B7 Speech & Language Therapy Inpatient Team Lead(Head & Neck/Oncology)

B7 Speech & Language Therapy Inpatient Team Lead (Head & Neck/Oncology)

University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust

Would you like to provide Speech and Language Therapy to people with swallowing and communication difficulties due to head & neck cancer and oncological diagnoses? Would you like experience in leading a team? We have an exciting opportunity for you to be part of an established oncology and head & neck cancer team working within inpatient SLT with acute surgical and oncological caseloads, specialist ENT/SLT clinics, inpatient rehab and surgical voice restoration.

This post is for 27 hours.

We have a large yet close-knit, highly skilled team who contribute to our robust supervision structure. Innovation, participation in research and clinical/professional development are actively encouraged. We have well-established SLT led Videofluoroscopy and FEES services so opportunities to access these instrumental assessments to help to shape your clinical practice are available.

Main duties of the job

The successful candidate will have a clear passion in assessing and managing swallowing and communication disorders within the oncology and head & neck cancer cohort. Your responsibilities will include, but not be limited to:

1. Assessing and managing patients with communication and swallowing disorders in an outpatient setting, including specialist clinics.
2. Assessing and managing patients with swallowing, communication and voice disorders due to head and neck cancer at any stage of their treatment.
3. Working towards utilising specialist assessments and modalities such as nasendoscopy, FEES, VFS, SVR.
4. Working as an integral part of specialist MDT clinics.
5. Service development and audit.
6. Training of junior colleagues and students.
7. Working flexibly and thriving in a fast-paced environment.

We have a large team who share a caseload of diverse patient cohorts so being a team player is essential. We would welcome interested candidates to get in touch for an informal discussion.

Please contact Molly Metcalf (Clinical Lead) via Molly.Metcalf@uhb.nhs.uk or 0121 371 3483.

About us

We are recognised as one of the leading NHS Foundation Trusts in the UK. Our vision is to Build Healthier Lives, and we recognise that we need incredible staff to do this.

Our commitment to our staff is to create the best place for them to work, and we are dedicated to:

1. Investing in the health and wellbeing of our staff, including a commitment of offering flexible working where we can.
2. Offering our staff a wide variety of training and development opportunities, to support their personal and career development objectives.

UHB is committed to ensuring that our staff are treated fairly and feel that they belong, by creating a kind and inclusive environment. This is about equity of opportunity; removing all barriers, including discrimination and ensuring each individual member of staff reach their true potential, achieve their ambitions and thrive in their work. This is more than words. We are taking action. Our commitment to an inclusive culture is embedded at all levels of the organisation where every voice is heard, driven by our diverse and active staff networks, and at Board level by the Fairness Taskforce led by our CEO. We nurture a culture which empowers staff to challenge discriminatory behaviours and to enable people to bring their 'whole self' to a kinder, more connected and bold place to work.

University Hospitals Birmingham is a Smoke-Free premises hospital.

Person Specification

Qualifications

• A good standard of secondary education including A-Level or equivalent.
• BSc or recognised MSc degree in Speech and Language Therapy.
• Membership of RCSLT.
• Registration with HCPC.
• Willingness and capability to achieve SVR and FEES interpretation and scoping competencies.

Experience

• Significant experience of working independently with adult dysphagia caseload at a specialist level.
• Significant experience of working with head and neck cancer/oncology caseload.
• Significant experience of working independently within an acute hospital setting.
• Significant experience of working successfully as part of a multi-disciplinary team.
• Significant post-graduate training, through attendance at short courses and/or via personal study.
• Evidence of attendance at national conferences or similar.
• Demonstration of people management at either an individual or team level.
• Experience of training Speech and Language Therapy undergraduates and junior SLTs.

Additional Criteria

• Advanced theoretical and practical knowledge of assessment and management of dysphagia, dysarthria, dyspraxia, dysphonia, and dysphasia.
• Advanced theoretical and conceptual knowledge of evidence-based practice in the area of head and neck cancer/oncology.
• Excellent written and spoken communication skills.
• Ability to communicate sensitive and complex information effectively and an awareness of the appropriate use of counselling skills.
• Excellent skills of persuasion, motivation, negotiation and problem solving skills with patients, families, colleagues and other professionals.
• Effective communication skills with people who have significant and complex communication and/or swallowing difficulties.
• Well-developed perceptual and auditory skills.
• Ability to absorb, interpret and summarise verbal information in a clinical environment.
• Systematic and organised.
• Keen to embrace change consistent with delivery of service whilst keeping the patient as an individual at the centre of care.
• Punctual and reliable in service delivery.
• Ability to work independently and as part of a team.
• Ability to work flexibly.
• Organisational skills with the ability to organise own workload and work in a systematic way.
• Excellent interpersonal and team working skills.
• Ability to thrive in a fast-paced environment.
• Ability to work weekends as part of a 7-day working pattern (when appropriate service delivery allows and commences).

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.