Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust
Assertive Outreach Occupational Therapist
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Job Overview
Band 6 Full Time Assertive Outreach Occupational Therapist
Make engagement happen. Prevent crisis. Change trajectories. We’re building a focused Assertive Outreach (AO) offer within our Community Mental Health Hub to reach adults who are at risk of disengaging from care. If you thrive on meaningful relationship-building, rapid decision-making, and real-world impact, this role is for you.
About the role
As an Assertive Outreach Worker, you’ll be the consistent, trusted keyworker for a small caseload, delivering time-limited, intensive support over a stepped 6-month model. You’ll combine clinical skill with creativity and persistence—meeting people where they are, in homes and community spaces across Brent—to stabilise engagement, reduce risk, and prevent crisis.
Main duties of the job
The Assertive Outreach Occupational Therapist will:
- Provide assertive, flexible, and persistent outreach, including home visits, community-based contacts, and phone/text engagement
- Act as a consistent keyworker, building therapeutic relationships with individuals who find it difficult to engage with services
- Work within a stepped 6-month model of intensive support, transition, and reintegration into routine CMHH care.
- Conduct comprehensive occupational therapy assessments to identify service users' strengths, needs, risks, and goals, supporting recovery and independence.
- Develop and deliver person-centred intensive intervention plans that promote engagement in meaningful occupations, daily living skills, and community participation.
- Work collaboratively within a multidisciplinary team (MDT), providing specialist occupational therapy expertise to inform care planning and positive outcomes.
This role requires strong clinical skills, excellent risk management, and the ability to work autonomously in the community.
Working for our organisation
You will be in a friendly and supportive environment, where we encourage personal and professional development.
You will be based within the Community Mental Health Hub within a large multi-disciplinary team.
There is access to in-house and Trust wide training to support you in developing clinical and leadership skills.
The Occupational Therapy structures within the trust are robust. The in-house training plan, as well as great links with local universities, provides ample opportunity for CPD.
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We have community mental health hubs based in Park Royal and Kingsbury. The team will work across both sites dependent on need.
Detailed Job Description And Main Responsibilities
Provide intensive outreach and occupational therapy intervention in line with the SOP:
- First 3 months: minimum 3 contact attempts per week, aiming for 1–2 successful contacts.
- Next 3 months: minimum 2 contact attempts per week.
- Deliver flexible contact through home visits, community meetings, phone calls, texts, and occasional evening/weekend availability.
- Maintain a “no discharge for DNA” approach, using persistent and creative engagement strategies.
- Build strong therapeutic relationships through empathy, reliability, and trauma-informed practice.
- Provide continuity and consistency as the allocated AO keyworker.
- Complete and update care plans, risk assessments, and safety plans in line with Trust policy.
- Conduct frequent dynamic risk assessments and escalate concerns promptly.
- Lead on transition planning back to routine CMHH care.
- Ensure timely documentation of all contact attempts, outcomes, and risk assessments.
- Work collaboratively with the CMHH key worker where this is a separate role.
- Deliver meaningful intervention.
- Use therapeutic engagement to support patients to engage.
- Supervision of band 4 support staff.
Person specification
Qualifications
Essential criteria
- Degree/Diploma in Occupational Therapy.
- Health Care Professionals Council (HCPC) registered Occupational Therapist.
- Post-qualification training in relevant mental health skills.
Desirable criteria
- Practice Educator training.
- Member of the Royal College of OT (RCoT).
- Additional training in specialist standardised assessments.
Experience
Essential criteria
- Working as an OT in secondary mental health services.
- Experience of working with individuals who are disengaged or hard to reach.
- Managing a defined caseload, including prioritisation and autonomous working.
- Delivering OT assessments and interventions in community settings.
- Experience of proactive, persistent engagement approaches.
- Experience of managing high-risk and complex cases in community settings.
- Supporting occupational performance through environmental adaptation and equipment provision.
- Working in partnership and co-producing care with service users and carers.
- Facilitating groups or structured interventions.
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Desirable criteria
- Supervision of OT students / non-qualified staff.
- Experience of working in assertive outreach or similar intensive community-based services.
- Experience of trauma-informed practice.
Skills, Knowledge & Abilities
Essential criteria
- Knowledge of OT theory and models (e.g. MoHO) and their application in mental health.
- Strong communication skills, including engaging individuals with complex needs and conveying sensitive information.
- Ability to work autonomously and as part of an MDT.
- Skills in delivering individual and group interventions.
- Ability to prioritise workload and work flexibly in a dynamic community setting.
- Ability to work flexibly and creatively to maintain engagement.
- Ability to work in a culturally responsive and inclusive way.
- Knowledge of the impact of mental and physical health on occupational performance.
- Knowledge and application of risk assessment and management, including positive risk-taking.
- Knowledge of safeguarding principles and their application in practice.
- Confidence in balancing positive risk-taking with safety.
Desirable criteria
- Knowledge of research and development principles at graduate level.
- Knowledge and skills in vocational rehabilitation, sensory approaches, and brief solution-focused interventions.
- Experience working with homelessness or housing instability.
- Experience within criminal justice settings.
- Awareness of housing, benefits, and wider health and social care systems.
ATTITUDES, APTITUDES, PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS
Essential criteria
- Motivated and committed to working in an Assertive Outreach service.
- Strong organisational skills, with the ability to prioritise, delegate, and manage workload effectively.
- Flexible and adaptable approach to working in a dynamic environment.
- Good self-awareness, with the ability to use initiative and work independently.
- Ability to manage conflict constructively and maintain professional boundaries.
- Willingness to develop knowledge and skills through ongoing learning.
- Ability to take responsibility and demonstrate accountability in practice.
- Act as a positive role model, supporting and influencing the practice of others.
Other
Essential criteria
- The ability to move between NHS sites and patients' homes as demanded by the job.
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