Speech and Language Therapist

at  Whittington Health NHS Trust

We have an exciting opportunity for an enthusiastic and motivated Speech and Language Therapist to work in Barnet mainstream schools and special schools and to join our wonderful and supportive team (part-time/flexible working will be considered) ensuring that the role offers excellent work/life balance opportunities.
The successful candidate will deliver a Speech and Language Therapy Service to children and young people across the borough of Barnet with a range of language and communication needs. This role will offer the job satisfaction of knowing you are helping to shape and improve the quality of life of children and young people living in Barnet.
You will work with close supervision and support, alongside a friendly, open, supportive and experienced therapy team to deliver assessment and intervention for children and young people with a range of speech, language and communication needs. You will also provide training and advice to empower their families and education staff.
Interviews 1st August 2024.
For further information, or for an informal discussion, please contact Claire Turner, Clinical Lead on claireturner3@nhs.net or . We look forward to hearing from you!
Please see the Job Description and the Persons Specification for further details about the job role. If you are unable to access the PDF, the details of the job description can also be found in the ‘Detailed Job Description and Main responsibilities’ section.
Find out what it is like to work in our friendly, supportive teams which span hospital and community settings across vibrant and diverse North Central London first hand, visit www.whittington.nhs.uk/CYPrecruitment (you may have to copy and paste this link into your browser) to hear from some of our current staff about why they chose to join and stay at Whittington Health.
Whittington Health serves a richly diverse population and works hard to ensure that all our services are fair and equally accessible to everyone. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the way we look after our staff. We aim to employ a workforce which is as representative as possible of this population, so we are open to the value of differences in age, disability, gender, marital status, pregnancy and maternity, race, sexual orientation, and religion or belief. The Trust believes that as a public sector organisation we have an obligation to have recruitment, training, promotion and other formal employment policies and procedures that are sensitive to these differences. We think that by doing so, we are better able to treat our patients as well as being a better place to work.

Education and Development

• To demonstrate professional knowledge as evidenced by 1 st degree level qualification or equivalent.
• To act as an increasingly autonomous Speech and Language Therapist who is legally and professionally accountable for own actions as guided by the professional code of conduct and Trust guidelines and protocols
• To demonstrate the ability to reflect on own practice with peers and clinical supervisors.
• To work independently accessing clinical supervision and appraisal within an Individual Performance Framework at pre-determined intervals to promote and develop own clinical skills, whilst ensuring that the objectives set reflect the Service and Trust plans.
• To identify personal and professional development evidenced by the development of a Personal Development Plan and professional portfolio of continuing professional development, developed within an appraisal framework.
• To keep up to date with new techniques and developments for the promotion and maintenance of good practice in paediatrics.
• To attend relevant training courses, meetings and special interest groups in order to maintain skills and knowledge required of a therapist working in the field of paediatrics.
• To maintain up to date HCPC and RCSLT registration.
• To demonstrate knowledge of, and adhere to RCSLT Professional and Clinical and National and Local Clinical Guidelines.
• To develop a working knowledge of relevant procedures including: Safeguarding Children and child protection procedures, SEN procedures, and other legal frameworks.
• To develop a working knowledge of the principles of Clinical Governance and their application to professional practice.
• To participate in the development and delivery of training (formal and informal) to others, in order to provide clinical advice to parents/carers and other professionals within health, children’s services and the voluntary sector on the management of children with communication difficulties.
• To develop the ability to reflect on and evaluate training provided

To employ excellent communication skills, both written and verbal

• To effectively communicate with colleagues, peers, senior managers and clinical leads within the Trust

Clinical

• To provide a comprehensive Speech and Language Therapy service to clients referred with speech, language and communication difficulties within mainstream schools and special school in the borough
• To deliver appropriate formal and informal assessment, make differential diagnosis on the basis of this assessment, and communicate complex condition related information from assessment to children, carers, families and members of the multi-disciplinary team/other professions.
• To maintain sensitivity at all times to the emotional needs of clients/carers when imparting complex and distressing information regarding the nature of the client’s difficulties and the impact of this on individuals and their families.
• Following assessment and differential diagnosis, to design and develop evidence based treatment and management programmes to be implemented within the multi-disciplinary teams available, and within the child’s family.
• To adapt and facilitate treatment programmes and the use of augmentative communication systems and/or communication aids according to perceived client’s needs.
• To impart principles and establish the use of language enrichment techniques by parents/carers and fellow practitioners
• To support children with identified special educational needs within mainstream and special schools.
• To work closely with school staff to embed inclusive speech, language and communication practice within the classroom.
• To work closely with clients, carers and families, agreeing decision making relevant to the client management, and providing the family with sufficient information to ensure meaningful choices that promote dignity, independence and quality of life.
• To demonstrate empathy with clients, carers and families and colleagues, ensuring that effective communication is achieved, particularly where barriers to understanding exist.
• To demonstrate skills in motivating clients and/or carers to engage in the therapeutic process.
• To maintain a high level of concentration in all aspects of patient care at all times, in order to monitor auditory, visual and kinaesthetic aspects of communication adaptations, and to facilitate treatment programmes and the use of augmentative communication systems communication aids according to perceived need, with regard to cultural and linguistic differences.
• To be able to initiate referrals to other health professionals, specialist services and agencies.
• To be computer literate and ensure accurate recording of actions, and updating patient’s records, maintaining confidentiality at all times.

Policy/Service Development/Implementation

• To work within the borough SALT service guidelines for children’s services
• To contribute to the provision of speech and language therapy packages of care and clinical care pathways.
• To input into service redesign projects.
• To take an active interest in working parties and groups within the Trust to develop and improve on service delivery, protocols and guidelines.

Research and Development

• To ensure practice is supported by research, evidence based practice, literature and peer review.
• To undertake Clinical Governance and Audit projects within the local service
• To participate in departmental research projects and collect research and outcome data as required.
• To be responsible for providing accurate records of information required by the Trust for research and audit purposes.

Education and Development

• To demonstrate professional knowledge as evidenced by 1 st degree level qualification or equivalent.
• To act as an increasingly autonomous Speech and Language Therapist who is legally and professionally accountable for own actions as guided by the professional code of conduct and Trust guidelines and protocols
• To demonstrate the ability to reflect on own practice with peers and clinical supervisors.
• To work independently accessing clinical supervision and appraisal within an Individual Performance Framework at pre-determined intervals to promote and develop own clinical skills, whilst ensuring that the objectives set reflect the Service and Trust plans.
• To identify personal and professional development evidenced by the development of a Personal Development Plan and professional portfolio of continuing professional development, developed within an appraisal framework.
• To keep up to date with new techniques and developments for the promotion and maintenance of good practice in paediatrics.
• To attend relevant training courses, meetings and special interest groups in order to maintain skills and knowledge required of a therapist working in the field of paediatrics.
• To maintain up to date HCPC and RCSLT registration.
• To demonstrate knowledge of, and adhere to RCSLT Professional and Clinical and National and Local Clinical Guidelines.
• To develop a working knowledge of relevant procedures including: Safeguarding Children and child protection procedures, SEN procedures, and other legal frameworks.
• To develop a working knowledge of the principles of Clinical Governance and their application to professional practice.
• To participate in the development and delivery of training (formal and informal) to others, in order to provide clinical advice to parents/carers and other professionals within health, children’s services and the voluntary sector on the management of children with communication difficulties.
• To develop the ability to reflect on and evaluate training provided.

Responsibilities
Human Resources
To mentor and allocate duties to therapy assistants and volunteers in their work programme
To explain the role of Speech and Language Therapists to clients, visitors, students and volunteers.
Financial Resources
To monitor stock levels in own service area and request new equipment as appropriate.
Physical Resources
To be responsible for the security, care and maintenance of equipment ensuring standards of infection control and safety are maintained
To create appropriate resources for therapeutic intervention.
Information Resources
To maintain up to date and accurate case notes in line with RCSLT professional standards and local trust policies.
To share information with others as appropriate, observing data protection guidelines.
To undertake duties in compliance with the administrative systems at Trust and departmental level.
To comply with the principles outlined in all IT system policy documentation and Trust computer security policies.
Communications & Key Working Relationships
Internal

To employ excellent communication skills, both written and verbal

• To effectively communicate with colleagues, peers, senior managers and clinical leads within the Trust.

To contribute to both uni and multi-disciplinary team working to ensure co-ordinated service provision.
To contribute to multi-disciplinary teams by discussing own and others’ input around a client needs, ensuring a well co-ordinated and integrated care plan. This entails maintaining lines of communication with a range of other professionals including school nurses; administration staff; general practitioners; audiologists; physiotherapists; occupational therapists; the child development team; paediatricians; educational psychologists; teachers, special educational needs co-ordinators; learning support assistants; social services; and any other relevant professionals involved in the child’s care.
External
To develop negotiation skills in the management of conflict across a range of situations.
To deal with initial complaints sensitively, avoiding escalation where possible.
To form productive relationships with others who may be under stress and/or have challenging communication difficulties.
To ensure effective risk management at a team level by accident/incident reporting, assessing and controlling risk and ensuring residual risks are added to the Trust register