Based Recruitment . This document provides you with information to help you apply.

Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential

• 1.Have masters, degree or diploma level of Occupational Therapy qualification and registration as an Occupational Therapist with the Health and Care Professions Council.

Experience
Essential

• 2.Experience of working with people with Complex emotional needs/ personality difficulties or with people with mental health experience which could be described as akin to Complex emotional needs/ personality difficulties or with people with complex mental health / psychological problems.

Skills
Essential

• 3.Ability to effectively communicate the occupational perspective of human functioning and wellbeing, and its relationship to working with people with complex emotional needs/ complex mental health needs.

Knowledge
Essential

• 4.Have understanding of the importance of the therapeutic relationship in working with people with complex emotional needs/personality difficulties and the ability to establish and maintain effective therapeutic relationships.
• 5.Understanding of and the ability to provide holistic occupational therapy in both individual and group contexts

Values
Desirable

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

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. Applicants must have current UK professional registration.