Senior Speech and Language Therapist

Job overview

We are looking for an enthusiastic and dedicated part time B6 Speech and Language Therapist . This 3 day a week role will be based at Okehampton Hospital and will be part of the highly supportive Exeter and Okehampton S< Team, delivering a community speech and language therapy service to children and young people within clinic and education settings.

Children and Family Health Devon (CFHD) is the place to be! We are developing an innovative, integrated model of children’s community services and looking for enthusiastic individuals to join our friendly and dedicated locality and county-wide professional teams.

As a large community service, you will be joining a strong, enthusiastic and supportive group of professionals who will be your peers, your phone a friend network and your inspiring colleagues. This provides a real sense of professional collaboration at work, that will be an asset to your daily work, your career development and your support network.

Main duties of the job

Manage a caseload of children and young people with Speech, language and communication needs (SLCN) using evidenced based practice to assess, plan, formulate, implement and evaluate interventions in a variety of settings (individually and/or in groups and as part of a multidisciplinary team

Provide clinical support and supervision to the less experienced SLT’s in the team

Work with the Clinical Team Manager to co-ordinate the clinic and oversee the day to day caseload management

Participate in the provision of student placements

Co-ordinate the team audit and monitoring of outcomes for interventions and report to locality lead

Using a strengths-based approach; ensure clinical effectiveness through the use of evidence-based interventions, goal-based, collaborative practice and routine outcome measures

Promote and support participation of service users across the service

Participate in clinical audits and clinical research as appropriate

Working for our organisation

Why Work With Us

Our speech and language therapists work across several of our community-based clinical pathways; Speech Language and Communication, Neurodiversity and Early Childhood Development. We will provide you with regular supervision, opportunities for training and development, and opportunities to be part of service development projects.

Welcome booklets - 1 (pagetiger.com)

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Communication and working relationships

Communicate complex condition-related information from assessment to clients, carers, families and members of the multi-disciplinary team/other professions in a way that is accessible and easily understood. This will include facilitating strategies for people with communication disorders where barriers to understanding may exist

Demonstrate empathy with clients, carers, families and colleagues, ensuring that effective communication is achieved, particularly where barriers to communication exist, or sensitive issues are being dealt with. Patient, carers and family will frequently have difficulty accepting the information provided

Form productive relationships with others who may be under stress and/or have challenging difficulties

Employ good presentation skills to promote multi-disciplinary and interagency liaison and collaborative practice to a broad range of audiences including other professionals and users

Write reports reflecting knowledge of paediatrics that can be accessible to both lay and professional people

Contribute to clinical pathways both multi and uni-professional by discussing own and others input around client’s needs, ensuring a well-coordinated care plan

Deal with initial complaints sensitively, avoiding escalation where possible

Demonstrate good negotiation skills across a range of issues

Planning and organisation

Responsible for organising and planning own caseload to meet service and patient priorities. Readjusting plans as situations change/arise

Responsible for the supervision and co-ordination of assistants on a daily basis

Responsible for the supervision of Band 5 staff on a regular basis

Analytical and judgement

Demonstrate specialist Speech and Language Therapy knowledge across a range of therapeutic interventions

Use knowledge and experience to inform sound clinical judgement/decision making for case management

Integrate evidence from a variety of sources to make a differential diagnosis, of occupational performance, seeking advice as appropriate

Demonstrate the ability to reflect on practice with peers and mentors and identify own strengths and development needs

Acts as an autonomous professional

Works within codes of practice as defined by Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists and HCPC

Works within organisational policies and procedures

Accountable for own professional action and recognise own professional boundaries, seeking advice as appropriate

Manage complex caseload independently. To monitor and evaluate own specialist service delivery and provide progress reports

Responsibility for patients and client care

Responsible for undertaking a range of formal and informal Occupational Therapy and holistic assessments where appropriate, negotiating functional goals with parents and school staff and provide modelling to enable successful implementation of programmes within the setting and home

Use routine outcome measures and goal-based approach, collaboratively with service users, in ways that inform treatment and clinical care

Work closely with clients, carers, and families agreeing decision making relevant to the patient/client management

Co-produce specialist clear care plans based on best practice with children, young people and their families/carers

Ensure care plans are written in an understandable format for the child, young person and their family/carer

Provide specialist Speech and Language Therapy interventions including 1:1 / group therapy, parent/ carer-based interventions and consultancy/coaching mentoring within a range of community settings. Outcomes to then be evaluated.

Demonstrate clinical effectiveness by use of evidence-based practice and outcome measures

Provide a range of brief/light touch interventions across the pathways such as positive behaviour support, sleep or feeding

Ensure that all documentation and records are kept safe to ensure confidentiality as per the RCSLT and HCPC standards

Promote self-advocacy and to act as an advocate for children, young people and their families.

Consider safeguarding and child protection issues, following relevant policies and procedures and receiving safeguarding supervision as required

Produce reports on children/young people, in a timely manner, that convey the key findings of assessment and formulation and treatment outcome in a way that is understandable to the recipients of the reports, including children/young people and their families and referrers

Advise line manager on issues of service delivery including shortfall, service pressures etc.

Maintain up to date and accurate case notes in line with RCSLT/HCPC professional standards and local trust policies

Policy and service responsibility

Provide children and young people with the opportunity to express their views in an age appropriate way, to have their opinions considered and to be able to influence the shaping of services

Interpret and assist in the implementation of local and national guidelines, policies and procedures affecting the development of children’s services.

Follow their Employer’s policies, procedures and guidance as well as professional standards and guidelines

Demonstrate knowledge of, and adhere to RCSLT Professional and Clinical and National and Local Clinical Guidelines

Develop a working knowledge of relevant procedures including: Child Protection, SEN procedures, and other legal frameworks

Responsibility for finance, equipment and other resources

Work to the financial policies and procedures as laid down by the employer.

Appropriate care of equipment entrusted to them for use

Responsible for maintaining a clear desk policy and protecting all confidential information in accordance with the organisations policies and procedures

Required to act responsibly in terms of providing best value practice and protecting service resources

Responsibility for any specific materials you are required to use, maintaining their general standard and ensuring that adequate supplies are maintained

Ensure all equipment used is maintained to the required standard to ensure patient and staff safety

Maintain stock control, ordering supplies in a timely manner through the agreed process

Responsible for the security, care and maintenance of equipment ensuring standards of infection control and safety are maintained – including equipment loaned to patients and schools

Complete an assessment, order, set up the provision of specialist equipment for identified children. Demonstrate to parents/ staff how to maintain and adjust as appropriate

Responsibility for supervision, leadership and management

Contribute to the delivery of a range of training opportunities, as appropriate using a broad range of technology to develop and deliver

Supervise the work of Speech and Language Assistants where necessary

Conduct appraisals with Speech and Language therapists where necessary

Mentor and supervise newly qualified speech and Language Therapists as required

Access clinical supervision at the frequency determined by the organisation

To oversee the caseload management of newly qualified staff and Therapy Assistance

Demonstrate the ability to target training (formal and informal) appropriately to the needs of course participants, reflecting and evaluating training provided

Participate in the appraisal process

Ensure prompt action is taken in raising issues with regard to staff performance, sickness, attendance levels and any disciplinary, capability or grievance matters

Information technology and administrative duties

Responsible for accurate and timely inputting of data into relevant data collection system to ensure workload is accurately reflected

Responsible for the inputting of accurate and contemporaneous case notes on the relevant clinical systems in line with professional and organisational standards

Sound knowledge of IT

Computer literate

Ensure all Employer’s policies, procedures and guidelines are followed

Complete all statutory and mandatory training as required by the employer

Identify and manage risks through incident reporting when appropriate

Take part in activities designed to improve service delivery or quality of care such as staff surveys, participation and service development

Responsibility for research and development

Participates in clinical audit

Participate in clinical research as appropriate

Collect and provide research data as required

Person specification

Qualifications and training

• Recognised Speech and Language Therapy Degree Qualification or equivalent.
• Full Registration with Health Professions Council
• Registered Member of Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists
• Membership of relevant Special Interest Groups

• Evidence of successful completion of specialist post graduate short courses relating to paediatric communication disorders including Learning Disability and Autism Spectrum Disorders

Knowledge and experience

• Highly developed specialist knowledge (acquired through attending specialist short courses) to enable post holder to work autonomously
• Highly developed specialist knowledge of independent management of complex and highly specialised caseload and an ability to compare and contrast relative benefits
• In depth knowledge of children with special needs and associated conditions underpinned by current evidence-based practice
• Well established knowledge of a broad range of assessment and therapeutic tools relevant to working with children and an ability to compare and contrast relative benefits
• Ability to make a differential diagnosis, choose appropriate treatments from a range of options and provide specialist intervention and evaluate outcomes by use of evidence-based practice
• Ability to use specialist experience to inform sound clinical judgements/ decision making for case management
• Relevant experience at undergraduate/post graduate level
• Proven relevant experience post qualification in managing a complex varied caseload and in working autonomously in the community

• Competence in delivering language development training to both professional and untrained staff in the community
• Experience supervising speech and language therapy programme implementation by early years and mainstream school staff
• Experience in team leading and organising a local service/clinic
• Experience of supervising less experienced Speech and Language Therapists
• Experience working within multi-disciplinary teams
• Experience working in early years, school age and specialist settings.

Specific skills

• Able to recognise conflict between patients and their carers/relatives and facilitate resolution
• Able to work as an integral part of a team
• Able to cope under pressure
• Car owner/driver and current driving licence essential or access to a car (unless you have a disability as defined by the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 and 2005)

You will be joining the organisation at an exciting time. As the first fully integrated care organisation in England, we are working to improve the way we deliver safe, high-quality health and social care. We have a positive and vibrant working atmosphere, we are proud of our investment in our staff both in terms of developing potential career skills and valuing people.

If you provide support to a family member or friend with health or care needs, we aim to be a Carer-friendly employer. We have a ‘Staff Carers’ policy which includes flexible working where possible and a Carer’s Passport scheme that links you into support and discounts.

• We reserve the right to close vacancies early if we receive a high volume of applications. Please apply promptly
• Please read the job description and tailor your application to reflect the role
• Correspondence will be via Trac, text and email. Please check your email and Trac account regularly.
• Applicants with no previous NHS experience will ordinarily be appointed to the minimum of the band
• If you have not received an invitation to interview within 28 days of the closing date, please assume that your application has been unsuccessful on this occasion
• It is your responsibility to assist us in the timely receipt of appropriate references

If you require support you can obtain this from our Equality Business Forum which has representatives from all protected groups.