Paediatric Occupational Therapist Critical Care Discharge Coordinator

As the Paediatric Occupational Therapist - Critical Care Discharge Coordinator, you will help children and young people with complex critical care needs transition safely from hospital to home or onward care. Working across East Kent Hospitals and Medway NHS Foundation Trust, you will coordinate complex discharge pathways, improve patient flow and work with multidisciplinary teams to ensure children receive the right care, in the right place, at the right time.

You will work closely with hospital teams, community services and specialist centres to coordinate care, support equipment provision and improve discharge processes. You will also contribute to service improvement, audit and pathway development across the paediatric critical care network.

What We're Looking For We're looking for an experienced Occupational Therapist who is passionate about improving outcomes for children and families.

You will have experience supporting children with complex needs, coordinating care across multiple services and managing complex discharge pathways. You will be an excellent communicator, highly organised, able to build effective relationships across organisations and committed to delivering compassionate, family-centred care.

This is a unique opportunity to work across two Trusts, influence service development and make a lasting difference to children and young people across Kent and Medway.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Coordinate complex discharge pathways for children and young people requiring critical care, ensuring safe, timely transfers between hospital, community and specialist services.
• Act as a key point of contact for children, families and carers throughout admission, discharge and repatriation processes.
• Work with multidisciplinary teams to improve patient flow, reduce delays and promote care closer to home.
• Support children with complex needs, including coordinating equipment, referrals and ongoing packages of care.
• Provide clinical leadership for therapy services within paediatric critical care pathways.
• Contribute to service improvement, audit, data collection and the development of discharge pathways and standards of care.
• Promote safe, effective and family-centred care through collaboration, education and evidence-based practice.

Key Relationships

• Children, young people, families and carers.
• Paediatric critical care, paediatric ward and neonatal teams.
• Occupational Therapy, Physiotherapy, Speech and Language Therapy and wider Allied Health Professional teams.
• Discharge teams, safeguarding teams, operational managers and senior clinicians.
• Community children's nursing teams, hospices and primary care services.
• Tertiary centres, transport services, STPN, STRS and partner organisations across Kent and Medway.

This role requires strong partnership working across organisations to ensure children with complex needs receive coordinated, seamless care and are discharged safely and efficiently.

We are one of the largest hospital trusts in England, with five hospitals and community clinics serving a local population of around 800,000 people. Our vision is 'great healthcare from great people'. Everything we do is guided by our values: 'People feel cared for, safe, respected and confident that we are making a difference'. We have a new way of working at East Kent Hospitals, called 'We care'. It's about empowering frontline staff to lead improvements day-to-day. We're looking for compassionate people to be part of our improvement journey for the patients, families and carers we care for every day.

Please note that if you require a Certificate of Sponsorship to work in the UK you must declare this on your application form, even if you currently have a certificate of sponsorship or a work permit for another role and are already working in the country. Please note we are only able to sponsor candidates for a Skilled Worker Visa for roles that are eligible at the time of application.

Essential: - Registered Occupational Therapist with current HCPC registration; - Degree in Occupational Therapy (or equivalent professional qualification); - Evidence of continuous and ongoing professional development relevant to paediatric critical care; - First degree or equivalent within therapies.

Desirable: - Master's degree or postgraduate study relevant to paediatrics or critical care; - Leadership qualification

Essential: - Substantial Paediatric Critical Care L2 experience at Band 6; - Experience of discharge planning / patient flow coordination within acute paediatric, neonatal or critical care services.; - Experience of working across organisational boundaries and with multiple agencies / providers.; - Understanding of paediatric critical care pathways and the needs of children and young people with complex care needs.; - Experience of supporting families through complex discharge processes including equipment provision.; - Experience of data collection, audit or service improvement.

Desirable: - Previous Band 7 experience within critical care L2/L3; - Clinical supervision Evidence of presentations at local, regional/ national level

Essential: - Understanding of safeguarding, information governance and risk management; - Knowledge of quality improvement and governance processes relevant to patient flow and discharge

Desirable: - Experience developing clinical guidelines/protocols; - Managing incidents and complaints

Essential: - Ability to coordinate complex pathways and manage competing priorities.; - Ability to coordinate complex pathways and manage competing priorities.; - Ability to work and travel across multiple sites/complex organisations including travel as required; - Full UK Driving License

Desirable: - Presentation at regional/national forums