NELFT NHS Foundation Trust
Occupational Therapy Specialist Practitioner
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Join Our Adult Autism Service and Make a Real Difference
We are seeking an experienced and passionate Band 7 Specialist Occupational Therapist to join our dedicated Adult Autism Service. This is an exciting opportunity for an innovative occupational therapist with a strong interest in autism and sensory processing to play a leading role in supporting autistic adults across our service.
Working as part of a multidisciplinary team, you will provide specialist occupational therapy assessments and interventions, helping autistic adults identify their strengths, overcome barriers to daily living, and achieve meaningful outcomes that promote independence, choice, and quality of life.
Job Overview
As a Specialist Occupational Therapist, you will take a lead role in delivering high-quality, evidence-based occupational therapy services for autistic adults. You will be responsible for managing a specialist caseload, providing comprehensive assessments of occupational performance, sensory processing, mental health, and risk, and delivering both individual and group interventions.
You will support the delivery and development of pre-diagnostic and post-diagnostic autism services, provide specialist advice to colleagues and partner agencies, and contribute to service improvement initiatives. The role also offers opportunities to supervise junior staff and students, influence service development, and promote the value of occupational therapy within autism services.
About You
We are looking for a qualified Occupational Therapist who is:
- HCPC registered with a Degree or Diploma in Occupational Therapy.
- Experienced in working with autistic adults or individuals with cognitive disorders or related needs.
- Skilled in occupational therapy assessment, clinical reasoning, and developing personalised interventions.
- Knowledgeable about sensory processing and its impact on daily living.
- Passionate about delivering person-centred care and improving outcomes for autistic adults.
- Committed to multidisciplinary working, service improvement, and professional development.
Main Duties of the Job
Key Responsibilities Include
- Providing specialist occupational therapy assessments and interventions for autistic adults.
- Leading on pre-diagnostic and post-diagnostic occupational therapy support, including sensory assessments and interventions.
- Managing and prioritising a complex clinical caseload.
- Delivering evidence-based one-to-one and group interventions tailored to individual needs.
- Promoting health, wellbeing, social inclusion, and independence for autistic adults.
- Collaborating with service users, families, carers, and partner organisations to develop person-centred support plans.
- Providing specialist consultation and advice to multidisciplinary colleagues and external agencies.
- Supervising junior staff, support workers, and occupational therapy students.
- Contributing to service development, audits, quality improvement initiatives, and clinical governance activities.
- Acting as an occupational therapy role model and championing best practice in autism services.
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Why Join Us?
This is an excellent opportunity to work within a specialist autism service where you can shape service delivery, develop your leadership skills, and make a lasting impact on the lives of autistic adults. You will join a supportive team committed to innovation, collaboration, and delivering high-quality care that puts people first.
If you are an enthusiastic Occupational Therapist looking to further develop your specialist skills within autism services, we would love to hear from you.
Working for Us
Joining #TeamNELFT means you’ll become part of a welcoming and supportive working environment. We’re CQC rated Good, and we want you to join us on the journey towards an Outstanding rating. NELFT has sites across North East London and Essex. We provide community and mental healthcare services to adults and children within these areas.
The Trust has award-winning equality and diversity initiatives, along with staff health and wellbeing activities. We invest significantly in your development because when you feel valued and supported, we can deliver the highest quality care to our patients. We are a Level 3 Disability Confident Leader, have been recognised in the Working Families Top 10 Employers benchmark for five consecutive years, and hold a Carers UK Level 1 Accreditation. Through our staff networks and training opportunities, we strive to foster a just and compassionate culture at NELFT.
Our Values 2025 - 2030
Working with our colleagues, patients, and carers, we have co-produced three new values that we aim to embed within our culture here at NELFT.
They Are
- We are kind.
- We are respectful.
- We work together with our communities.
These three values help us to strive to provide the best care by the best people.
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Starting with NELFT
NELFT places a great deal of importance on new starters being properly welcomed and inducted into the Trust. All new starters will join the Trust on the first Monday of each month and will undertake a comprehensive induction of up to two weeks, which will include mandatory training, systems training, and the allocation of equipment. As part of the process, new starters will have the opportunity to also meet the executive team, senior managers, and attend a number of drop-in sessions focusing on engagement, health and wellbeing, and key processes. The induction will be held at our head office in Goodmayes Hospital.
Probationary Period
This post will be subject to a probationary period.
High Cost Area Supplement Outer London (B&D, Redbridge, Havering, and Waltham Forest)
This post also attracts payment for High Cost Area Supplement of 15% of the basic salary (with a minimum of £4,714 to a maximum of £5,941 p.a. pro rata for part-time).
Certificates of Sponsorship
Although we are a registered sponsor organisation, we are unable to offer sponsorship for all job roles. Please check your eligibility under the UKVI points-based system. When calculating the basic salary for sponsorship, HCAS (High-Cost Area Supplement) is not included to ensure fairness and consistency within our Trust.
Use of AI
We value applications that genuinely reflect each candidate’s own skills, experience, and motivations. We therefore strongly discourage the use of AI-generated content in applications.
Applications should be written in your own words and accurately represent your knowledge, skills, and experience.
We reserve the right to reject an application where we reasonably believe AI has been used to generate or materially contribute to its content.
Please See The Attached Job Description And Person Specification for more information about this role and working at North East London NHS Foundation Trust. We encourage you to refer to this when completing your application.
We welcome your application even if you do not meet all the criteria listed in the person specification. Please apply as soon as possible as some posts close early to limit the number of applications.
Contact Information
- Name: Dr. Saras Saminathan
- Job Title: Professional Lead for Adult Autism Service
- Contact Number: 03005551200 ext 55121
- Email: saras.saminathan2@nhs.net
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