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 community outreach and via telecare.

Our Bushfire Recovery Program is designed to support the wellbeing and resilience of children affected by the bushfires of 2019/20. It was awarded both the NSW and National Resilient Australia Community Award for service excellence in 2021.

The program can be adapted to meet the needs of children experiencing other disasters such as floods. Read more about the program here- https://www.royalfarwest.org.au/the-childrens-voices/ [link removed] After the Disaster and The Children’s’ voice reports

The Role

Within the Flood Recovery Team, you will be part of a specialist multidisciplinary team including, Social Workers, Occupational Therapists, Speech Pathologists and Clinical Psychologists. You will also be part of a wider supportive community of Occupational Therapists.

This position is funded until 2024 with plans to continue delivery beyond that date. The program will be supporting flood impacted communities within Northern NSW. Applicants will be considered from both Sydney and the Northern NSW area.

This position is responsible for the provision of Occupational Therapy services to children referred to the program in remote NSW. This will include:

• Assessment, care planning and therapy, parent/carer group programs, child group programs, and professional development workshops for Educators and Health and Social Service Practitioners.
• Delivery will be a combination of in person community visits working closely with schools and preschools with ongoing support and therapy provided by telehealth. 
• Services are provided collaboratively within a multidisciplinary team.  

SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE

Essential Criteria

• B. App Sc (OT), B. Occupational Therapy or equivalent and registered as an Occupational Therapist with the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA).
• Comprehensive knowledge, skills and clinical experience of developmental, learning, behavioural and mental health difficulties in children and young people. This includes high level skills in assessment, therapy and working in partnership with families and local service networks.
• Experience of developing and delivering professional development individual or group workshops to Educators and/or Health and Social Services practitioners
• Demonstrated ability to work effectively both independently and as a member of a multidisciplinary team; Skilfully prioritise time, manage a demanding workload, apply high level reasoning skills and have independent professional judgement.
• Highly developed written, verbal and interpersonal communication skills. Demonstrated computer literacy and ability to use health information systems.
• Demonstrated skills in providing best practice, quality improvement activities and service development. Capacity and willingness to participate in professional development and the provision of new programs as required
• Demonstrated understanding of the issues faced by CALD and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities within the context of health and family wellbeing.
• Demonstrated understanding of, and ability to work within, the principles of Trauma Informed Practice.
• Capacity, skill and willingness to deliver services to rural and remote communities by both via telehealth (video-link) and outreach.. This may include a minimum of two multi-day (1-2 week), community outreach visits each school term.
• This role has been identified as a ‘Category A employee’ and requires protection against vaccine specified preventable diseases, including Covid 19
• The successful applicant will be required to provide a current NSW Working with Children Check and QLD Blue Card

Desirable Criteria

• Evidence of relevant clinical experience, working within the area of Disaster recovery and resilience.
• Experience in delivering children’s groups focused on loss and change, such as Stormbirds and Seasons for Growth
• Experience in planning and delivering parent groups and education sessions, including Tuning in to Kids
• Mental Health accreditation

Our culture:

Royal Far West is a rewarding, inspiring, diverse and purpose driven workplace which aims to elevate and harness our people power to support the health and wellbeing of country children for generations to come.

Our core values of Care, Connection, Passion, and Impact are integral to the organisation. Respecting and upholding these values enables us to maintain a positive, innovative and highly collaborative workplace culture. 

Why work for us?

★ 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 opportunity to learn best practice, we offer Impactful Leadership Program to emerging leaders, interactive workshops offered to develop your work skills as well as online mandatory training. 

★ Multi-disciplinary work with our collaborative and supportive resident paediatricians, psychiatrists, psychologists, speech pathologists, occupational therapists and social workers to name a few.

★ Attractive remuneration: base salary + 10.5% superannuation

★ Salary Packaging – up to $15,900 of your annual salary will be tax free + meals and entertainment card $2,650 pa. See details at https://www.salary.com.au [link removed]

★ Paid Parental Leave – 9 weeks full leave pay.

★ Work/Life Balance – work from our beautiful location at Manly Beach or work from home anywhere as long as you can travel for outreach to the areas we support and attend one team day a term in Manly.  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.

★ WHEREFIT program with access to 50% off gym memberships and class packs at over 400 gyms across Australia

★ 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.

HOW TO APPLY

If you like to take the first step in developing your career in a purpose led organisation, please submit your CV and cover letter by clicking on the “Apply” button.

For further information please contact Sarah Eagland on [email protected] Alternatively a position description [link removed] is available on the Royal Far West website https://www.royalfarwest.org.au/current-vacancies/ [link removed]

Candidates will be reviewed as they are submitted so, please don’t delay in submitting your application.

Royal Far West does not discriminate on the basis of 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.

Only those applicants who have the right to work, and are currently residing in Australia can be considered.

All employees at Royal Far West are required to provide a NSW Working with Children Check and vaccination record against Covid-19.