NHS Band 7 Physiotherapy Team Leader Interview Questions and Answers: A Complete Guide
The role of a Band 7 Physiotherapy Team Leader within the NHS is a critical one, combining clinical expertise with leadership and management responsibilities. Band 7 physiotherapists are expected to lead multidisciplinary teams, supervise junior staff, coordinate patient care pathways, and drive service improvements. They serve as a bridge between clinical delivery and strategic development, ensuring high standards of patient care while contributing to policy and operational decisions.
The average salary for an NHS Band 7 position falls between £43,742 and £50,056 per annum, depending on experience and location. This reflects the advanced clinical knowledge, leadership acumen, and administrative capability required for the role.
To help you prepare for your upcoming interview, here are 20 key questions commonly asked for a Band 7 Physiotherapy Team Leader position—complete with example responses that showcase both leadership and clinical competence.
Tell us about your physiotherapy background and why you applied for this Band 7 leadership role.
Answer: Emphasize your clinical experience, progression in responsibility, and passion for leadership. Link your motivation to improving services, mentoring others, and enhancing patient outcomes.
How do you manage and prioritise your caseload while supervising a team?
Answer: Discuss tools like triage systems, electronic patient records, delegation, and time-blocking. Highlight your ability to balance personal and team priorities.
Describe your leadership style.
Answer: Use terms like transformational or servant leadership. Provide examples of motivating staff, encouraging CPD, and leading by example.
How have you handled a conflict within your team?
Answer: Use the STAR method. Show emotional intelligence, active listening, and a resolution-focused approach.
What strategies do you use to ensure high-quality patient care?
Answer: Mention audits, clinical supervision, feedback mechanisms, and alignment with NICE guidelines and CSP standards.
Can you give an example of a service improvement project you’ve led?
Answer: Detail the project’s goal, how you managed it, what outcomes were achieved, and how you measured success.
How do you support the development of junior staff?
Answer: Talk about mentorship, structured appraisal, learning opportunities, and clinical teaching.
What is your approach to interdisciplinary collaboration?
Answer: Focus on teamwork, communication, mutual respect, and shared patient goals.
How do you ensure your team remains compliant with clinical governance?
Answer: Mention training, documentation audits, incident reporting systems, and quality improvement cycles.
How do you manage performance within your team?
Answer: Include KPIs, regular feedback, PDRs, and managing underperformance sensitively and constructively.
Tell us about a time you had to make a difficult clinical decision.
Answer: Describe the context, your clinical reasoning, involvement of other professionals, and the outcome.
How do you stay up to date with clinical guidelines and best practices?
Answer: Mention journals, CSP updates, e-learning, attending conferences, and knowledge sharing within your team.
How would you handle a patient complaint?
Answer: Highlight active listening, empathy, investigation, follow-up actions, and documentation.
What is your experience with audit and data collection?
Answer: Give examples of audits you’ve conducted, what you measured, findings, and resulting changes.
How do you manage stress and support staff wellbeing?
Answer: Talk about resilience, workload management, open-door policies, and promoting work-life balance.
How would you approach implementing a new electronic record system?
Answer: Address change management, staff training, phased rollout, feedback loops, and troubleshooting.
Describe your experience with budget management or resource allocation.
Answer: Share examples of working with limited resources, justifying service costs, or applying for funding.
How would you respond to underperformance in a colleague?
Answer: Be respectful and constructive. Discuss informal conversations, goal setting, and involving HR if needed.
What are your long-term professional goals?
Answer: Align your goals with leadership development, patient care innovation, or NHS strategic initiatives.
Why should we choose you for this role?
Answer: Emphasize your clinical leadership, service development experience, team-building skills, and NHS values.
Final Interview Tips and Encouragement
Interviews for Band 7 roles are as much about leadership potential as clinical excellence. To perform well:
Research the Trust’s values, services, and recent initiatives.
Prepare examples using the STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result).
Rehearse answers with a mentor or peer.
Highlight your impact—on patients, teams, and service outcomes.
Don’t undersell your achievements. Band 7 is a recognition of advanced capability.
Most importantly, be confident in the experience you bring. You’ve already shown commitment to patient care and professional growth—now it’s time to communicate that clearly. You’ve got this.
If you’re preparing for a real interview, save this page or bookmark it for quick reference during your prep. Best of luck!
