Job description

We are a small, family-run mobile paediatric allied health service covering greater Brisbane. Our therapists deliver play-based therapy in the environments where children live, learn and play — homes, kindies and schools, community settings and the pool.

We are now adding occupational therapy to the service, and we are looking for the senior OT who will build it.

That is the honest description of the role. You would not be joining an established OT team and picking up someone else's caseload. You would be our first occupational therapist, deciding how OT is delivered here, what good looks like, and in time helping us choose and mentor the OTs who follow you. If you have been waiting for the chance to shape a service rather than inherit one, this is that role.

You would work alongside Peter Bishop, our Clinical Director and senior physiotherapist, and our physiotherapy team. Our approach is play-based, family-centred and goal-focused. Therapy works best when a child feels at ease, and when families and carers are involved and know what they are working towards between sessions.

Support with the Paper work

You trained as an occupational therapist, not an accounts clerk. You record the service you provided in Cliniko, and our office team does the rest:

- Invoicing clients and following up on payments.

- Preparing service agreements and following them up.

- Liaising with support coordinators and plan managers where the matter is not therapy related, including sorting out any funding problems that come up.

- Scheduling ground-work. The office finds out when families are available and passes that to you.

- IT, software and troubleshooting.

Your diary stays yours. We do the legwork of establishing when clients can attend, but you build the week: which days are for face-to-face, which are for telehealth, and which are for documentation and planning at home. If you would rather work a Saturday and take a weekday off, that is a conversation we are happy to have.

You would liaise with support coordinators and plan managers where it is clinically appropriate — about the child, not about the funding.

Heidi, an AI note-taking system that integrates with Cliniko, is available to reduce your documentation load. Consent is obtained from every family at the initial consult, and use of the software is entirely optional.

The office is contactable through the working day, and we will also pick up emails after hours or over a weekend to help troubleshoot anything time sensitive. That support runs one way. If you need us we will answer, but nobody here is expected to be reading email outside their own working hours.

Travel

We cover from Caboolture in the north to Beenleigh in the south, and out to Gatton in the west. Days are broken into geographic runs so that you are not driving back and forth across Brisbane between appointments. A car allowance, fuel card and toll card mean the travel does not cost you anything out of pocket.

There is also work-from-home time built in for documentation, planning and report writing.

Building of the service

As our first OT, you would have genuine authority over your own discipline:



the assessment tools we use, how OT sessions are structured, what resources we invest in, and how OT works alongside physiotherapy for the families who need both. We will bring you into decisions about growing the team, and when we do add junior OTs, you would be the person shaping how they practise.

We know that being the only OT in a practice can mean professional isolation, so we have addressed it directly. Your CPD budget funds fully independent external supervision with a senior OT of your choosing. That supervision is yours — it sits outside the business, and it is there for your clinical reasoning and your professional wellbeing, not for our reporting.

Alongside that, you would have monthly team meetings where cases are discussed and strategies shared, and daily access to an experienced paediatric multidisciplinary team who know the families, the schools and the system.

Working in a small team

We have chosen to stay small. It means you will know every child on your caseload and every clinician on the team, cases are shared and talked through rather than handed on, and decisions can be made quickly without going through layers of management.

We are growing, but we intentionally maintain a small allied health team, so that clinicians receive strong professional support and families see the same faces week to week. Our aim is continuity of care across the disciplines a family needs, rather than children being handed between providers. We do not want to get so large that treatment starts to feel impersonal.

We work to sustainable caseloads rather than a high-volume service model, so you have time to deliver thoughtful and engaging therapy. Billable time includes report writing and telehealth functional capacity assessments, not only face-to-face contact.

What you'll be doing

- Completing assessments and developing individualised treatment plans for paediatric clients.

- Delivering evidence-based, play-focused occupational therapy in homes, kindies, schools and community settings.

- Telehealth and functional capacity assessments where appropriate.

- Working closely with families, carers and the multidisciplinary team so that care stays cohesive.

- Completing clinical notes and progress reports in a timely way.

- Establishing the clinical direction of our occupational therapy service, and mentoring junior OTs as the team grows

What we're looking for

- Bachelor's or master's degree in Occupational Therapy.

- Registration as an Occupational Therapist with AHPRA.

- A minimum of four years' experience, including paediatric experience.

- Valid driver's licence.

- Confidence working autonomously and setting your own clinical direction.





- Excellent communication and interpersonal skills to build strong relationships with children and their families.

- Strong clinical reasoning and problem-solving skills.

- An interest in mentoring less experienced clinicians as the team grows.

- Must hold an appropriate visa with unrestricted work rights for the duration of the employment.

Ideal candidates

- Experience within the NDIS framework.

- Experience with children who have developmental delays, disabilities or complex needs.

- A passion to develop the occupational therapy branch of our business fitting with our practice culture.

We would also encourage you to apply if you are coming from an adjacent area of practice. If you are working in hospital paediatrics and want to move into community work, or in adult disability where you already know the NDIS, you are bringing across a good deal of what matters.

If you are returning to practice after a career break or parental leave, we would be glad to hear from you.

On full-time and part time.

We are genuinely open to part-time, and we would rather have the right senior clinician three or four days a week than the wrong one five. Being straight with you: once we start adding junior OTs, full-time will make the mentoring side of the role easier to do well. If part-time suits you now, tell us — it is a conversation, not a barrier, and it does not have to be a permanent arrangement either way.

What we offer

At Play-based Paediatrics, we are committed to supporting the professional and personal growth of our team. You can expect:

- A salary of $125,000 to $140,000 plus superannuation, negotiable depending on experience, and pro rata for part time.

- Six weeks of paid annual leave, plus a week of paid study leave.

- A CPD allowance of up to $4,000 per year (pro rata), which funds independent external supervision with a senior OT of your choosing.

- A car allowance of $7,000 per year (pro rata), along with a fuel and toll card.

- Real control of your own diary, including working a Saturday in place of a weekday if that suits your life better. A healthy work/life balance is important.

- A Microsoft Office package, with your own professional email address and a branded signature set up for you ready to facilitate team collaboration.

- A branded professional uniform shirt, hat and rash vest, showing your first name and your title as an occupational therapist.

- The opportunity to build a discipline from the ground up, with the backing of an established service.

About us

Play-based Paediatrics is a family-run business providing play-based therapy for children across greater Brisbane. We have direct family experience of the NDIS, so we understand the system our clients are navigating from the inside, not only from the clinical side, and that shapes how we work with the families who come to us and our clinic culture.

You can see more of what we do on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/PeterBPhysioNDIS

If you would like to talk the role through first, or you have questions before deciding whether to apply, call Peter Bishop on 0418 772 ***.

Apply now, or get in touch for a confidential chat.

📌 Paediatric Occupational Therapist | Lead Role | Hybrid, community (Brisbane)
🏢 Play-based Paediatrics
📍 Brisbane