Senior Practitioner Occupational Therapist - Independent Living Services
Contract type: Permanent
Location: Hereford
Hours: Full time (37)
Salary: HC09 £40,777 - £45,091
Closing date: Monday 2nd Feb 2026
Interviews: TBC
Introduction
Herefordshire Council’s Independent Living Service is recruiting qualified, experienced, HCPC registered Senior Practitioner Occupational Therapists to join our friendly team of Occupational Therapists and OT Assistants. Working in Adult Social Care across the communities of Herefordshire we are seeking motivated, committed individuals with a passion for leading practice, staff development and driving positive change across the communities of Herefordshire.
The Role
We are seeking motivated, committed Senior Practitioner Occupational Therapist with experience of Adult Social Care services to join our team.
As a Senior Practitioner Occupational Therapist within an Adult Social Care, you will provide OT leadership, clinical supervision, and expert OT guidance, championing best practice, workforce development, and quality improvement. Responsible for maintaining professional standards and compliance with applied legislation, the post holder will have direct responsibility for a small Occupational Therapy staff group and operational management of service users awaiting Occupational Therapy assessment. You will hold a small complex caseload and collaborate with stakeholders across adult social care and local integrated care pathways to deliver person-centred, quality OT services aligned with Care Act principles, statutory duties and legislative compliance.
What will you be doing?
Independent Living Service Senior Practitioner Occupational Therapists work in partnership with adults, their families, care givers, maintaining cross-organisational communications and collaborations for timely delivery of Adult Social Care Occupational Therapy Services.
Key Responsibilities:
- Provide leadership, supervision, and mentoring to Occupational Therapy and Adult Social Care staff, promoting the development Occupational Therapists, Occupational Therapy Assistants, Trusted Assessors, promoting consistent, strengths‑based practice.
- Support our duty/triage and assessment waiting lists functions — liaising with people, prioritising referrals, case allocations, arrangements for intermediate support and guiding proportionate responses.
- Lead on complex assessments and clinical decision‑making; prescribe equipment and recommend minor/major adaptations that remove barriers to daily living.
- Maintain oversight of clinical OT standards, OT professional practice, and safeguarding across the team, ensuring professional practice standards and legislative compliance are maintained.
- Conduct service audits, development initiatives, and continuous professional development programmes.
- Co-work complex cases, offering expert advice and intervention guidance.
- Maintain close collaborations with Social Care, Health, Housing, outside agencies to ensure practice and services align with Adult Social Care legislation, clinical pathways and local governance frameworks.
About You
As a Senior Practitioner Occupational Therapist, you will work as part of a wider team with scope to practice with a diverse service user group & within a variety of rural, town, village & city settings.
You will require HCPC registration and substantial post‑qualification experience in adult social care, with proven supervisory and mentor skills and efficient professional capability to prioritise duties and responsibilities, identify and manage complex risk. You will need to possess strong interpersonal, communication & organisational skills, the ability to work autonomously and as part of a wider, integrated team and employ initiative taking the lead on complex functional assessments and service improvements.
Due to wide-ranging Adult Social Care Occupational Therapy services, we encourage specialism practitioner roles in Moving and Handling, Technology Enabled Living, Adaptations and Equipment and Clinical Lead for our Community Equipment Store. A collaborative mindset and enthusiasm for innovation and continuous improvement are key role requirements for dealing with daily referral enquiries, undertaking audits, managing staff performance and attendance at regular stakeholder meetings. Flexibility, multi-systems approach to Occupational Therapy services within Adult Social Care and professional commitment to meet service objectives, maintain standards and improve ongoing staff and service development and performance.
The Independent Living Service is managed centrally by a Service Manager and qualified Occupational Therapy Deputy Manager. We will shortly be opening a new Assessment & Demonstration Centre focusing on developing our exciting new front door assessment and advice services. We work in partnership within Adult Social Care, housing, health and across all age Directorates. Our in-house Home Improvement Agency (adaptations) and Technology Enabled Living Service provides excellent platforms for professional cross-agency collaboration and development around adaptive home technology and wider housing related solutions.
We Offer
A competitive salary, holiday entitlement, and access to our contributory pension and staff benefits scheme, which includes:
- Salary range of £40,777 - £45,091
- Enrolment in the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS)
- Career progression: clear pathways to progress
- Annual Leave: 31 days’ annual leave (pro rata) plus bank holidays. You can also purchase an additional 10 days per annum during the request period
- Flexible working: including the potential for job-sharing, part-time hours and agile working.
- Employee Assistance Programme: 24/7 access to support and counselling
- Payment of professional membership fees (based on role requirements)
- Pick your perks – our benefits include access to a range of retail, leisure, holiday and health benefits. This includes savings, cash back and discounts.
Why Choose Us?
You will probably have heard a lot about how beautiful it is in terms of countryside and open spaces (and it is!) but there is so much more going on here, including world-class cultural assets like the Mappa Mundi, vibrant theatres and a thriving food and drink sector. One of Herefordshire’s biggest assets is the strong and diverse communities. Our Talk Community approach brings that together supporting people to help themselves, encouraging them to help their communities and identifying how communities can help individuals.
Our ambitious transformation programme aims to further build on this to offer an all-age approach. We’re excited about the potential of what we can achieve for the benefit of all residents of Herefordshire, stronger together and building brighter futures.
Don’t meet all parts of the job description?
Herefordshire Council is committed to strengthening a diverse and inclusive work environment which reflects the communities of Herefordshire. If you are looking at the next stage of your career and have a broad base of fieldwork experience, we can provide supportive and welcoming opportunities to help you develop your professional, management & supervisory skills.
Reasonable Adjustments
Our recruitment process runs in partnership with Hoople Resourcing. If you require any reasonable adjustments or alternative methods for the online application process, please contact the resourcing team by email: [email protected].
Creating an inclusive workplace
We encourage our employees to feel empowered and to use their voices to help embrace diversity, promote inclusivity and shape our organisation. We have eight employee network groups, collectives of colleagues who often share identities, life experiences or cultures and offer support and community. They also play an important role in strengthening the voices of employees at Herefordshire Council. Embedded in the Council's values is a commitment to listen to people's views and needs.
For more information on our Employee Network Groups please view our dedicated recruitment website: www.spiritofherefordshire.com.
Commitments, Covenants and Statutory Obligations
The following candidates will be interviewed if they meet the essential criteria for the post they are applying for:
- Those who indicate that they have a disability. This is part of our commitment to the “Disability Confident” scheme.
- Those who indicate in their application that they are an Armed Forces Veteran or Reservist. This is part of our pledge to support the Armed Forces Covenant.
- Those who indicate in their application that they are a Herefordshire care leaver. This is part of our commitment to supporting young people leaving our care.
We take our commitment to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults seriously and expect all of our staff, visitors and volunteers to share in this commitment.
We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children & young people and vulnerable adults. If you are offered this position, it will be subject to a Disclosure and Barring Service check.
How to apply
To apply for a position, please upload an up-to-date CV and complete the application form demonstrating your experience, skills and abilities for the role.
For more information or to arrange an informal discussion about the role, please contact: (hiring manager name, role, contact details).
Be sure to include reference to the job description and person specification or role profile! If you are successfully shortlisted, Hoople Resourcing will contact you via email to arrange your interview and/or assessment. They will confirm the date, time and location of your interview, so please keep an eye on your email inbox - check your spam/ junk folder too. Good luck, we’re looking forward to meeting you!