Job summary
Are you a compassionate and experienced Speech and Language therapist looking to make a difference in the lives of young children with complex needs, including eating and drinking difficulties? Do you thrive in a supportive team environment and have a passion for supporting pathway and service development? If so, we have the perfect opportunity for you!
We are seeking a dynamic and skilled speech and language therapist to join our team of professionals working with children aged 0-5 with a range of complex needs, which may include neonatal care and developmental follow-up.
Main duties of the job
In this role, you will have the exciting opportunity to extend and develop your knowledge and skills in assessment and intervention for children aged 0-5 with eating and drinking difficulties.
The successful applicant will in addition be someone that demonstrate the following :
-
Foresight to plan for the future while also leading with compassion, ensuring that patient care remains at the forefront of all clinical decisions
-
An ability to motivate and nurture the team with empathy and understanding, creating a supportive environment where everyone feels valued and empowered to deliver their best .
-
An ability to guide the team through changes in policies and procedures with empathy, recognising the impact on staff and families, and providing support to navigate transitions smoothly.
-
An ability to make timely decisions with compassion, considering the human impact alongside the practical implications, to ensure that patient well-being is always prioritized.
-
An ability to be a compassionate communicator, fostering open discussions, actively listening to concerns, and ensuring that the voices of families and staff are heard and valued in decision-making processes.
About us
Our people are our greatest asset. When we feel supported and happy at work, this positivity reaches those very people we are here for, the patients. Engaged employees perform at their best and our Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) initiatives contribute to cultivate a culture of engagement. We have four staff networks, a corporate EDI Team and a suite of programmes and events which aim to insert the 5 aspirations:
- Improving representation at senior levels of staff with disabilities, from black, Asian, and ethnic minorities background, identify as LGBTQ+ and women, through improved recruitment and leadership development
- Widening access (anchor institution) and employability
- Improving the experience of staff with disability
- Improving the EDI literacy and confidence of trust staff through training and development
- Making equalities mainstream
Job description
Job responsibilities
Job Summary:
- Accountable to General Manager Specialist Services/Head of Children and Young Peoples Therapies
- To provide clinical and operational leadership for the Complex Needs and Feeding Team Service Pathway in collaboration with Complex Needs, Feeding and AHP Neonatal Team Lead
- To support the Complex Needs and Feeding team in developing, testing out and implementing new ways of working including supporting implementation of National Initiatives for Early Years.
- To ensure that the service provided is integrated (within the relevant multi/uni disciplinary care pathways), evidence based and delivered in accordance with care pathways/protocols and responsive to the needs of the local population.
- To independently assess, diagnose, manage and evaluate outcomes for children and young people presenting with a range of speech, language, communication difficulties/eating and drinking difficulties some of which may be highly complex, and provide second opinions as required.
- The post holder will hold a special interest within the profile of the clinical caseload.
To develop, implement and evaluate specialist teaching/training packages within clinical areas.
Job description
Job responsibilities
Job Summary:
- Accountable to General Manager Specialist Services/Head of Children and Young Peoples Therapies
- To provide clinical and operational leadership for the Complex Needs and Feeding Team Service Pathway in collaboration with Complex Needs, Feeding and AHP Neonatal Team Lead
- To support the Complex Needs and Feeding team in developing, testing out and implementing new ways of working including supporting implementation of National Initiatives for Early Years.
- To ensure that the service provided is integrated (within the relevant multi/uni disciplinary care pathways), evidence based and delivered in accordance with care pathways/protocols and responsive to the needs of the local population.
- To independently assess, diagnose, manage and evaluate outcomes for children and young people presenting with a range of speech, language, communication difficulties/eating and drinking difficulties some of which may be highly complex, and provide second opinions as required.
- The post holder will hold a special interest within the profile of the clinical caseload.
To develop, implement and evaluate specialist teaching/training packages within clinical areas.
Person Specification
Qualifications and Training
Essential
- Recognised Speech and Language Therapy Degree Qualification or equivalent
- Health and Care Professions Council - Licence to Practice
- Registration as a member of the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists
- Competence/willingness to undertake relevant advanced training/post qualification training
- Successful completion of Post-qualification Dysphagia course or equivalent
Desirable
- Membership of relevant Clinical Excellence Networks (CENs)
- Successful completion of highly specialist post graduate study relevant to the field at Master's degree level or equivalent specialist advanced short courses
Experience
Essential
- Significant post-qualification experience working with children with a wide range of complex needs and associated speech, language and communication difficulties
- Significant experience of working with children with complex dysphagia , feeding and drinking needs
- Significant experience of working with families and engaging them in interventions
- Experience of supervising staff
- Experience of advising/providing second opinions for children with complex speech/language or communication difficulties and eating and drinking difficulties
- Experience of service development
- Experience of training others
Desirable
- Experience of methods of involving users in service development
- Experience of taking part in appraising and setting objectives for less experienced staff
- Experience of writing protocols and/or policies
- Experience of developing training packages for others
Knowledge
Essential
- To have a working knowledge of local and national procedure and legal frameworks relevant to the service area such as the SEND Code of Practice 2014, Every Child Matters and to demonstrate the ability to apply this knowledge to service delivery
- Up to date knowledge of a range of assessments tools and intervention techniques relevant to children and young people with a variety of speech/language and communication difficulties and an ability to compare and contrast relative benefits using current evidence base
- Understanding of Equal Opportunities and able to demonstrate this in practice Understanding of confidentiality and General Data Protection Regulation
- Knowledge of computer software packages relevant to the role e.g. Office, In print 3 (or equivalent)
- Understanding of the factors involved in successful transition into primary school for children with complex needs and ability to apply these to the management of children/families and provision of SLT services to this population
Personal Qualities
Essential
- Demonstrate trust values
- Leadership skills
- Ability to motivate people
- Ability to generate strategies for dealing with complex caseload and workload management for self and others
- Flexible and adaptable to different environments and models of service delivery
- Confident and articulate
- Able to demonstrate self-motivation and initiative
- Aware of limitations of own knowledge and experience
- Effective team member To demonstrate effective communication skills written and verbal
- The ability to adapt communication style to suit the audience
- To demonstrate empathy with clients, carers and families, ensuring that effective communication is achieved particularly where barriers to understanding exist
- The ability to recognise potential breakdown and conflict when it occurs and generate potential solutions
- To demonstrate highly developed negotiation skills in the management of conflict across a range of situations
Person Specification
Qualifications and Training
Essential
- Recognised Speech and Language Therapy Degree Qualification or equivalent
- Health and Care Professions Council - Licence to Practice
- Registration as a member of the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists
- Competence/willingness to undertake relevant advanced training/post qualification training
- Successful completion of Post-qualification Dysphagia course or equivalent
Desirable
- Membership of relevant Clinical Excellence Networks (CENs)
- Successful completion of highly specialist post graduate study relevant to the field at Master's degree level or equivalent specialist advanced short courses
Experience
Essential
- Significant post-qualification experience working with children with a wide range of complex needs and associated speech, language and communication difficulties
- Significant experience of working with children with complex dysphagia , feeding and drinking needs
- Significant experience of working with families and engaging them in interventions
- Experience of supervising staff
- Experience of advising/providing second opinions for children with complex speech/language or communication difficulties and eating and drinking difficulties
- Experience of service development
- Experience of training others
Desirable
- Experience of methods of involving users in service development
- Experience of taking part in appraising and setting objectives for less experienced staff
- Experience of writing protocols and/or policies
- Experience of developing training packages for others
Knowledge
Essential
- To have a working knowledge of local and national procedure and legal frameworks relevant to the service area such as the SEND Code of Practice 2014, Every Child Matters and to demonstrate the ability to apply this knowledge to service delivery
- Up to date knowledge of a range of assessments tools and intervention techniques relevant to children and young people with a variety of speech/language and communication difficulties and an ability to compare and contrast relative benefits using current evidence base
- Understanding of Equal Opportunities and able to demonstrate this in practice Understanding of confidentiality and General Data Protection Regulation
- Knowledge of computer software packages relevant to the role e.g. Office, In print 3 (or equivalent)
- Understanding of the factors involved in successful transition into primary school for children with complex needs and ability to apply these to the management of children/families and provision of SLT services to this population
Personal Qualities
Essential
- Demonstrate trust values
- Leadership skills
- Ability to motivate people
- Ability to generate strategies for dealing with complex caseload and workload management for self and others
- Flexible and adaptable to different environments and models of service delivery
- Confident and articulate
- Able to demonstrate self-motivation and initiative
- Aware of limitations of own knowledge and experience
- Effective team member To demonstrate effective communication skills written and verbal
- The ability to adapt communication style to suit the audience
- To demonstrate empathy with clients, carers and families, ensuring that effective communication is achieved particularly where barriers to understanding exist
- The ability to recognise potential breakdown and conflict when it occurs and generate potential solutions
- To demonstrate highly developed negotiation skills in the management of conflict across a range of situations
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).
From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).
UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see
NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).
Additional information
Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).
From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).
UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see
NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).
