Occupational Therapist

Job summary
Are you an enthusiastic and proactive Occupational Therapist ready to make a real difference in people's lives while advancing your career in a supportive, forward-thinking organisation?

An exciting opportunity for Band 6 Occupational Therapists to join our dynamic Urgent and Intermediate Care (ICRAS) therapy team within Liverpool and South Sefton. We're looking for passionate, proactive, and skilled professionals who thrive in collaborative environments and are committed to delivering outstanding care.

ICRAS delivers rapid, responsive care preventing unnecessary hospital admissions and supports early discharges. A service that bridges health and social care, working across the Urgent Community Response (UCR), Care Transfer Hub, and Intermediate Care Bed Base. We operate 7 days a week, including bank holidays, ensuring continuity of care for our communities. There will be an expectation to support across wider Urgent Care Service Line during times of pressures to support capacity.

Work alongside a highly skilled team including Physiotherapists, Assistant Practitioners, Community Discharge Matrons and Nurses. Together, we deliver holistic, person-centred care that maximises independence and prevents unnecessary hospital admissions.

Whether you're stepping up from Band 5 or looking to expand your leadership skills, we offer structured development pathways, supervision, leadership opportunities and involvement in service improvement projects.

Main duties of the job
As an autonomous practitioner, you will manage a diverse caseload of adults with complex co-morbidities, delivering high-quality, evidence-based, and person-centred care. You'll take a holistic approach to assessment and intervention, using appropriate models of care to support patients in achieving their goals and maintaining independence within their chosen environment, helping to prevent unnecessary hospital admissions.

You'll play a key role in shaping and developing Occupational Therapy services within your designated team, leading defined projects and contributing to service innovation. Leadership is integral to this role, and you'll support junior staff through supervision and appraisal, fostering a culture of learning and professional growth.

Working collaboratively across multidisciplinary teams, you'll help maintain and enhance the Occupational Therapy profession within ICRAS, supporting students and practitioners through effective learning opportunities and professional development.

Joining a team that values collaboration, compassion, and continuous learning.

Car driver desirable to be able to travel across the city to support community caseload.

About us
Mersey Care is one of the largest NHS trusts providing physical health and mental health services in the North West, serving more than 1.4 million people across our region and are also commissioned for services that cover the North West, North Wales and the Midlands.

We offer specialist inpatient and community services that support physical and mental health and specialist inpatient mental health, learning disability, addiction and brain injury services. Mersey Care is one of only three trusts in the UK that offer high secure mental health facilities.

At the heart of all we do is our commitment to 'perfect care' - care that is safe, effective, positively experienced, timely, equitable and efficient. We support our staff to do the best job they can and work alongside service users, their families, and carers to design and develop future services together. We're currently delivering a programme of organisational and service transformation to significantly improve the quality of the services we provide and safely reduce cost as we do so.

Flexible working requests will be considered for all roles.

Job responsibilities

• To undertake comprehensive holistic assessments, devise treatment plans individualised to patient needs, reviewing and adapting during patient journey from initial assessment through to discharge.
• To gain consent through engaging patients / clients through their therapy journey, enabling them to experience choice and as part of their recovery.
• To prioritise designated Occupational Therapy referrals according to need, risk and service capacity.
• To plan and implement patient centred individual and/or group interventions, using graded activity to achieve therapeutic goals including sensory integration difficulties within ward/rehab hub setting.
• To monitor, evaluate and modify treatment in order to measure progress and ensure effectiveness of intervention.
• To apply a high level of understanding of the effect of disability and provide training and advice on lifestyle changes and adaptations to the patients social and physical environment.
• To provide clinical advice, expertise and leadership within your team.
• To monitor and offer professional advice and leadership to all team members with regards to their caseloads and working practices.
• To ensure that the service users care plan is developed to meet the assessed need of the individual. To monitor, via performance management, the care plans developed for service users by all sector members to ensure that they are appropriate and of a high standard.
• To liaise with family members, carers, GPs and other professionals as necessary when completing the assessment and developing a care plan.
• To be a point of contact for service users and carers that have concerns regarding their care, making every effort to resolve their concerns sensitively and promptly, referring to and informing the Team Manager as necessary.
• To develop a risk management plan for service users under your care, taking note of the contributions from other members of the team. Ensure that all significant people are aware of the risk management plan and are actioning it appropriately. To monitor and work with all team members to ensure that service user risk is managed appropriately and that risk management plans are of a high quality. Understanding risk assessment, being able to assess risk and complete management plans.
• To lead the systematic monitoring and evaluation of service users under the care of the sector you have responsibility for.
• Monitor and ensure high standards relating to the planning and delivery of Occupational Therapy activities and comply with The Royal College of Occupational Therapists Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct, contributing to good health and the importance of promoting these in line with organisational public health policy.
• To monitor the provision of a range of therapeutic activities for service users by supervision of sector members caseloads and via audit.
• To use skills gained through training and experience to de-escalate situations where service users become physically or verbally aggressive. Use your judgement, gained from experience, to establish if a service user requires assessment by a medic or possibly hospital admission.
• To use skills gained through experience to deal with service users who become anxious, hostile or distressed.
• To ensure all sector members get appropriate support following violent incidents and liaise with the Team Manager to ensure any identified actions arising from such incidents are implemented.
• To participate in and/or lead service user reviews ensuring that service user needs are met and that the team has all the relevant information on which to base their clinical decisions.
• To develop care plans that enable service users to reach and maintain their optimum level of health and independence to help them to remain in the community in their chosen setting or return to this on discharge.
• To demonstrate an understanding of capacity and mental capacity Act.

Qualifications

• Essential: Relevant professional OT qualification; Current HPC registration.
• Desirable: Fieldwork Educators certificate; Post graduate accredited study e.g. PSI, CBT, MSc in relevant health studies.

Experience

• Essential: Previous experience in relevant health settings; Supervision of staff; Experience of service development.
• Desirable: Post graduate clinical experience, within mental health services.

Skills

• Essential: Ability to utilise assessment skills and tools effectively; Ability to communicate in a variety of settings; Ability to formulate relevant reports; Delegation and coordination; Ability to prioritise and work to deadlines; Mentorship skills; Accurate record keeping; Flexible approach/ creative thinking; Able to move and handle clients; IT skills.
• Desirable: Effective leadership qualities; Presentation skills; Ability to network and influence decision making; Team building skills.

Knowledge

• Essential: Effective team working within a multi-agency framework; Experience using both group and individual treatment skills; Demonstrate experience of problem-solving approaches; Audit and research practices relevant to clinical area; Assisting with effective budgetary management; Evidence based and experience of reflective practice; Recovery Model of Care; Model of Human Occupation; Safeguarding Children; Mental Health Act 1983; Mental Capacity Act; Effective Care Coordination; Relevant national policies and guidance; Up to date clinical knowledge relevant to the care environment; Audit and research methods; Vulnerable adult's guidelines; Able to discuss/explain specialist OT role; Awareness of own strengths and limitations.
• Desirable: Wider range of statutory and non-statutory services; Risk management training.

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.

Employer details
Employer name: Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust
Address: Goodlass Road, Liverpool, L24 9HJ, United Kingdom
Employer's website:

For questions about the job, contact: Occupational Therapy Coordinator, Emma Carroll, View email address on meeveem.com

Date posted: 21 October 2026
Pay scheme: Agenda for change
Band: Band 6
Salary: £39,959 to £48,117 a year per annum
Contract: Permanent
Working pattern: Full-time
Reference number: 350-CC8361441
Job location: Goodlass Road, Liverpool, L24 9HJ, United Kingdom

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