This is an exciting opportunity for a Band 7 Occupational Therapist to contribute to the development and delivery of the Neonatal Occupational Therapy Service at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust.
Neonatal Occupational Therapy promotes infant neurodevelopment within the neonatal unit by empowering parents and caregivers to provide developmentally supportive care. The role involves supporting adaptations to the infant’s environment to optimise sensory experiences that are critical for brain development, with the aim of improving outcomes for babies and their families.
The Level 3 Neonatal Unit is divided into three areas:
Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) – providing specialist intensive care and respiratory support for babies requiring the highest level of medical intervention.
High Dependency Unit (HDU) – caring for babies who require ongoing monitoring and treatment but are stable enough to step down from intensive care.
Special Care Baby Unit (SCBU) – supporting babies who require additional care, such as tube feeding, oxygen therapy, or phototherapy, but who no longer require intensive or high-dependency care.
You will work closely with Allied Health Professional colleagues in Physiotherapy, Speech and Language Therapy, Dietetics, and Psychology, alongside the wider multidisciplinary team, to deliver a comprehensive, evidence-based neonatal service.
Take a lead role as an autonomous practitioner in the advanced assessment and treatment of acutely ill neonatal patients with cardiac, respiratory, orthopaedic, neurological, and neurodevelopmental conditions, including those with complex and chronic presentations.
Provide specialist Occupational Therapy assessments and interventions for infants and their families, delivering high-quality, family-centred care.
Demonstrate and promote the value of Occupational Therapy within neonatal services, helping to establish and strengthen the role of OT as a key profession within the multidisciplinary team.
Supervise, support, and educate students, junior staff, and members of the wider neonatal multidisciplinary team.
Lead and contribute to evidence-based projects, quality improvement initiatives, research, and audit activities, making recommendations to inform and improve clinical practice.
This post is based within the Paediatric Occupational Therapy Service at Evelina London Children's Hospital. The successful candidate will contribute to service development alongside colleagues within both the neonatal service and the wider Paediatric Occupational Therapy team. Clinical supervision will be provided by the Neonatal Clinical Specialist Occupational Therapist, with professional management provided by the Head of Occupational Therapy.
Evelina London is part of Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust and is the second-largest provider of children's services in London. Our vision is to be a world-leading centre for life-changing care for children, young people and their families.
We care for more than 104,000 children and young people each year at our hospital and community sites. Our neonatal unit cares for around 800 babies a year, and has some of the best survival rates in the UK. The neonatal unit provides 24-hour specialist care for premature and sick infants who are born in South East London and southern England. In addition to medical care for problems such as extreme prematurity, breathing difficulties and infection, they care for babies with neonatal surgical problems, heart conditions, brain, eye, airway, kidney and metabolic problems. There are 20 intensive care cots, 12 high dependency care cots and 14 special care cots.
Please refer to the attached Job Description for full details of the role and the responsibilities involved.
