Newly Qualified Occupational Therapist

We are excited to be recruiting to a number of Newly Qualified Occupational Therapist positions across Surrey County Council Adult Social Care Teams.

The salary for this role is £33,796 per annum, working 36 hours per week. 

Applicants must hold a valid driving licence and have access to a car.

About us

In Adult Social Care, our vision is to promote people's independence and wellbeing, through personalised care and support that focuses upon their strengths, the outcomes they want to achieve and enables choice and control.

Our Occupational Therapists are part of a supportive and multi-skilled team which includes: social workers, social care assistants and reablement personnel. We provide support to adults and their carers in a community-based setting.

Locations: Occupational Therapists working in adult social care services are either based in one of the community teams or in a countywide specialist team, such as our Transition Team or our Learning Disability and Autism Team. We have teams based in the following towns: Guildford, Godalming, Woking, Addlestone, Ashford, Epsom, Esher, Dorking, Reigate and Oxted and Camberley.

What do we do?

Our Occupational Therapists work with a variety of adults who have differing needs. The people we work with may experience a learning disability, physical or sensory impairment, mental health and/or be an older person. We work with individuals within the community, carrying out virtual assessments and visits within the local area, and on some occasions outside of the county. Some of these settings include people’s homes, residential care and nursing homes.

As a Newly Qualified Occupational Therapist within Adult Social Care, you will undertake assessments in the community, providing advice and guidance, basic equipment and specialist equipment to meet people’s social care needs, as well as undertaking moving and handling risk assessments and making recommendations for minor and major adaptations.

Why work for us?

In Surrey County Council we recognise that newly qualified Occupational Therapists need an additional period of support and guidance in their transition into practice. We have developed a preceptorship programme which is designed to help you develop your knowledge, skills and confidence as an Occupational Therapist working within Adult Social Care.

What you can expect:

• You will be supported to work through the preceptorship scheme by a qualified and experienced Occupational Therapist, as well as your line manager and your peers.
• Increased supervision and support to optimise your learning and guide your transition.
• To support you during preceptorship, you will be allocated 10% professional development time within your working hours.
• You will have a reduced caseload to focus on your learning needs.
• You will develop a clear professional development plan.
• You will have a variety of learning opportunities throughout the programme such as shadowing, reflection, peer support groups, case work, and regular supervision.
• You will create and maintain a professional portfolio which will contain reflections and feedback of observed practice, records of preceptorship meetings and other supporting documentation.
• Upon successful completion of preceptorship, you will be promoted to an Occupational Therapist position.

As part of our greener future strategies and our commitment to creating a healthy work-life balance, we welcome a conversation with you regarding our remote working options. Remote working to us is a balance of spending time in our communities, our offices, and working from home or wherever works best. Staff are supported to work remotely with hybrid devices enabling staff to access systems such as LAS when out in the community and work from home.

At Surrey, our values and behaviours are just as important as our skills and abilities. They shape who we are as an organisation. Find out more about the values we follow.

The job advert closes at 23:59 on 22/01/2023.

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis and will be considered on a first come, first served basis. We will contact you to arrange an interview if you have been shortlisted.

Please note this advert covers the whole of Surrey County Council, so at the time of advertising we cannot guarantee a vacancy in all teams. However, we will work closely with you to ensure your application is considered for a team that suits you in line with our available posts.

An enhanced DBS ‘Disclosure and Barring Service’ check for regulated activity (formerly known as CRB) and the Children’s and Adults’ Barred List checks will be required for this role.

Contact Details

please email Mary Ogunlayi, Principal Occupational Therapist, at mary.bamgbade@surreycc.gov.uk or Marta Michalak, Senior Practitioner Specialist Lead, at marta.michalak@surreycc.gov.uk for more information and/or to request an informal discussion.

We look forward to receiving your application, please click on the apply online button below to submit.

Benefits

From flexible working to job sharing (where possible) we are committed to providing a healthy work life balance. A laptop and mobile will be supplied if applicable to your role. You will benefit from 26 days annual leave, rising to 28 days after 2 years' service, a generous local government salary related pension, as well as the option to join our car lease scheme. For more information about the wide variety of benefits you can take advantage of please visit MyBenefits for Surrey County Council staff.

Our Commitment

Surrey County Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. We want to be an inclusive and diverse employer of first choice reflecting the community we serve and particularly welcome applications from all under represented groups.