Job summary
At Birmingham Hospice, every patient you support is someone's parent, partner, friend, or neighbour. Through expert rehabilitation, symptom management and compassionate care, you will help people maximise their independence, achieve what matters most to them, and improve their quality of life.

As part of our multidisciplinary team, you will work across hospice inpatient, outpatient and community services, supporting patients and families with complex needs and delivering holistic rehabilitation focused on what matters most to them.

Why Choose Birmingham Hospice?
Impact Beyond Measure
Every assessment, intervention and conversation you have can make a meaningful difference to patients and those important to them.

Time to Care
Deliver truly personalised care with the opportunity to build therapeutic relationships and focus on patient goals.

Develop Specialist Skills
Gain valuable experience in palliative rehabilitation, symptom management, fatigue, breathlessness, functional assessment and adaptive approaches to care.

A Supportive Community
Work alongside a skilled, compassionate multidisciplinary team that values collaboration, innovation and professional development.

What You will Do

• Deliver specialist Occupational Therapy or Physiotherapy assessment and intervention for patients with life-limiting illnesses.
• Support patients across hospice, outpatient, community and home settings.

Main duties of the job

• Promote independence, function, wellbeing and quality of life through personalised rehabilitation.
• Support symptom management for fatigue, breathlessness, mobility and functional challenges.
• Work collaboratively with patients, families, carers and the multidisciplinary team.
• Maintain HCPC and professional body standards.

What We're Looking For

• Degree or Diploma in Occupational Therapy or Physiotherapy.
• Current HCPC registration.
• Membership of RCOT or CSP, as appropriate.
• Minimum Band 5 post-registration clinical experience, or equivalent.
• Excellent communication, assessment and clinical reasoning skills.
• Able to work independently and within a multidisciplinary team.
• Experience in rehabilitation, community, long-term conditions, neurology, respiratory, older people's or palliative care is advantageous.
• A positive attitude, adaptability and willingness to learn.
• Full UK driving licence and business-use vehicle access.

What We Offer

• A rewarding role where your expertise makes a difference daily.
• Specialist experience in palliative and end-of-life care.
• Supportive supervision and development opportunities.
• Recognition of relevant NHS and hospice service for annual leave and pension.
• An inclusive, welcoming culture.
• Work for a respected local charity supporting Birmingham communities.

About us
Birmingham Hospice provides expert palliative and end of life care for people and their families living with life-limiting illnesses.

We believe that all people in Birmingham should have access to the best specialist care and support - when, where and how they need it. Our vision is a future where everyone with a life-limiting illness will live and die with dignity and in comfort. Our mission is to enable more people from all communities to access the care of their choice at the end of life.

During a recent CQC inspection our sites have been rated outstanding, with independent health care regulators highlighting that colleagues and services are caring, responsive and well-led.

Our outstanding teams are passionate about providing the very best care, and patients and their loved ones are at the heart of everything we do.

Our values of kindness, respect, innovation, togetherness, positivity and openness are at the centre of who we are, what we do and how we behave. We pride ourselves on being an inclusive, welcoming, caring and supportive team. We are offering a competitive salary, with generous holiday allowance, a contribution pension scheme, and a commitment to investing in our people through employee benefits and ongoing professional development.

Job responsibilities
Happy to talk about flexible working

Job title: Band 6 Occupational Therapist / Physiotherapist
Department: AHP
Hospice band: 6
Reports to: Therapies Lead
Responsible for: n/a
DBS required: Enhanced

Job purpose
The main purpose of this post is to provide Occupational Therapy or Physiotherapy input, as part of a Specialist Multi-disciplinary Team, to patients referred for specialist palliative and end-of-life care. The post holder will work within their professional scope of practice to complete assessment and deliver symptom management and person-centred interventions. With a focus on maximising independence, function, quality of life and participation in meaningful activities. This role is across our inpatient unit, Living Well Centre and Community settings.

Main duties and responsibilities
CLINICAL PATIENT SERVICES

• To provide responsive, specialist Occupational Therapy or Physiotherapy services to patients under the care of the Hospice in accordance with priorities set by the Director of Clinical Services.
• To undertake all clinical duties as an autonomous practitioner, including professional and legal accountability for all aspects of own work.
• To triage referrals for appropriate to the Therapy Team and to manage a clinical caseload of patients with palliative care needs.
• To holistically assess, plan, develop and provide evidence-based intervention for patients with a wide variety of complex physical, psychological and spiritual needs.
• To identify patient needs and refer to relevant agencies or other professionals if appropriate.
• To utilise profession-specific assessment and analytical skills to allow diagnosis and selection of precise and appropriate treatment options for a wide variety of conditions.
• To constantly evaluate patient progress, reassess and adjust treatment programmes as required and to liaise and discuss relevant information to other members of the clinical team.
• To identify the needs of the individual patient requiring specialist equipment and/or medical devices; ordering, managing delivery and teaching safe and effective use to the patient and/or family/carers.
• To liaise with other healthcare professionals in primary and secondary care to optimise the management and treatment of the patients on the therapy caseload and to be available as a specialist resource for generalist healthcare professionals.
• Provide specialist intervention to patients and carers in their preferred place of care with the emphasis on empowerment, enablement and self-management in order to optimise each patient's quality of life.
• To communicate complex condition and treatment related information; to facilitate understanding and establish an effective professional rapport to gain trust and confidence of the patients and carers.
• To regularly attend and contribute to multidisciplinary team meetings and, as required, to meetings of other multidisciplinary teams involved in providing palliative care for hospice patients
• To assist with the running of patient self-management education programmes
• Proactive discharge planning, identification and provision of equipment required to allow safe discharge, anticipation of needs when patient returns home. Follow up home visits if required to ensure optimal patient function and quality of life, irrespective of life expectancy.
• Attend and actively participate in clinical meetings on the Inpatient Unit.
• Liaise/refer to the Hospice at Home, Clinical Specialist Nurses, and Social care teams, Community Healthcare or other voluntary agencies to ensure continuity of care for the patient at home.
• To liaise with health professionals involved in the care of each patient with regard to any problems highlighted on assessment. This may require signposting to other health services, provision of equipment or individualised physiotherapy input if unsuitable for group therapy.

SERVICE DEVELOPMENT

• Maintain and develop competency through Continual Professional development (CPD) training, maintenance of portfolio and reflective practice.
• To provide Occupational Therapy or Physiotherapy expertise to other members of the healthcare team and contribute to the development of therapy services within specialist palliative care
• Attendance at MDT meetings to communicate information and to contribute to the development of service delivery within Palliative care which impact on other professions.
• To support education, supervision and assessment of undergraduate Occupational Therapy or Physiotherapy students is delivered to the standard required for degree level university and to your professional standards within current national guidelines and recommendations.

POLICIES, PROCEDURES AND AUDIT

• To support the development of related local policies, procedures, guidelines and clinical care pathways to ensure the delivery of a high quality, equitable service in all locations and to provide supportive information, education and training to staff as required to implement the same
• Demonstrate understanding and participation in all aspects of Clinical Governance
• Undertake, review and evaluate audits and make recommendations to the organisation based on the findings when requested
• To be aware of the complaints procedure and the reporting of clinical incidents on Vantage

COMMUNICATION

• To effectively communicate and gain consent for any intervention to patients and their carers regarding the Occupational Therapy or physiotherapy intervention and the management of their palliative care and end of life symptoms; this may be in the hospice, within care establishments, during a visit to a patient's home. The post holder will need to strike an appropriate balance between relaying factual information and being sensitive to an emotionally charged atmosphere where high levels of emotion and distress are likely
• To have knowledge of the legal framework for patients who lack capacity to consent to treatment
• To develop advanced communication skills in order to ascertain patients' wishes, respond appropriately to difficult questions and manage situations that may be emotionally charged which may include difficult to accept information such as expectations of treatment and prognosis
• To represent Occupational Therapy, physiotherapy or patients at multi-professional team meetings to ensure the delivery of co-ordinated care.

FREEDOM TO ACT AND AUTONOMY

• The post holder will be part of a team but will have the ability to act as an autonomous practitioner adhering to national professional and local policies and guidelines as directed by the Health and Care Professions Council and the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy
• The post holder will act as an autonomous practitioner, adhering to professional standards and regulatory requirements set by the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) and the relevant professional body, either the Royal College of Occupational Therapists (RCOT) or Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP).
• The post holder will be managed rather than supervised, demonstrating personal initiative to act independently to manage personal work schedules and priorities
• To work collaboratively and delegate appropriate tasks and roles to other members of the Palliative care team in order to maximise the cost-effective and efficient use of resources.

The job description is not exhaustive and may be amended following appropriate consultation in the light of business needs.

Person Specification
Experience
Essential

• Post-registration experience working with patients requiring rehabilitation and/or symptom management across a variety of clinical settings including community, elderly care, neurological, respiratory, oncology, palliative care or long-term conditions.
• Previous experience and ability to work as part of a multidisciplinary team including nurses, doctors, or other healthcare professionals.
• Supervision of assistants and students.
• To work as an autonomous practitioner within scope of practice.
• Critical appraisal skills in assessing therapeutic evidence.
• Excellent verbal, written and personal communication skills.
• Computer literate, able to use emails & Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
• Good organisational skills and personal effectiveness.
• Ability to recognise and complete incident reports.

Desirable

• Experience of working with palliative care patients with a malignant or non-malignant diagnosis
• Experience in developing and delivering training and education at postgraduate level
• Understanding of relevant guidance for cancer and non-cancer palliative care and end of life care
• Awareness of healthcare priorities and policies
• Familiar with SystmOne electronic patient administration systems

Qualifications
Essential

• Degree or Diploma in Occupational Therapy or Physiotherapy.
• Current HCPC Registration.
• Membership of RCOT or CSP as appropriate.
• Evidence of continuing professional development and relevant postgraduate learning.
• Evidence of CPD in the form of a structured portfolio

Desirable

• Communication skills training
• Accredited Clinical Educators course

Personal Skills and Attributes
Essential

• High degree of self-motivation and ability to work using own initiative.
• Ability to gain the confidence and credibility of a range of professionals and patients, relatives and carer
• Good listening skills, compassion and an empathetic approach.
• Able to work under pressure and prioritise tasks to ensure urgent work is completed in a time appropriate manner.
• Flexible and resourceful, responding positively and effectively to solve any unexpected situations and problems
• Full UK Driving Licence, access to own vehicle and business insurance.

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).

Employer details
Employer name: Birmingham Hospice
Address: Birmingham Hospice, 176 Raddlebarn Road, Selly Park, Birmingham, B29 7DL, United Kingdom
Employer's website: https://www.birminghamhospice.org.uk (Opens in a new tab)

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