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Facilitated occupational therapy

A registered OT in the room. Wherever the room is.

A trained facilitator attends in person wearing a chest-mounted device. An HCPC-registered occupational therapist joins live — directing the assessment and holding full clinical responsibility. In-person presence and clinical oversight, on demand, anywhere in the country.

Assured by
HCPC-registered OTs RCOT members DBS-checked GDPR-compliant
Live assessment LIVE
Facilitator · on-site OT · remote
The pressure on OT

Demand for occupational therapy has outgrown the way it's delivered.

Waiting lists for assessment hold people in hospital longer than they need to be, delay equipment and adaptations, and increase the risk of falls and readmission. The traditional model — one therapist, one car, one postcode at a time — can't stretch to meet it.

One OT,
many sites

A single therapist can lead assessments across the country in a day — no travel between visits.

In person
+ remote

A real human in the room, with the clinical decision-making of a registered OT behind the lens.

Days,
not weeks

Assessments scheduled around availability, not a therapist's geography or travel diary.

The combined model

An in-person facilitator. A live clinical lead. One assessment.

One OT · one day LIVE
One registered OT, one day — across the country No travel between sites. The therapist joins each assessment live. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 THE SAME DAY 1 09:00Liverpool 2 10:15Bristol 3 11:30Manchester 4 12:45Newcastle 5 14:00Birmingham 6 15:15London 7 16:30Devon Seven assessments. One clinician. Zero miles driven.

Our facilitated assessment pairs a trained, DBS-checked facilitator — a carer or OT assistant — with a registered occupational therapist who joins remotely through a device worn on the facilitator's chest.

The facilitator is the hands and the human presence. The OT is the clinical mind: observing through the chest-mounted view, directing the assessment in real time, and carrying full clinical responsibility for the outcome — exactly as they would in person.

  • Hands-free oversight. The chest mount keeps the OT's eye-line steady and the facilitator's hands free to assist.
  • Full clinical responsibility. The HCPC-registered OT leads and owns the assessment and its recommendations.
  • A person in the room. Frail or anxious clients meet a real, present facilitator — not a screen on a stand.

See the full process

On-site

Facilitator

Carer or OT assistant, in the room with the client.

  • In-person presence & reassurance
  • Wears the chest-mounted device
  • Carries out hands-on tasks as directed
  • DBS-checked & trained
Remote

Occupational therapist

HCPC-registered, joining live via the device.

  • Directs the assessment in real time
  • Holds full clinical responsibility
  • Writes the report & recommendations
  • Selected for the case, not the postcode
What it changes

Capacity and reach, without compromise.

OT availability

Freeing therapists from travel multiplies how many assessments each one can lead. The result is shorter waits and far greater throughput from the same clinical workforce.

Geographic flexibility

An OT is no longer tied to a region. The right specialist for a case can lead an assessment anywhere — rural, remote, or simply across the country.

Maintained standards

Every assessment is led and signed off by a registered OT, with clear clinical governance and secure, GDPR-compliant handling throughout.

Start a conversation

Tell us where your waiting list hurts most.

We'll map the combined model to your service and show you what it changes — capacity, turnaround, and reach. No commitment, just a clear picture.

How it works

The combined assessment, step by step.

One in-person facilitator. One live, registered occupational therapist. A single, clinically-owned assessment delivered without the constraints of travel and geography.

The device

Why the screen goes on the chest.

A tablet or phone in a chest harness gives the remote OT a stable, eye-level view of the assessment as it happens — and leaves the facilitator with both hands free to help the client.

  • The OT's eye-line. The camera sees what a therapist standing there would see, not a wobbling handheld feed.
  • Hands free to assist. The facilitator can support a transfer, set up equipment, or steady a client without juggling a device.
  • Two-way and live. The OT speaks to both facilitator and client in real time, directing each step of the assessment.
OT · facilitator · client LIVE
JOINS LIVE LIVE OCCUPATIONAL THERAPIST REGISTERED · REMOTE ON-SITE FACILITATOR CLIENT
The sequence

From referral to clinical report.

01

Referral & triage

Your team sends the referral. We confirm the assessment type, brief the right OT for the case, and schedule around availability rather than travel.

02

Facilitator attends in person

A trained, DBS-checked facilitator arrives at the home, ward or care setting and sets up the chest-mounted device with the client.

03

The OT joins live

The registered occupational therapist connects through the device — seeing the room at eye level and speaking to both facilitator and client.

04

Assessment, OT-directed

The OT leads every step, directing the facilitator through observation, functional tasks, transfers and environment checks, and adapting in real time.

05

Clinical report delivered

The OT writes up findings, equipment and adaptation recommendations and next steps — clinically owned and ready to action.

Clinical governance

The therapist leads, and owns it.

There is no ambiguity about who is responsible. The HCPC-registered occupational therapist directs the assessment and holds clinical accountability for it from start to finish.

The facilitator works strictly under the OT's direction, never beyond it. All clinical judgement, decisions and recommendations sit with the therapist — supported by secure, GDPR-compliant handling of every recording and record.

Also available

Single-person virtual assessment

Where a facilitator isn't required — for example a capable client or a focused review — an OT can carry out a remote assessment directly, on the same secure platform.

  • Faster for straightforward cases with no on-site visit to coordinate.
  • Same clinical ownership by a registered OT throughout.
  • We'll advise which approach fits each referral.

See it mapped to your service.

The fastest way to understand the model is to apply it to a real waiting list. Let's do that.

Services

Occupational therapy assessments, delivered differently.

Two ways to access a registered OT — facilitated or fully remote — across the assessments your service relies on most.

Flagship

Facilitated (combined) assessment

An in-person facilitator with a chest-mounted device, led live by a registered OT. The right answer when hands-on tasks, transfers or environment work are needed.

  • In-person presence plus clinical oversight
  • Suited to complex or frail clients
  • Full hands-on functional assessment
Direct

Single-person virtual assessment

A registered OT assesses remotely without an on-site facilitator — efficient for capable clients and focused reviews on a secure platform.

  • Fastest route for straightforward cases
  • No on-site visit to coordinate
  • Same registered-OT ownership
Assessment types

What we assess.

Covering the everyday occupational therapy work that keeps people safe, independent and out of hospital.

01

Functional & daily living

How a person manages everyday tasks — washing, dressing, cooking, mobility — and what support restores independence.

02

Equipment & minor adaptations

Identifying and recommending aids, equipment and adaptations to make a home safer and more workable.

03

Moving & handling

Safe transfer and handling assessment for clients and the teams supporting them, with clear guidance.

04

Falls & home safety

Pinpointing falls risks in the environment and routine, and the changes that reduce them.

05

Discharge & reablement

Assessing readiness to return home and the support needed to make discharge safe and lasting.

06

Seating & posture

Reviewing seating, positioning and posture to support comfort, function and pressure care.

Need an assessment type not listed here? Ask us

Not sure which fits a referral?

Tell us about the cases on your list and we'll recommend facilitated or remote — and why.

Who we help

Adding OT capacity where it's needed.

The same combined model, tuned to the pressures each service faces — from hospital flow to falls response to adult social care.

NHS trusts

Pressure on hospital flow and community waiting lists rarely matches OT headcount. Facilitated assessment adds capacity fast.

  • Support safer, faster hospital discharge
  • Reduce community assessment backlogs
  • Scale without recruiting against a shortage

Ambulance & urgent care

Many falls and urgent calls don't need a hospital — they need an OT's judgement on the scene.

  • OT input on falls & admission-avoidance calls
  • Support crews to keep people safely at home
  • Reduce avoidable conveyances to ED

Local authorities & community

Adult social care faces the same OT shortage as the NHS, with equipment, adaptation and reablement assessments waiting.

  • Faster equipment & minor adaptation assessments
  • Support reablement and independence at home
  • Reach rural and hard-to-cover areas

Care providers

Care homes and domiciliary teams need OT oversight far more often than an OT can visit in person.

  • On-demand moving & handling reviews
  • Seating, posture and falls assessments
  • Environment reviews led by a registered OT

Private clients

Individuals and families arranging an assessment directly — alongside solicitor- and insurer-instructed work — without waiting on an NHS or council referral.

  • Home, equipment & adaptation assessments
  • Medico-legal & insurer-instructed reports
  • Scheduled appointments, no waiting list

Whatever the setting, the principle holds: a person in the room, a registered OT behind the lens.

Your sector

Let's map it to your service.

Tell us where the bottleneck is and we'll show you the impact of the combined model on your numbers.

Why Virtual OT

The case for assessing this way.

The combined model isn't a compromise on in-person care. It's a way to make a scarce, in-demand clinical resource go much further — without losing the human presence or the clinical standard.

Capacity, multiplied

Travel is the hidden tax on occupational therapy. Remove it and a single therapist can lead assessments back-to-back, across the country, in a single day — turning the same clinical hours into far more completed assessments.

Shorter waits

When scheduling depends on availability rather than geography, assessments happen sooner. Sooner means fewer delayed discharges, faster equipment, and less risk while people wait.

The right OT for the case

Geography no longer dictates who assesses. A therapist with the right specialism can lead a case wherever it is — including rural and hard-to-cover areas that struggle to attract OTs.

Resource efficiency

Less unpaid travel time and tighter scheduling make each assessment more cost-effective — capacity you can scale up or down against demand.

Presence kept human

A real, trained facilitator is in the room. For frail or anxious clients, that human contact is something a camera on a stand can't replace.

Clinical standard held

Every assessment is led and owned by an HCPC-registered OT, with clear governance and secure, GDPR-compliant records throughout.

In short

We didn't set out to replace the in-person OT. We set out to free them from the car — so far more people can be seen, far sooner.

Run the model against a real list.

The clearest proof is your own numbers. Bring us a waiting list and we'll show you the difference.

About

Occupational therapy, a step into the future.

Virtual OT exists to close the gap between the demand for occupational therapy and the capacity to deliver it — without lowering the standard of care or losing the human in the room.

Our approach

Technology in service of clinical judgement.

Our therapists bring decades of combined experience and pair it with a simple idea: that an OT's clinical decision-making — the thing that's truly scarce — can be brought to far more assessments if it isn't tied to a car and a postcode.

The chest-mounted, facilitator-led model lets us do exactly that. The therapist stays firmly in charge; the technology just removes the distance.

Our people

A network, not a waiting room.

We work with a network of HCPC-registered occupational therapists and trained, DBS-checked facilitators. That structure is what lets us match the right therapist to each case and assess across the country at pace.

Standards & assurance

Held to the standards that matter.

HCPC-registered

Every assessment is led by a registered occupational therapist.

RCOT members

Aligned to Royal College of Occupational Therapists standards.

DBS-checked

All facilitators are enhanced DBS-checked and trained.

GDPR-compliant

Secure, compliant handling of every recording and record.

Work with us.

Whether you're a commissioner with a waiting list or an OT who wants to assess this way, we'd like to hear from you.

FAQ

The questions commissioners ask.

Clinical responsibility, data security, what's needed on-site, and how the model holds up against in-person assessment.

The HCPC-registered occupational therapist leading the assessment. They direct it in real time and hold full clinical accountability for the assessment and its recommendations. The facilitator works only under the therapist's direction and never makes clinical decisions.

The combined model is designed to give you both halves of an in-person assessment: a real person in the room to carry out hands-on tasks and reassure the client, and a registered OT's clinical judgement directing every step through a stable, eye-level view. For complex or hands-on cases, that pairing is the point.

Securely and in line with GDPR. Recordings and records are handled through a secure, compliant process. We're happy to walk your information-governance team through the detail as part of onboarding.

A facilitator (we can provide one, or train yours), the chest-mounted device, and a reasonable internet connection. The facilitator handles the setup with the client so nothing technical falls to your team or the person being assessed.

Facilitators are trained carers or OT assistants, enhanced DBS-checked, and prepared specifically to support facilitated assessments. They provide the in-person presence and carry out tasks as directed by the OT — they do not assess independently.

Because the OT joins remotely, clinical coverage isn't limited by geography — including rural and hard-to-reach areas. We coordinate facilitator attendance to match the locations you need.

Removing therapist travel means assessments are scheduled around availability, which typically means sooner than a travel-bound model allows. We'll give you realistic timescales once we understand your volumes.

When hands-on facilitation isn't required — for example a capable client or a focused review. We'll recommend the right approach for each referral; it's not one-size-fits-all.

Still have a question?

Ask us directly — we'll give you a straight answer.

Contact

Book a requirements conversation.

Tell us about your service and where the waiting list bites. We'll come back with how the combined model fits — and what it could change.

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CoverageClinical coverage nationwide, with facilitator attendance coordinated to your locations.

ResponseWe reply to enquiries promptly during UK working hours.

AssuredHCPC-registered OTs · RCOT · DBS-checked · GDPR-compliant.