The Therapies In Schools (TIS) service is an innovative PT and OT model of service which is commissioned by West Sussex County Council and delivered by Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust. It’s aim is to provide additional therapeutic input into schools to support the teachers and carers to integrate therapeutic goals into heart of curricular activities and at home.
TIS is an additional service to the current NHS provision and aims to work flexibly to meet ever changing demands as they arise. A key part of TIS is to provide accredited training to all education staff and offers opportunities for families and carers to access the training too.
We wish to recruit a part time Band 7 Occupational Therapist with the necessary skills and experience to join our friendly and innovative TIS team, working in a Special School and College in Burgess Hill.
We offer regular in-service training, peer supervision and clinical support. There are dedicated paediatric special interest groups and the Paediatric Occupational Therapy service is supported by a Countywide Professional Lead.
The hours available are three days a week term time only. Term time only roles are paid spread across a full year to ensure your pay does not change from month to month.
This is a wonderful opportunity to gain experience of working with a diverse range of children and young people within specialist school settings.
Please look at the Woodlands Meed school website to understand the needs of the young people you will be supporting.
Your role will be to provide a universal approach through delivering accredited training to school staff, some targeted work through group work and ad hoc needs, and a small caseload of intensive work to support families in crisis or needing enhanced support due to a change in circumstance.
Your role is in addition to the existing NHS provision provided by the Child Development Centre (CDC) therapists, and so working collaboratively with the CDC therapists is vital. You'll work in your main allocated school and college, do occasional home visits where needed, and may at times support your team members in other schools.
You will need to be flexible in your availability to attend occasional parents evening events, parent carer forum liaisons and host parent coffee mornings/network groups.
We are the main provider of NHS community services across East and West Sussex, with 6,000 staff serving 1.3 million people. We deliver essential care to adults and children, helping them manage their health, avoid hospital admissions, and reduce hospital stays.
Our Trust vision is to provide excellent care at the heart of the community. We offer opportunities across medical, clinical, support, and corporate services.
Why work for us?
- Positive 2024 NHS Staff Survey results, highlighting compassionate leadership and wellbeing
- Varied environments: community hospitals, patients’ homes, and bases across Sussex
- Flexible working options: part-time, flexi-time, annualised hours, and flexi-retirement
- Excellent training, development, and research opportunities
- Cost-effective workplace nurseries in Crawley, Hove, and Brighton
- Active EMBRACE, Disability & Wellbeing, LGBTQIA+, and Religion & Belief networks
- Level 3 Disability Confident Leader and Veteran Aware Trust
- Beautiful Sussex location near the South Downs and coast
Our values — Compassionate Care, Working Together, Achieving Ambitions, Delivering Excellence —guide everything we do.
We embrace diversity and encourage applications from all backgrounds, particularly from ethnically diverse, disabled, and LGBTQIA+ individuals. We aim to create an inclusive environment and support reasonable adjustments during recruitment.
This post may close early if sufficient applications are received.
To increase parental confidence in the quality of provision provided within the schools.
To build relationships with parents prior to school entry by attending parental tours for specific pupils and completing home visits
Maintain therapeutic relationship with identified children (regular phone calls as required)
Attending annual reviews for identified children
Attending coffee mornings and parents evenings across allocated schools
To support parents through all transitional stages both immediately prior to and throughout school (class to class, Yr 6 – Yr 7, attending parental tour for specified pupils) and post school placement.
To increase confidence and skills of school based education staff to deliver OT programmes
To undertake specified large group training across allocated schools
To undertake bespoke small group training to meet the individual needs of specified pupils
To support a team of identified ‘Therapy Champions’ (teachers and teaching staff who have completed level 3 TIS training) to be first point of contact for other staff
To undertake work alongside school staff for agreed caseload.
Working in class to support staff in delivering OT programmes
Write, monitor and evaluate OT programmes in partnership with school staff.
Contribute reports to and/or provide sections for health care plans, annual reviews
To write tribunal assessments/ reports and attend tribunals where appropriate.
Write and share with staff recommendations that can support areas of school curriculum areas.
Provide recommendations to ensure the environment facilitates participation and inclusion for students with sensory and motor difficulties.
To allocate OT time in schools depending on the need of the caseload.
To provide group work sessions as agreed with the individual school
To work as part of the multi-disciplinary teams to improve further the integrated holistic and child centered approach of the allocated special schools
Attend regular MDT meetings
Attend MDT team around the family meetings for specified pupils
OT will understand the holistic curriculums of each school and will contribute to the student-centered planning.
For further details please see attached Job Description.
