Occupational Therapist - Mental Health Adult Eating Disorders

Transformationunitgm; Oxford; On-site; GBP 38,000 - 47,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading health trust in the UK is seeking a dedicated Occupational Therapist for their Mental Health Adult Eating Disorders unit in Oxford. This full-time position involves providing high-quality therapy to support recovery for inpatients. The ideal candidate will possess a professional qualification in Occupational Therapy and HCPC registration, with a passion for mental health care. Competitive salary and ample professional development opportunities provided. The post offers a chance to be part of a respected multidisciplinary team improving patients' lives.

Benefits

27 days annual leave

NHS Discount scheme

Employee Assistance Programme

Mental Health First Aiders

Qualifications

• Experience of working with mental health service users in various settings.
• Evidence of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) portfolio required.
• Experience managing complex cases.

Responsibilities

• Develop and provide high-standard assessments and treatment.
• Manage an agreed clinical caseload and discharge plans.
• Provide therapy services based on evidence-based practice.

Skills

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

Assessment skills

Collaborative Care Planning

Education

Professional Qualification in Occupational Therapy

HCPC Registration

Job description

Main area Mental Health Occupational Therapy - Inpatients Adults Eating Disorder Grade Band 6 Contract Permanent Hours Full time - 37.5 hours per week Job ref 267-OA7426625

Employer Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust Employer type NHS Site Warneford Hospital Town Oxford Salary £38,682 - £46,580 Per annum Salary period Yearly Closing 28/12/2025 23:59

Occupational Therapist - Mental Health Adult Eating Disorders

Band 6

Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust has been rated as Good by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

We are a responsive and innovative Foundation Trust that places our values of Caring, Safe and Excellent at the heart of everything we do. We take great pride in our staff and believe that investing in you is key to us achieving our vision of outstanding care delivered by outstanding people.

We work with a wide range of partner organisations to deliver care and support to people in their own homes and from a number of hospitals and community bases. We focus on delivering care as close to home as possible for people of all ages across Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Swindon, Wiltshire, Bath and North East Somerset.

We actively support anti-racism, equality, diversity, and inclusion so, if you’re excited about this job opportunity and you meet our Trust values, but feel unsure about applying, then please get in touch and we will be happy to have a conversation with you.

We are also committed to increasing diversity in the workforce, that is why we actively encourage applications from those groups of people who are currently under-represented, which include amongst others: people with disabilities; men from all socio-economic backgrounds; people from diverse ethnic backgrounds; and people from the LGBTQIA+ community.

Good luck and we hope to hear from you.

Job overview

Are you an Occupational Therapist committed to working in mental health and keen to use your professional skills to support individuals’ recovery?

Are you interested in being involved in service innovation and part of bringing change to local mental health delivery?

Cotswold House is a Specialist Eating Disorder Unit based at the Warneford Hospital in Oxford, offering 14 inpatient beds and six day patients. We are looking for a qualified Occupational Therapist who is registered with HCPC to join our diverse, innovative and passionate multidisciplinary team on a full time basis.

With a reputation for excellence, our service provides a stepped-care model of care tailored to the individual’s needs for stabilisation and recovery.

Our service has a whole-team Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Eating Disorders (CBT-ED) approach. We offer a range of CBT-ED programmes and evidence-based treatments to assist a patient’s return to independent living, including work, training, or study. You can draw upon your skills /models of formulating patient assessments and outcomes, as appropriate to the patient’s individualised formulation. Further training and CPD opportunities are available, such as PEACE Pathway, Masters Pathway, CBT-E Skills training and DBT Skills training to the successful applicant.

Main duties of the job

• To develop and provide a high standard of assessment and treatment for patients referred to the service.
• To take responsibility for an agreed clinical caseload, involving care co-ordination as appropriate.
• To collaboratively assess and provide needs-based treatment programmes and discharge plans for patients which compliment the overall provision of service
• To develop and maintain relevant therapeutic activities as appropriate to the patient group served, including opportunities for cognitive, creative, education, work, leisure, interpersonal and life skills. wherever possible to ensure these interventions are evidence based.
• In consultation with users, carers and clinical teams to plan and provide appropriate therapy services for patients referred, within defined resources and using evidence-based practice.
• To act as a role model and coach to staff within the service and across multidisciplinary teams, students, patients and carers to ensure best practice is maintained.

We know that many roles for Occupational Therapists working in mental health do not provide the ability to draw on these core occupational therapy skills. We are keen to support Occupational Therapists who want to step into roles that use their profession specific skills, alongside their mental health practitioner skills. If you are interested but unconfident about this step or want to know more to know if this is the role for you, than please get in touch.

Working for our organisation

Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust provides physical, mental health and social care for people of all ages across Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Swindon, Wiltshire, Bath and North East Somerset.

Our services are delivered at community bases, hospitals, clinics and people’s homes, delivering care as close to home as possible

Our vision is that no matter who you are or where you are, you will tell us that you receive:“Outstanding care delivered by an outstanding team”

Our values are:“Caring, safe and excellent”

At Oxford Health we offer a wide range of benefits designed to support your career and wellbeing. These include:

• Excellent opportunities for career progression
• Access to tailored individual and Trust wide learning and development
• 27 days annual leave, plus bank holidays, rising to 33 days with continuous service
• NHS Discount across a wide range of shops, restaurants and retailers
• Lease car scheme
• Cycle to work scheme
• Employee Assistance Programme
• Mental Health First Aiders
• Staff accommodation (please note waiting lists may apply)
• Staff networking and support groups hosted by our Equality, Diversity & Inclusion team

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

We hope that the advert has given you a clear understanding of the skills we are seeking and the opportunity at hand. You will need to use the “supporting statement” element of your application form to demonstrate your suitability for this role and you should refer to the job description, person specification and the guidance notes attached to this role to help you tailor your application.

The essential and desirable criteria will be used to shortlist for interview, and you should ensure that you refer to these within your application to increase your chances of being selected for interview.

Person specification

Qualifications and training

• Professional Qualification in Occupational Therapy (Degree or equivalent).
• HCPC registration
• Evidence of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) portfolio.
• APPLE or equivalent student placement training
• Sensory training
• Trained in use of specific models/assessment relevant to the role

Experience

• Experience of working with the mental health service users in a variety of settings.
• Experience working with a range of standardised and non-standardised OT assessments
• Supervision of O.T. students and other professionals.
• Staff appraisal & development work.
• Experience of undertaking audit work/using outcome measures

Knowledge/Skills Requirements

• Working knowledge of Adult Eating Disorder or Adult Mental Health in-patient or community services.
• Experience of caseload management / complex conditions & cases.
• Evidence based, reflective practice & clinical reasoning skills in assessment & treatment.
• Use of standardised Occupational Therapy assessment and outcome measures.
• Understanding experience of risk assessment and management.
• Knowledge/experience to working with patients with neuro diversity / awareness of reasonable adjustments.
• Experience initiating and leading service improvement projects and audit.
• Awareness of National and local issues concerning this client group.
• All new starters have a thorough induction process, both local and Trust wide, which aims to create a positive supportive working environment allowing new employees to learn key elements of their role over a reasonable timescale.
• Appointment to this post is subject to the trust receiving satisfactory references covering 3 years of employment or study. Please ask your referees to respond promptly to reference requests.
• We’re advocates of flexible working and many of our roles offer a range of employment options to help you balance your work and personal life.
• Employees are expected to undertake mandatory and statutory training related to their role.
• We are ambitious in our pursuit of excellence, driven by the belief that a fair, just and fully inclusive organisational culture enables our teams to deliver the best quality of care and services possible and we work hard to ensure that our diverse workforce reflects the communities that we serve.
• We welcome applications from all sections of the community, are an Equal Opportunities employer with a number of internal networking groups to support our employees and where possible will always look to make reasonable adjustments in order that you can fulfil the role to recognise your full potential. All our employees are committed to demonstrating through their behaviour our core values – safe, caring and excellent.
• We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults, we expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.
• Oxford is a world-renowned centre of excellence for research. Oxford Health works closely with the University of Oxford department of Psychiatry and the Department of Primary care, has a Biomedical Research Centre dedicated to improving mental health and the NIHR Clinical Research Facility at the Warneford site. The Trust also hosts the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) which carries out applied research that directly impacts patient health and wellbeing

Employer certification / accreditation badges

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.

At Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust we want to employ people not just with experience, but with the aptitude and motivation to succeed and whose values resonate with our own.

Therefore, if you don’t meet all the requirements of the role and are unsure about applying but are excited about the opportunity, please do get in touch. We will be happy to discuss the requirements in more detail ahead of making a written application.