Occupational Therapy Lead

This is a Gloucestershire County Council job.

• Job Title: Occupational Therapy Lead
• Job Location: Gloucestershire
• Salary: £49,817 - £53,051 per annum
• Hours per Week: 37.00
• Contract Type: Permanent
• Closing Date: 28/09/2026
• Job Requisition Number: 14813
• This post is not open to job share

Help Shape the Future of Occupational Therapy in Gloucestershire

This is a rare opportunity to play a leading role in one of the most significant service transformations undertaken within Adult Social Care in recent years.

Following the successful transfer of Occupational Therapy services into Gloucestershire County Council, we are recruiting two additional Occupational Therapy Leads to help shape the future of our service, support our workforce and ensure residents receive high quality, person-centred support that promotes independence, wellbeing and choice.

This is an exciting time to join us. You will be part of a growing Occupational Therapy leadership team, working alongside colleagues across Adult Social Care to embed new ways of working, drive continuous improvement and realise the benefits of bringing Occupational Therapy back into local government.

About the Role

As an Occupational Therapy Lead, you will provide professional leadership and operational oversight across locality-based teams, ensuring the delivery of safe, effective and strengths-based occupational therapy services.

You will:

• Provide visible and supportive leadership to Occupational Therapists and support staff.

• Support performance, demand management and service improvement activity.

• Promote high standards of professional practice, governance and decision-making.

• Coach and develop staff, helping to build confidence, capability and resilience.

• Lead on complex case discussions, risk management and escalation activity.

• Work collaboratively with Social Care, Reablement, Health and wider system partners.

• Support the embedding of GCC values, behaviours and culture across the service.

• Help shape and deliver our future Occupational Therapy operating model.
  
  

Most importantly, you will have the opportunity to influence the development of a modern, integrated Occupational Therapy service that places independence, prevention and outcomes for residents at its heart.

Watch our short video to find out more GCC Occupational Therapy Service

About You

We are looking for experienced Occupational Therapists who are passionate about leadership, professional practice and service improvement.

You will be:

• A qualified Occupational Therapist registered with the HCPC.

• An experienced practitioner with a strong understanding of Adult Social Care.

• A confident and approachable leader who enjoys supporting and developing others.

• Comfortable working within complex operational environments.

• Skilled in building relationships and influencing across multidisciplinary teams.

• Committed to delivering positive outcomes for residents.

• Passionate about continuous improvement and innovation.
  
  

Previous management experience is desirable, but equally important is your ability to lead people, build confidence, challenge constructively and bring teams together around a shared vision.

Our values are at the heart of everything we do and how we treat each other. They provide essential guiding principles about the way that we work and set the tone for our culture, and identify what we, as an organisation, care about. Read more about our values on our website.

If you hold the same behaviours and approach, then we want to hear from you! In exchange, we will provide you with full training and support to help you succeed in your role.

About us

This is a great time to join Gloucestershire County Council, as Adult Social Care is on an exciting innovation journey, which focuses our approach into being more creative, strengths-based and person-centred, to ensure that we work together to ‘Make the Difference’ to our local communities.

Gloucestershire County Council provides the following rewards package in return for your hard work:

• Regular formal and informal support

• Safe, supportive and positive working environment with regular, robust supervision

• Access to mandatory training and additional topical bi-annual workshops.

• Access to our Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) that provides free, confidential, counselling and advice for employees, available 24 hours a day, online and by telephone.

• Gloucestershire Salary Sacrifice Green Car Scheme (T&C's apply)

• Links to employee networks such as Prism (LGBT+) network and the Young Employees Network.

• Annual leave up to 30.5 days after 5 years employment, plus bank holidays

• Access to the Local Government Pension Scheme

• Staff discount scheme that offers access to great savings including discounts with major supermarket chains and high street retailers

• Cycle to work Scheme
  
  

We’re closer than you think

We are an easy commute from many locations, view our commuting times map to see what we mean. Start your journey today!

Applying:

Please write your application with consideration for the essential criteria in the Job Profile which you will find in the Additional Information section below. This should include examples of why you should be considered and cover the experience, skills and knowledge that you would bring to the post.

For an informal discussion, please, contact ASCrecruitment@gloucestershire.gov.uk to arrange a convenient time for a call back. To start your journey with us, click ‘Apply now’ today!

Together, we can help people live independently, safely and well in their communities.

Additional Information:

To access the Job Profile for this role, please follow the link below:

Occupational Therapy Lead Job Profile

These positions are subject to an Enhanced Adults DBS with Barred List Check.

Gloucestershire County Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people or vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

The council is not currently able to offer sponsorship in this role. Candidates will need to have right to work that enables them to commit to at least 6 months employment. Right to work is not transferable from a sponsored role held with another employer.

We want to be an employer of choice, attracting and retaining excellent people to work for us, so that we can best serve all of Gloucestershire’s diverse communities. Our promise to you is that we will provide an inclusive and supportive working environment that enables you to bring your whole self to work and realise your full potential.

It is a legal requirement, under the Immigration Act 2016, that anyone appointed to a ‘customer facing role’ must be able to demonstrate an ability to fulfil all spoken aspects of the role with confidence in fluent English.

Hybrid working arrangements are available for the majority of our roles, giving teams the opportunity to work in a way that suits them, balancing service need and individual choice, with a mix of both remote and office working.

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early due to the volume of applications received. If you are interested in applying, we encourage you to submit your application as early as possible.

If you are an Internal applicant and consider yourself to have a disability* as per the Equality Act (2010), please declare this in an email to recruitment@gloucestershire.gov.uk, as this is NOT currently covered in the application due to a technical error. By providing this information, you can choose to be considered for a guaranteed interview under our Disability Confident pledge if you meet all essential criteria. It also enables the recruiting manager to arrange any reasonable adjustments you may need during the process.

*a disability is defined as: a physical or mental impairment, which has a substantial and long-term (more than 12 months) adverse effect on a person’s ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities.

Applications from any Gloucestershire County Council's employees who are currently on the redeployment register or at risk of redundancy will be considered first at shortlisting stage.