Job summary
The friendly Occupational Therapy team in Newham are inviting a Band 5 Occupational Therapist to join the Inpatient Occupational Therapy Mental Health Team

This is an ideal opportunity for your first Band 5 role, and we are inviting passionate final year students to apply as well. (There is the option of starting as a Band 4 whilst awaiting HCPC registration.)

The Occupational Therapist is part of the established multi-disciplinary team and the role is to undertake specific Occupational Therapy assessment and interventions of referred individuals, the emphasis is on supporting the person to achieve their goals in self-care, productivity and leisure to continue to live at home; group work is encouraged; another aspect of the role is generic assessment and joint working with other team members.

Please contact us for any further discussions, visits and to answer any questions you might have.

Main duties of the job

• To provide Occupational Therapy specific assessments and intervention/treatments to a designated caseload of inpatient adult service users with mental health issues and support needs via a range of individual and or group treatments.
• To develop and maintain links with the Inpatient and Community services, relevant statutory and non-statutory agencies.
• To support students on practice education placements when required
• To contribute to the planning and evaluation of Inpatient OT services

About us
Our mission is to make a positive difference to people's lives by improving the quality of life for all we serve. Our values are: We Care, We Respect, We are Inclusive - so we are looking for people who live and breathe these qualities when supporting service users and carers, and in their relationships with colleagues in the Trust and our partner organisations.

Details
Date posted: 03 November 2026
Pay scheme: Agenda for change
Band: Band 5
Salary: £36,943 to £44,900 a year per annum Inc HCA
Contract: Permanent
Working pattern: Full-time
Reference number: 363-NEW8395585
Closing date: 09 November 2026

Person Specification
Education

• Essential: Diploma or degree in Occupational Therapy
• Essential: HCPC Registration
• Desirable: Member of the Royal College of Occupational Therapy

Knowledge

• Essential: Developed interpersonal skills enabling therapeutic alliances to be developed and maintained with clients who have complex needs
• Essential: Analytical and clinical reasoning skills to assess clients' complex needs (including risk assessment) and complete a holistic formulation to guide interventions with significant support and supervision
• Essential: Ability to apply specialist skills in individual and group based OT assessments, interventions and evaluations
• Essential: Ability to manage frequent highly distressing clinical interactions with client's and their carers
• Essential: Good organisational and time management skills
• Essential: Ability to liaise with other services around clinical issues

Other

• Essential: Physical skills required to facilitate a wide range of activities both on a one-to-one and group basis, including using equipment as required
• Essential: Mental and emotional effort required to undertake intense concentration required for clinical consultations and interventions on both a one-to-one and group basis
• Essential: Mental and emotional effort required to undertake intense concentration for holistic formulations, report writing, etc.

Disclosure and Barring Service Check
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.

Certificate of Sponsorship
Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website. From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found on the official Criminal records checks for overseas applicants page.

UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website.

Employer details
Employer name: East London NHS Foundation Trust
Address: Newham Centre for Mental Health, Cherry Tree Way, London, E13 8SP, United Kingdom
Employer's website: https://www.elft.nhs.uk/

Employer contact details
For questions about the job, contact: Directorate Lead for Occupational Therapy, Gina Ntzimani, georgia.ntzimani@nhs.net, 07741703960

Privacy notice: East London NHS Foundation Trust's privacy notice.