Christopher Dalley

Qualifications

PGD Occupational Therapy

Specialisms

• Physical Disabilities
• Orthopaedics
• Progressive Cognitive Conditions
• Housing & Adaptations

Introduction

I graduated as an Occupational Therapist in 1996. Since 1999, I have predominantly worked in Social Services role. I have worked for a number of Social Services departments over the years including Enfield, Essex, Brent, Haringey, Barnet, Waltham Forest and Hertfordshire. For six years until 2023, I was employed as the Team Manager for Enfield Council’s Pathway 1 Discharge to Assess Service. This role gave me the opportunity to create the service and I devised and implemented a pathway for patients to be assessed within their homes for community services within 2 hours of hospital discharge and for the services to be mobilised before the end of the day. The project was a success and supported the rapid discharge of over 6,000 patients via this pathway and demonstrated savings in excess of £10,000,000 to the NHS in terms of bed days saved. 

As a Team Manager, I continued to draw a clinical caseload during my tenure in order to maintain my skills as an OT and optimise the capacity of the service. Since leaving I have reverted to taking contractual casework via the Occupational Therapy Partnership. I am currently working on contracts for a number of providers including a community housing authority,  a Continuing Healthcare Service and two adult social care departments. In all roles, I routinely complete assessments and make recommendations for major adaptations, minor adaptations, specialist equipment and packages of care and rehousing recommendations. The conditions I work with are varied and include orthopaedic disorders, the elderly / frail, complex neurological conditions (including MS, Parkinson’s disease and Motor Neurone Disease), cancer, progressive cognitive conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia and complications arising from diabetes and amputations. 

Prior to qualifying in 1996, I completed a 3-month placement in a Psychiatric Centre in Staten Island, New York.  This was funded by myself using the income from my work as an OTA at London Borough of Tower Hamlets Social Services.  After qualifying, I was employed as OT and acting team manager of a community-based OT Department for adults with learning disabilities. I subsequently worked as an OT in a psychiatric role - a supported living facility and a newly established six-bedded residential rehabilitation unit for adults with enduring psychotic illness.

Prior to training as an Occupational Therapist, I graduated in 1990 with a BSc (Hons) in Psychology and worked for a number of years as a Personal Care Assistant and Team Leader within a large residential home for Jewish adults with physical disabilities. This provided me with insight into the day-to-day challenges and triumphs of people living with a disability which led to me undertaking a Postgraduate Diploma in Occupational Therapy at the Royal London Hospital Medical College.

I accept instructions from both claimant and defendant solicitors and insurers. I have undergone formal training in the medico-legal process and am fully aware of my responsibilities under Civil Procedure Rules (CPR) pertaining to expert witnesses.