Always having to explain what we do - There is a widespread misconception about the OT profession.

Well I love variety and I hate stagnating. I want to be really good at what I do and it’s essential that I get to do what I’m really good at.

Inclusion.Me, in partnership with the Royal College Of Occupational Therapists Specialist Section Independent Practice, are pleased to announce that this July we will be running a training day around the Care Act & other essential pieces of legislation; run by Michael Mandelstam and aimed at benefiting Independent OTs.

With the arrival of the Care Act, Inclusion.Me in partnership with United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust are very please to announce that this November we will be running a training session around these essential pieces of legislation; run by Michael Mandelstam and aimed at benefiting both Local Authority & Independent OTs.

A previous article from Harrison Training considered; ‘Could using an online portfolio help you to organise your CPD evidence?’. One of the benefits of using an online portfolio is access to ready-made templates for recording CPD activities.

Inclusion.Me are very excited to be able to announce that a completely re-designed & updated version of our hugely successful "Starting Out: Tips For Independent OTs Guide" is now available for download via our professionals portal section; we've updated it to include some of our recent Q&A's with independent OTs along with providing additional tips on maintaining CPD

As an independent practitioner your roles may not fit neatly into CPD categories defined by professional and organisational bodies.

There have been some big changes behind the scenes at Inclusion.Me. We're sad to say that Walter Brazil has now left the company and moved on in search of a new challenge, leaving Matthew as the sole company director.

To celebrate the New Year we're offering our T&Cs start up pack (ideal for independent OTs in need of a tailored set of T&Cs) at our Associate price of £75.....for everyone! That's a saving of £75! All you have to do is click the link below and then go to the T&Cs associates package option....this offer is only available until the end of Jan 2015 so don't miss out.....this really is unbeatable value and saves you ££££ on the price of a set of OT specific T&Cs created by solicitors for OTs in independent practice

After the stand had been put away for another year at The OT Show we made time to sit down and think through how it had gone, what we had learnt, what our plans might be for next years show & how this could affect our business as an independent OT service over the coming months.

I had been working as a senior OT for a Local Authority for a number of years which I enjoyed however due to the lack of career progression within my role, I wanted a new challenge.

This week I attended a photo shoot for the OT Show, which is a conference for Occupational Therapists.

I was working as an OT manager for Health and Social care; I loved my job and the team around me but found that I really missed the hands on clinical aspects of doing my job.

I’m glad I took the leap, but I wish I’d had the courage to jump a bit earlier in my career. I certainly wish I’d planned it a bit better at the start, so that the point I’m at now might have been a smoother journey.

Deciding to work for yourself in any profession is often an exciting but daunting prospect. Most OTs seem to say they started independent work confident in the professional services they could offer, but had little business acumen to support themselves on their journey.

I am passionate about OT and its underlying philosophy. I really enjoyed the majority of my work within statutory services; however I became increasingly frustrated and felt stagnant in my roles.

For a long time I'd been curious as to whether working independently as an Occupational Therapist could work for me. I was self employed for some time before I trained as an OT so had already had some experience of the book keeping side of things.

Independent OTs Tips Guide Proving Popular

To earn more money, and as my career took me into acute inpatient work, I wanted to keep my community, rehab, adaptation type work up to date.