Occupational Therapist - Therapeutic Community

Location: HMP Dovegate, Staffordshire, ST14 8XR
Salary: £37,412.50 - £38,629 per annum, pro rata plus excellent benefits
Schedule: Part-time – two days per week / 16 hours per week

Ready to impact a better future?

As an Occupational Therapist in our Therapeutic Community team at HMP Dovegate, you’ll provide specialist occupational therapy assessment and intervention within the Enhanced Assessment Unit, supporting participants with complex psychological presentations to stabilise, engage and prepare for therapy.

This is a purposeful role where your work directly contributes to rehabilitation, risk reduction and positive outcomes. You’ll help people build routines, develop emotional and sensory regulation, and engage meaningfully in community life, creating the foundations for longer‑term therapeutic progress and a safer future for individuals and the wider community.

What you’ll do as an Occupational Therapist

You’ll be entrusted to:

• Deliver specialist occupational therapy assessments focusing on occupational functioning, daily living skills, emotional and sensory regulation, neurodiversity and engagement capacity
• Design and deliver targeted, occupation‑based interventions to support stabilisation, routine development and therapeutic readiness
• Contribute occupational perspectives to multidisciplinary formulation, assessment reports and case discussions
• Provide consultation, guidance and modelling to colleagues to support trauma‑responsive and psychologically informed practice
• Promote meaningful activity, autonomy and responsibility in line with therapeutic community principles
• Maintain accurate and timely clinical records and engage fully in supervision and professional development

Does this sound like you?

You’ll be a great fit for this role if you have…

• A degree or diploma in Occupational Therapy with Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) registration
• Experience delivering occupational therapy to adults with complex needs, mental health difficulties or neurodiversity
• Confidence working within a multidisciplinary team environment
• A trauma‑informed, neurodiversity‑affirming and person‑centred approach
• The emotional resilience and professional judgement needed to work in a secure or complex setting

Vetting and checks:

An Enhanced DBS check is required for this role. This includes spent and unspent convictions, cautions, and any relevant information held by local police, in accordance with the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act and safeguarding requirements. You will also complete an Occupational Health Questionnaire to allow us to provide any support needed for you to succeed in the role.

Discover all you need to keep growing

We’re one of the top 1% of international employers, so you can have confidence you’ll be part of a highly supportive culture with leaders you can count on to help you achieve your goals. From mentoring and training to our focus on internal progression, we’re proud to offer clear development opportunities – and the support and tools to help you seize them.

What we offer

• Holiday entitlement: starts at 23 days plus bank holidays (increasing to 25 days with tenure)

• Pension: Up to 6% contributory pension scheme
• Training and development: Over 1,100 internal courses available, funding for qualifications and apprenticeships, mentoring opportunities, and a focus on internal progression
• Health and wellbeing: Employee Assistance Programme, Bupa Anytime HealthLine, wellbeing app, 30% off at Serco-managed leisure centres, and 24/7 access to a virtual GP service
• Discounts: Discounts across around 1,000 retailers, from food and clothing to days out, entertainment and travel
• Charity: Paid volunteering day, tax-free charitable giving through Payroll Giving Scheme, donate your pennies from your monthly pay to the Serco People Fund Charity
• Employee networks: Our networks support inclusion and connection by providing spaces for collaboration, learning, and belonging. They represent and empower all our colleagues including LGBTQIA+ employees, women, parents and carers, people with disabilities, veterans, and people from all cultural backgrounds.

Let’s impact a better future, together. Apply today.

About Serco
At Serco, not only is the nature of the work we do important, everyone has an important role to play, from caring for vulnerable people to managing complex public services.  We are a team of 50,000 people responsible for delivering essential public services around the world in areas including defence, transport, justice, immigration, healthcare and citizen services. We are innovators, committed to redesigning and improving public services for the benefit of everyone.

By joining Serco you will have unlimited access to our Global Employee Networks – SercoInspire (Gender), SercoEmbrace (Multicultural), SercoUnlimited (Disability) and In@Serco (LGBT & Networks). Serco Employee Networks, led by colleagues who are passionate about diversity, inclusion and belonging. 

Apply
Please click on the apply button to complete your application. Occasionally we receive a large volume of applications for our roles and when that happens we sometimes bring the closing date forward, so please apply promptly to avoid disappointment. 

At Serco, we see people first and foremost for their performance and potential. We are committed to building a diverse and inclusive organisation that supports the needs of all. As such we will make reasonable adjustments at interview through to employment for our candidates and strongly encourage applications from a diverse candidate pool. We are open to discussions around flexibility and flexible working. We operate a hybrid work structure in many of our business areas. We are proudly Disability Confident Leader employers and holder of the Gold Inclusive Employer Standard. Disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria for the job will be given the opportunity to demonstrate their abilities at an interview.  For help with your application please contact 0345 010 4000.
 

At Serco we support fair access to employment for those with unspent criminal convictions through the ‘Ban the Box’ pledge (some may be exempt due to the nature of the role and the security clearance required). Please contact our recruitment team directly on 0345 010 4000 to discuss.