The OT Service is led by Kate, Adam, Samantha and Lucy who are highly respected occupational therapists in their respective fields and continue to hold clinical caseloads to maintain an in-depth knowledge in their area of practice.

Directors

Kate Sheehan

Director & Occupational Therapist

Kate Sheehan is a well-respected Occupational Therapist with 36 years of clinical experience, having graduated from the Derby School of Occupational Therapy in 1987. Her specialist area of practice is accessible housing design, championing the need to understand the meaning of home to an individual and how poorly designed modifications can have a significant impact on the well-being of clients.

Kate has been an active member of the Royal College of Occupational Therapy (RCOT) and the RCOTSS-Housing group since its formation, having held posts on the NEC including Chair and has used this platform to develop close links within government to advocate on the benefits of occupational therapy in housing and the wider built environment. To this day she continues to work with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities on the development of an accessible built environment.

In 2018 she co-authored the Wheelchair Housing Design Guide for the Centre for Accessible Environments, publication in March 2018, supported by the then Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government, having previously authored Minor Adaptations without Delay and written chapters for The Essential Guide for occupational therapist.

Kate continues to have a small clinical caseload to keep her up to date with the needs of her clients, she provides clinical mentoring for a number of local authorities and works closely with our consultancy companies, forging better design for all.

Kate is internationally known and has presented her work in Australia, Italy, the USA along with the first accessible housing courses in Bosnia and Croatia.

Kate was awarded a Fellowship from the RCOT in 2022 for her outstanding work in the field of occupational therapy and in 2023 was bestowed a fellowship from the University of Worcester.

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Adam Ferry

Graduating in 2007 with an Occupational Therapy BSc, Adam worked in the NHS until he left in 2018 to work full-time in the private sector as a director of The OT Service, although there was a two – year period when these roles overlapped.

Whist in the NHS Adam worked in a range of clinical areas but predominantly emergency care, then neurological rehabilitation as a senior therapist.  In the final 3 years of NHS employment Adam managed acute and rehabilitation services across four sites.

Over recent years Adam has continued to develop a clinical reputation within neurological rehabilitation and falls, holding a complex caseload supporting case managers and their clients.  However, it is within commercial consultancy that Adam has developed his national and international profile, being responsible for development of The OT Show CPD programme as well as expert consultancy for high profile companies such as AKW, Closomat, Invacare, Mangar International and Abacus Healthcare.

Adam is a member of the British Association of Occupational Therapists and the College of Occupational Therapists Specialist sections – Independent Practice and Older People as well as being registered with the Health Care Professionals Council (OT52788)

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Samantha Shann

Director

Samantha qualified in 1992 as an occupational therapist and gained her masters in 2011.  She also holds a post-graduate teaching qualification in academic practice. Samantha is a member of the Royal College of Occupational Therapists (RCOT) and a member of RCOT’s specialist sections – Older Persons and Mental Health as well as being registered with the Health and Care Professionals Council.

Samantha’s clinical speciality centres on those with mental health concerns, while her wider role with The OT Service involves supervision and mentoring as well as consultancy to businesses focusing on training and occupational therapy expertise.

Samantha is the president of the World Federation of Occupational Therapists (WFOT).  She is committed to promoting and advocating for the profession by supporting the development of professional standards and new educational programmes.

Until 2016 Samantha held the position of senior lecturer at Northumbria University overseeing aspects of the BSc (Hons) and MSc (pre-registration) occupational therapy programmes, with a particular interest in supporting students and graduates in developing new services. Samantha remains a regular guest lecturer at various national and international universities.

Through her work with the WFOT Samantha represents the occupational therapy profession at high-level World Health Organisation (WHO) meetings and contributes to specific WHO projects for example the GATE (Global Assistive Technology) initiative, Rehabilitation 2030 and Mental Health Gap Action Programme (mhGAP). Samantha is also a founding board member for the International Society for Wheelchair Professionals (ISWP).

Samantha is a sought after speaker at national and international conferences sharing her expertise on promoting professional identity and establishing occupational therapy services.

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Lucy Leonard

Occupational Therapist

Lucy has 25 year’s post graduate experience in occupational therapy, including over 20 years in statutory services working as a clinical specialist and leading multidisciplinary teams, consequently, she has a broad and thorough understanding of health and social care systems across the UK. Lucy has worked for 10 years in the private sector carrying an eclectic caseload of people with a range of neurological, orthopaedic and polytrauma diagnoses, finding creative ways of meeting an individual’s goals and providing occupation-focused rehabilitation. Lucy is an accomplished public speaker, delivering webinars, keynote speeches and has appeared on BBC Breakfast and Radio 4.  With a passion for the profession and an MSc in Advanced Occupational Therapy, Lucy became clinical director of The OT Service in 2022.  She now uses her experience to support our UK-wide network of associate occupational therapists, providing clinical guidance to the clinical co-ordination team and leading on our relationships with case managers. In addition, Lucy oversees several occupational therapy projects, including the interim management of statutory occupational therapy services, working in partnership with local authorities around proportionate care, waiting list reduction and optimising pathways and processes.

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Staff Members

Our clients, partners and associates are fully supported by a skilled team of staff, ensuring a high-quality service in line with OT Service values.

Brian Trotter

Operations Manager

Brian has a wide variety of experiences to draw on in his role as Operations Manager. He graduated in 1997 from The University of Brighton with a Ba (Hons) in Physical and Business Education.  He spent some time in London fitness instructing and sports coaching before re-locating to the North East, setting up his own business with the help of the Prince’s Trust. 

As personal and professional circumstances changed Brian moved into an 16 year healthcare career,  firstly with the ambulance service and latterly in an NHS Acute Occupational Therapy service as a Technical Instructor. In 2019 he accepted the role of Practice Manager with The OT Service and is is now our full-time Operations Manager bringing a committed and creative approach to the service we provide.

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Jill Straker

Assistant Clinical Co-ordinator

Jill began working for The OT Service in 2020 following 30 years of work in statutory services. She brings a wealth of experience from a variety of administrative and secretarial roles, many in the NHS and thus has a huge understanding of the healthcare sector and the importance of effective administration.

Jill has helped The OT Service go from strength to strength and recently became our first assistant clinical co-ordinator supporting our 3 clinical co-ordinators in managing the caseload.

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Lisa Herron

Clinical Co-ordinator

Lisa is an occupational therapist of 12 years, retraining as a mature student following a career in banking. She was The OT Service’s first clinical co-ordinator and now shares the responsibility for managing our caseload and co-ordinating associates with Shirleyanne and Sarah. Her clinical knowledge and experience of the private sector is ideally suited to her role and we know her supportive approach to our associate therapists is greatly appreciated.

Lisa’s clinical skills are broad having worked in a number of NHS and statutory roles and more recently in the private sector. As with all our clinical co-ordinators she is always at the end of the phone for case managers, private referrers and our various other clients and commissioners.

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Kimberley Robinson

Administrator

Kimberley joined us in 2023 as an administrator and quickly became an invaluable member of the team bringing over 20 years of paid and voluntary work in the healthcare sector. Her previous experiences include GP surgery, statutory services and private sector administration.

Kimberley has a breadth of knowledge regarding systems of work and uses this effectively during her dealings with local authority contracts.

Along with Joanna she is first port of call for referrals, associate queries and general enquiries.

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Shirleyanne Kippax

Clinical Co-ordintaor

As with all our clinical co-ordinators Shirleyanne is a qualified occupational therapist graduating from Northumbria University in 2014 with a 1st class honours degree.

Shirleyanne has been a valuable associate of The OT Service for a number of years, recently taking on the employed position of clinical co-ordinator.

Her clinical experiences have been primarily in care of the elderly work, managing complex caseloads in both acute and rehabilitation settings. This has involved supporting people with a range of complex and long-term healthcare needs such as stroke, Parkinson’s disease and multiple sclerosis, along with trauma and elective orthopaedics, dementia and palliative care.

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Joanna Ridley

Administrator

Joanna began working for The OT Service in 2024 following 24 years in GP surgery administration. Not only does Joanna have a wonderful talent for front of house work, she is hugely experienced in healthcare administrative processes and business systems of work.

Along with Kimberley, Joanna is your first port of call for referrals, associate queries and general enquiries.

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Associates

Lisa Davies

Occupational Therapist

Lisa graduated from The London School of Occupational Therapy in 1993. To date her career path has allowed a wide variety of clinical experiences in both acute and non-acute settings. Her experience as an occupational therapist covers health, adult social care and housing.

Lisa’s areas of expertise include major adaptation work for adults and children with physical disabilities, assessment and recommendation for housing needs including housing needs reports, equipment provision to maximise independence in the home environment, experience in new build design for wheelchair housing and refurbishments. As an occupational therapist and building surveyor Lisa is hands on to advise regarding new builds, plans and general disability legislation within the building sector. Accessible Housing is her main interest and passion.

Lisa is experienced in assessing functional difficulties within the home environment and has good knowledge of equipment for adults and both minor and major adaptations for adults and children. Lisa can also provide advice on major adaptations and new build design to meet the needs of an individual. Lisa is an experienced manager with experience of training, providing clinical supervision to occupational therapy staff, appraisals and management of a team. She maintains her CPD and has been the vice-chair of the specialist housing group of RCOT, vice-chair of the English board and represented RCOT for NHS England on an integration of Health, Housing and Social wellbeing paper.

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Jacqui Waller

Occupational Therapist

Jacqui qualified in South Africa in 2015 and has since specialised in paediatrics and young adults.  She has experience in a variety of settings including hospitals, special needs, mainstream and college level educational institutions.  Jacqui spent 3 years working in a rural special needs school in South Africa, providing therapy for children with intellectual and physical impairments, who came from multicultural, multi-lingual backgrounds, often with more than one disability.  Jacqui’s approach is extremely creative and resourceful  in order to maximise children’s engagement and independence in all activities including those at school, play, leisure and self-care skills such as dressing and feeding.  This is devised through home and school-based treatment plans, that are uniquely tailored to each child.

Jacqui has worked with a variety of disabilities including cerebral palsy, down syndrome, autism and sensory processing disorders, muscular dystrophy, global developmental delays and learning disabilities. Her areas of expertise include classroom adaptations, seating equipment, sensory strategies, self care, handwriting intervention, gross motor, fine motor and perceptual skills.  She has experience in running interactive cerebral palsy and autism support groups for parents, as well as training for staff members.

She is passionate about paediatrics and supporting children to reach their potential, while working closely with the multi-disciplinary team and providing open communication with parents to set realistic goals, from helping with handwriting to children with highly specialised needs.

 

 

 

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Jane Bradley

Occupational Therapist

Jane is a committed and friendly occupational therapist who qualified in 2000.  She has a wealth of experience working in a very diverse range of settings including mental health services for both children and adults, and physical settings where she provided occupational therapy assessments for people with both acute, chronic and life limiting health conditions in the community.

Jane has skills and knowledge in completing specialist manual handling assessments and can provide vocational interventions for clients.  She works holistically when completing client assessments and uses her strong observation skills to inform sound clinical reasoning.  She enjoys working with families and people from a diverse range of backgrounds and has worked in many different areas of the UK from inner London to rural Worcestershire. A particular interest is the impact of the environment on health and wellbeing as people age and the impact on families and carers. Jane also has extensive experience and knowledge of working with people at the end of their lives.

As part of her continuing professional development Jane attends the OT Show and participates in regular mentor updates as part of her role as a practice educator for Worcester University. She is a member of the Royal College of Occupational Therapists and is registered with the Health & Care Professions Council.

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Fiona Leeming

Occupational Therapist

Fiona is a highly specialised occupational therapist with 14 years’ experience working in a variety of clinical settings including adult rehabilitation, condition management and paediatrics.

Recently working in paediatrics with children and young adults who present with a wide variety of needs including those with chronic, complex, disabling and life-limiting conditions, Fiona also has experience working within the community setting providing therapy within homes and schools. She works closely with childrens’ family or care givers, allied health professionals, education staff and social care to ensure a holistic approach, regularly supporting with the transition between services.

Fiona specialises in providing comprehensive assessments, including specialist standardised assessments, treatments and therapeutic interventions and promotes dignity and independence with daily living activities by engaging in play and fulfilling meaningful roles.  She has comprehensive experience in prescribing standard and specialist adaptive equipment, postural management, manual handling and assessing for housing adaptations.  In addition, she is skilled in upper limb splinting and the use of orthosis to facilitate function.

Fiona is passionate about occupational therapy and how this can enhance independence.  She finds her job extremely rewarding and feels lucky to have the opportunity to work with such amazing children and adults in her role.

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Testimonials

Hear what our team has to say about us.

Since becoming an associate with the OT Service I have felt incredibly well supported. The team are always quick to respond to emails and calls and even though I’ve only met one or two face to face, I feel like part of the team. Moving into independent practice was daunting so to be working with the OT service who are understanding and respectful of that, has been a blessing.

A – Associate Therapist

I signed up to work with The OT Service almost a year ago. They are a super company to work for. You never feel pressurised to take on work if you feel you haven’t got the capacity and the team are grateful for the time you can offer. The staff are approachable, always have time for you and put a lot of trust in your experience. Although autonomous, you are well supported by experienced clinicians.

S – Associate Therapist

My experience so far as an associate working with The OT Service has been nothing but positive. Support is on hand for assistance with systems and processes, and the access to another clinician as part of the quality assurance process is reassuring. The rates of pay are attractive and it’s very refreshing to be paid in such a timely manner, as an Independent OT. I am really loving working with TOTS, just wish I had more capacity to take more!

A – Associate Therapist