Are you an experienced Occupational Therapist ready to take your clinical expertise to a national level?
Compass Community Schools is looking for a Senior Occupational Therapist to provide clinical leadership, professional oversight and strategic direction for Occupational Therapy across our schools.
This is an exciting opportunity to shape the development of a growing Occupational Therapy service, ensuring that children and young people receive high-quality, evidence-informed and trauma-responsive support wherever they are in our organisation.
Working closely with the National Lead SENDCo, you'll lead the development of consistent clinical standards, systems and approaches across our schools, while ensuring that Occupational Therapy remains focused on what matters most: participation, independence, wellbeing and positive outcomes for every learner.
A role with national influence
As our organisational clinical lead for Occupational Therapy, you'll have the opportunity to influence how OT is delivered across Compass Community Schools.
You will lead the strategic development of our OT provision, establish clinical pathways and standards, and use quality assurance, service evaluation and outcomes to continually improve our practice.
You will also provide specialist advice on complex sensory, functional, participation and regulation needs, supporting our Occupational Therapists and wider school teams to develop confident, effective practice.
A key part of your role will be developing our Occupational Therapy Champion programme, helping schools build sustainable OT knowledge and creating a whole-school culture where sensory regulation, occupational participation and independence are everyone's responsibility.
Leading and developing our people
You will provide clinical supervision and professional leadership to our Occupational Therapists, supporting their development, wellbeing and professional practice.
You will play an important role in recruitment, induction, appraisal and performance development, while creating opportunities for our therapists to share expertise, learn from one another and continually develop their practice.
You will also lead national OT training and workforce development, creating resources and guidance that help our schools embed therapeutic approaches into everyday education.
About you
We're looking for an experienced Occupational Therapist who is ready to combine strong clinical expertise with strategic leadership.
You will bring:
- HCPC registration and RCOT membership.
- Significant experience within specialist education and/or therapeutic services.
- Experience supervising and managing Occupational Therapists.
- Experience of clinical leadership and service development.
- A strong understanding of trauma, attachment, neurodiversity, sensory processing and emotional regulation.
- A commitment to occupation-centred and participation-focused practice.
- Experience of developing others through supervision, training, coaching and consultation.
- A passion for improving services and creating sustainable, evidence-informed practice.
A clinical supervision qualification or equivalent experience is essential.
Experience within specialist education, residential care, multidisciplinary teams or regional/multi-site services would be advantageous, as would additional training in areas such as Sensory Integration, Autism, Attachment, Trauma, Emotional Regulation or Assistive Technology.
Our values
Our values of Courage, Integrity and Care are at the heart of how we work.
Courage – We advocate confidently for children and young people, challenge barriers and have the courage to develop new and innovative approaches.
Integrity – We uphold high clinical and ethical standards, take responsibility for our decisions and provide honest, respectful and constructive leadership.
Care – We build trusting relationships, create emotionally safe and supportive environments, and remain focused on the wellbeing, belonging, independence and positive outcomes of every learner.
Why join us?
This is an opportunity to help shape something with national reach and lasting impact.
You'll be joining an education team where Occupational Therapy is valued as an integral part of supporting children and young people to thrive. You'll have the autonomy to develop services, the opportunity to influence organisational strategy and the platform to support a team of therapists to deliver outstanding practice.
If you're ready to take the next step in your Occupational Therapy career and want to lead, develop and shape OT provision across an organisation, we'd love to hear from you.
Please see the attached job description for full details of the role and responsibilities.
Travel across Compass Community Schools is an expected requirement of this position.