Decision details

The Paediatric OT service is ordinarily staffed with 2x Fully qualified OTs (1x full time and one who has recently reduced her hours from 26 down to 18.5) and 1x part time OT assistant.

There was a significant period of time (9-12 months) where both of the qualified OTs were absent from work. The service was covered sporadically by locums and subsequently a waiting list accrued. The part time OT is now back in work however the full time OT is off sick and has not been fully back in work since May 2017.
We have a FTE locum OT covering casework and a part time advanced practitioner OT assisting with complex cases and carrying out developmental tasks to ensure the service is operating in line with the councils legal obligations.

The paediatric OT service is in a position where all staff members are holding full caseloads and are only able to respond to urgent referrals. Consequently, the waiting list is not being addressed and is in fact growing. Referrals are dating back to September 2017 (8 months).
Whilst we allocate referrals where there is an immediate safety risk, we have children remaining on our waiting list who have very complex needs. A delay in service to these children will impact on their opportunities to meet their developmental milestones, maximise their full potential and become functional contributing members of their homes and communities.

To enable the current Locum Paediatric Occupational Therapist to remain in their full time post to provide cover in the service due to staff absence.

The continued employment of a full time locum OT will enable the caseload of the full time permanent OT to be covered in their continued absence.

Once the permanent staff member returns to work the Locum OT will be re-directed to address the waiting list to reduce it to an acceptable level. Once the waiting list has been reduced, the service will be back to operating at its previous level and the service of an additional locum OT will no longer be needed.

The paediatric OTs sit within the Adult OT assessment service. Paediatric OT is considered a specialism and as such it would be unrealistic to expect an OT from the Adult team to cover any of the paeds work without a significant amount of dedicated training. There are no resources in either section of the team to carry this out.