This year’s OT Week (2–8 November 2026) will centre on a message that goes to the very heart of occupational therapy: participation changes everything. 

Announcing the theme earlier this month, the Royal College of Occupational Therapists (RCOT) described participation as fundamental to health, wellbeing and quality of life. Whether it is learning, working, caring for family, pursuing hobbies or connecting with a community, being able to take part in the occupations that matter to a person is central to them living well. And, as RCOT puts it, occupational therapists are the experts in participation.  

Just a few weeks after OT Week, the occupational therapy community will come together again at The Occupational Therapy Show (25–26 November at the NEC Birmingham). Looking at this year’s programme, the connections with the OT Week message are clear. Across clinical practice, policy, housing, technology, sustainability, careers and case management, sessions repeatedly return to one question: how can we enable people to participate in the lives they want to lead? 
 

From treatment to participation 

Perhaps nowhere is that connection clearer than in The art of participation: what eight years of The Sketcher Project has taught us about life after brain injury. Rhiannon Stokes and Beth Morris will explore a project built around meaningful creative activity following brain injury – demonstrating the importance of opportunities to connect, create and participate beyond traditional rehabilitation. 

Participation is equally central to More than therapy: leisure opportunities for children, built collaboratively with community partners. The session explores a pathway developed with community providers to help children with occupational therapy needs access meaningful leisure opportunities – looking beyond the clinic towards participation in everyday community life. 

Elsewhere, sessions tackle participation through parenting, education, relationships and everyday activities. From an occupational perspective on parenting and perinatal mental health to supporting intimacy within rehabilitation, and interdisciplinary working in schools, the programme reflects the breadth of occupations that shape people's identities and quality of life. 
 

Removing the barriers around people 

RCOT’s OT Week campaign also places participation within the bigger picture. With governments and health systems increasingly focused on prevention and person-centred support, RCOT argues that services need to work around people’s lives rather than expecting people to fit around services. 

The Occupational Therapy Show programme takes that conversation from individual practice into systems and policy. 

RCOT’s own keynote, Building a movement for change: better outcomes, closer to where people live, will consider what happens when support comes too late or services are organised around systems rather than people. Meanwhile, Occupational therapy as a catalyst for change: how occupational therapists drive participation and inclusion will explore how occupational therapists can remove barriers not only through individual rehabilitation, but by influencing the services, systems and policies around people.  

Looking further ahead, Leading the future of health and care: how occupational therapists can shape the next decade will examine the profession’s role amid NHS and adult social care reform – including its potential to improve outcomes, reduce pressure on acute services and enable people to live healthier, more independent lives. 
 

Enabling participation through innovation 

Of course, participation also depends on having the right environment, equipment and technology. Across the main conference and the Innovation and Showcase theatres, delegates can explore practical solutions designed to remove everyday barriers. 

Sessions range from supporting comfort, posture and participation through custom seating to assistive technologies that help people retain, regain or replicate hand and arm function. Others address accessible bathing and hospital discharge, manual handling, feeding and technology-enabled care.  

Together with more than 200 suppliers exhibiting at the show, this creates an opportunity not simply to hear about participation in theory, but to explore the products, services and approaches that can make it possible in practice. 
 

Continuing the conversation after OT Week 

RCOT describes participation changes everything as the beginning of a wider effort to raise the profile and influence of occupational therapy, with further campaigning to follow in 2027. 

The Occupational Therapy Show provides an ideal opportunity to keep that momentum going. 

Across two days and a programme spanning the full breadth of the profession, delegates can share ideas, discover new approaches and consider how occupational therapy can enable participation at every level – for an individual, within a community and across the systems that shape all our lives. 

Because whether the goal is returning to work, joining a leisure activity, parenting, accessing the community or simply carrying out an everyday occupation independently, participation is not an optional extra.