Senior Occupational Therapist Schools and Early Years
Posted: 27/02/2026
Closing Date: 27/03/2026
Job Type: Permanent - Full Time
Location: Manly and or Work From Home
Job Category: Health, Medical & Pharmaceutical
About Us
Royal Far West is one of Australia's most enduring and respected charities. We have been connecting children in rural and remote communities to the care they need since 1924. Today we do this from our Centre for Country Kids in Manly, through in-community visits and via telecare.
This position is responsible for the provision of Occupational Therapy services to children living in rural and remote areas across Australia. This will include:
* Assessment, care planning and therapy, child group programs, and professional development workshops for Educators and Parents/ carers.
* Delivery will be a combination of in person community visits working closely with schools and preschools with ongoing support and therapy provided by telehealth. The capacity, skill and willingness to deliver services to rural and remote communities by both via telehealth and face to face visits to communities is an essential component of this role. This includes availability for a minimum of one week-long community visiteach school term.
* Services are provided collaboratively within a multidisciplinary team including psychologists, occupational therapists, speech pathologists and social workers.
* Providing clinical supervision to junior occupational therapists across the organisation. Within the supportive multidisciplinary team and OT discipline community, you will also have access to regular clinical supervision, professional development opportunities, and a range of supportedcareerdevelopmentpathwaysandopportunitiesinclinical,leadership,supervision, education, safety and quality and research.
BENEFITS OFFERED
Royal Far West has been recognised as one of Australia and New Zealand's Best Places to Work in the prestigious annual list, published by The Australian Financial Review and Boss Magazine. Our extensive benefits offered, include:
* Structured induction program
* Meaningful work where you are making a positive difference. You will be supporting children's mental health, their wellbeing and helping them to build resilience.
* You will be able to focus on the practical work and clinical care, while our support team take care of the administration and service planning.
* Career and professional development opportunities: You will be given high-quality clinical supervision. All team members are supported to become accredited facilitators of the Tuning in to Kids, parent group program and the Seasons for Growth children's group program. There are great opportunities to learn best practice, we offer an Impactful Leadership Program to emerging leaders, interactive workshops offered to develop your work skills as well as online mandatory training.
* Multi-disciplinary workplace. Across RFW we have collaborative and supportive resident paediatricians, psychiatrists, psychologists, speech pathologists, occupational therapists and social workers to name a few.
* Attractive remuneration: base salary + 12% superannuation
* Salary Packaging– up to $15,900 of your general living expenses can be offeredtax free+ meals and entertainment up to$2,650 patax free. See details at www.gosalary.com.au
* Work/Life Balance – work from our beautiful location at Manly Beach andwork from home. A laptop provided to work remotely and we offer a purchase leave scheme.
* Recognition & Reward – Length of service awards and recognition awards aligned to our values.
* Positive Culture – We are an inclusive organisation welcoming people from all walks of life!
* Beautiful location at Manly beach: easy access by bus, ferry and parking options. We are based in an architecturally designed building, purposely built to deliver our services. We have showers and towels available for your use so going for a swim before or after work is possible.
* CARE Days - up to 5 days off to look after individuals' health and wellbeing, on top of Annual and Personal Leave, with the intention to provide employees with an opportunity to take regular breaks throughout the year.
* Benefits Program with discounts available on many high street purchases across Australia and access to novated car leasing.
* Pandemic Leave - 7 days paid leave, per calendar year to employees that have been impacted by either a disaster or pandemic which effects their ability to attend work.
* Gifted Leave - gifting leave of up to 3 working days over the Christmas and New year holiday period.
* Paid Parental Leave – 14 weeks full leave pay for the primary care giver and 4 weeks full leave for the non-primary care giver. Access to paid lactation breaks and lactation facilities.
Job Description
As a Senior Occupational Therapist you will be responsible for the provision of evidence-informed, culturally responsive occupational therapy services to the children and families referred to Royal Far West. The role includes planning, assessment, formulation, intervention and discharge planning in collaboration with the multidisciplinary team. There is a continuum of skills and experience within the occupational therapists employed by Royal Far West. Clinicians ideally demonstrate a level of practice characterised by expert clinical skills, reasoning, critical thinking, knowledge, and experience with service provision to meet complex client needs within contemporary practice. Within the supportive multidisciplinary team and OT discipline community, you will have access to regular clinical supervision, professional development opportunities, and a range of supported career development pathways and opportunities in clinical, leadership, supervision, education, safety and quality and research.
Desired Skills and Experience
• Tertiary qualification in Occupational Therapy, current AHPRA registration and a minimum of 6 years' experience. (Exceptional candidates may be considered if they can demonstrate relevant meaningful experience and capability).
• Demonstrated extensive specialist knowledge or high-level generalist knowledge of the main components of paediatric Occupational Therapy. Including demonstrated management of caseloads of a complex nature requiring advanced practice skills.
• Experience independently conducting practice education and providing support to more junior staff conducting practice education.
• Experience providing clinical supervision and support to level 1 and 2 health professionals.
• Demonstrated ability to adapt communication style and utilise strategies to improve communication effectiveness.
• Demonstrated commitment to Child Safe practices including, but not limited to, Child Protection legislation, policy and procedures. Ability to support other clinicians with child protection concerns and debriefing if needed.
• Demonstrated commitment to family-centred and strengths-based care using a trauma-informed approach. Includes advocacy for child and family internally and externally and advanced case management skills.
• Complies with Mandatory Employment Screening Checks Policy and Workforce Immunisation Policy.
• Experience identifying opportunities for improvement in clinical practice and service design. Develop and lead ongoing quality improvement activities with other staff.
• Commitment to diverse and inclusive practices. Demonstrated understanding of the issues faced by CALD and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities within the context of health and family wellbeing. Ability to communicate effectively with people across cultures, ranges of ability, genders, ethnicities and races and successfully deliver culturally responsive services.
• Highly developed computer skills including use of programs such as Microsoft Teams and Zoom, and experience delivering services via telehealth.
• Capacity, skill and willingness to deliver services via in-community in rural and remote communities. This may include one or two multi-day (e.g 5-6 days) community visits each school term.
• Highly developed skills partnering with schools and working collaboratively to achieve quality outcomes for students.
• An understanding and appreciation of the benefits and challenges for children in living in rural and remote areas.
• Ability to travel for work to deliver services via in-community in rural and remote communities and hold a full & current driver's licence.
• Experience of consulting with leadership developing and delivering professional development individual or group workshops to Educators and/or Health and Social Services practitioners.
• Knowledge, skills and experience of working within the area of Disaster recovery and resilience.
• Hold a full & current driver's license.
ABOUT OUR CULTURE
Royal Far West is a rewarding, inspiring workplace which offers a diverse work experience. It is one of our strategic priorities to elevate and harness our people power and systems to help country children for gernations to come. We have a knowledgeable and innovative multidisciplinary clinical team. We strive for a positive and committed workplace culture.
OUR CORE VALUES
Caring- We show genuine care, compassion and interest in our families,our partners and each other. We respect, listen, recognise and support each other's needs and celebrate our differences.Connected- We are deeply connected to our purpose, with our feet inthe sand and our hearts in the bush.We build meaningful relationships by collaborating openly and honestly. We work as a team with our families, partners, communities and each other.Passionate- We go the extra country mile for our families, partners, communities and for each other. Improving the lives of country kids and giving them a voice inspires and energises us to bring our best selves to work every day.Impact - We are committed to creating positive and lasting change. We are accountable and solutions focused, harnessing our knowledge and capabilities to think creatively, adapt and solve problems responsibly.
Our values are inegral to everthing we are as an organisation. As you consider whether this role is for you, plesae take time to relfect on our values to see if they resonate with you.
HOW TO BE CONSIDERED:
To apply for this position, please submit your CV and Cover Letter which includes briefly addressing the essential criteria by clicking on the 'Apply' or 'Apply for This Job' button. For further information please contact Multidisciplinary Team Leader - Tayla Iellamo via: taylai@royalfarwest.org.au
Only those applicants who have the right to work, and are currently residing in Australia can be considered.
Applications will be reviewed once received so please don't delay in sending in your resume and covering letter.
Royal far West is privileged to work with First Nations communities and families. We are committed to the process of reconciliation and we value and respect the diversity of our employees.
Royal Far West does not discriminate based on race, colour, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, disability, marital status, or based on an individual's status in any group or class protected by applicable law.
Royal Far West encourages applications from minorities and all other qualified applicants.
As a child safe organisation, all employees at Royal Far West are required to provide a NSW Working with Children Check and any other state or territory check as applicable.
This position holder will also need to provide a Criminal Record Check at the time of appointment.
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