Band 6 Specialist Speech and Language Therapist - Inpatient Rotation

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Band 6 Specialist Speech and Language Therapist - Inpatient Rotation

Band 6

Main area: Speech and Language Therapy
Grade: Band 6
Contract: Permanent
Hours: Full time - 37.5 hours per week
Job ref: 820-6875424-ASR-B

Site: Moseley Hall Hospital
Town: Birmingham
Salary: £37,338 - £44,962 per annum
Salary period: Yearly
Closing: 25/03/2025 23:59

Job overview

An opportunity has arisen for a dynamic speech and language therapist to join the Band 6 rotation within our adult inpatient services. The successful applicant will have the opportunity to work as part of an interdisciplinary team in a variety of specialist services including complex neurological rehabilitation, stroke rehabilitation, and older adults.

Main duties of the job

We are looking for a motivated and enthusiastic team member, with relevant experience, who is keen to expand their knowledge and skills in supporting adults with complex communication and swallowing difficulties. As an organisation, we pride ourselves on delivering high-quality patient-centred care. Throughout each stage of the rotation, the successful applicant will become an integral part of a dedicated specialist rehab team comprising speech & language therapists, physiotherapists, clinical psychologists, occupational therapists, nurses, doctors, and skilled support staff. There will be an opportunity to line manage and provide supervision to more junior speech and language therapists, students, and support staff/assistants. Excellent communication skills and flexibility are essential to the role.

Working for our organisation

IMPORTANT

• Please ensure you check your Trac account regularly as this is how we will communicate with you during the shortlisting and selection process.
• Please ensure all sections of the application form are completed fully. Please particularly ensure that you provide full details of all referees including business email address, telephone contact details, and postal address.

Be Part of Our Team...

BCHC has more than 5000 staff working across Birmingham and the West Midlands in a wide range of community nursing and specialist healthcare roles. BCHC delivers over 100 clinical services, in people's homes, health centres, clinics, and inpatient facilities. We deliver a wide range of services for children, young people and families as well as adults and community services, two community hospitals, services for people with learning disabilities, the internationally recognised West Midlands Rehab Centre, and one of Europe’s leading Dental Hospitals and School of Dentistry. We deliver all of this with a commitment to integrated, personalised care that is rooted in our local communities. We have an ambition to deliver outstanding, integrated care as one of the key NHS providers in the West Midlands.

If you want to ‘Be Part of Our Team’ and work with a Foundation Trust which is continuously striving for best care and healthy communities, we want to hear from you.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Clinical

• Provide SLT input across different specialities and settings: stroke, inpatient neurorehabilitation, and older adults’ services.
• Manage a complex caseload of patients including those with profound neurological impairments, cognitive impairments, and patients in a Prolonged Disorder of Consciousness (PDoC) and/or with tracheostomy.
• Provide timely, thorough, and robust assessment of patients’ communication and swallowing needs in a manner that is patient-centred and alongside other members of the MDT.
• Form appropriate hypotheses about the nature of a patients’ condition and make differential diagnoses to support multidisciplinary management.
• Support patients and families (where able) to set achievable and realistic goals, dealing sensitively with issues that may arise whilst doing so.
• Structure clear, patient-based therapy plans based on best practice and adapted to individual clients’ goals and priorities.
• Demonstrate awareness of, and an ability to manage, risks associated with complex dysphagia, including those dealing with issues of mortality, morbidity, and involving ethical dilemmas.
• Deliver a range of therapeutic interventions with an awareness of current evidence-based practice, remaining sensitive to all patients’ personal, social, and cultural wishes and needs.
• Evaluate therapy outcomes independently, using specific outcome measures when appropriate.
• Work independently with clients whose behaviour may challenge, with awareness of how to manage and diffuse difficult situations.
• Plan, lead, and evaluate group therapy in addition to 1:1 sessions.
• Work alongside members of the MDT in assessment and management of capacity decisions.
• Identify need for, and support referral to, specialist clinics including VFS and FEES.
• Act as keyworker for patients and families on INRU, acting as single point of contact and coordinating interdisciplinary, patient-centred rehabilitation, being mindful of the opportunities and challenges presented in this role.
• Deliver patient-specific training and education sessions to patients, families, and carers.
• Be aware of relevant external services for signposting and onward referral.
• Contribute to safe, holistic, and proactive discharge planning for all patients.

Professional

• Establish positive working relationships with members of the MDT across services, wards, and sites.
• Record and maintain up-to-date clinical case notes in line with professional standards and trust, professional and departmental policies.
• Follow national guidelines and processes for specific patient groups (including SSNAP, UK ROC).
• Adhere to Trust, departmental, and professional policies and procedures.

Organisational / administrative

• Provide cover for colleagues as required and support reallocation of caseload in the absence of any member of the team.
• Use IT skills to produce customised treatment plans and materials, including low-tech AAC.
• Contribute to service development and audit.
• Identify need for, and plan/deliver/evaluate, specific training programmes contributing to staff development.
• Actively participate in team meetings, journal clubs, in-service teaching within SLT and MDT settings.
• Participate in non-managerial clinical supervision.
• Participate in the appraisal system.
• Act as a student supervisor/assessor under the guidance of the student coordinator and provide observation sessions for others.

Management and Leadership Responsibilities

• Offer specialist clinical support to less experienced SLTs.
• Supervise junior members of SLT staff, assistants, and volunteers.
• Develop and empower all members of the team to perform to high standards and innovate.
• Ensure supportive staff management arrangements are in place and carry out personal development reviews for direct reports. Ensure all staff have annual PDR’s resulting in specific objectives and effective personal development plans in line with the Knowledge and Skills Outline Framework.
• Develop staff knowledge and skills to promote equality and diversity and address inequalities both in employment and service delivery. Ensure specific equality objectives are included in PDR’s.
• Develop a culture that ensures that the standards of Improving Working Lives and Investors in People are achieved and maintained for all staff and that staff’s perception about their working lives are measured and improvements made.

Person specification

• Excellent prioritisation skills.
• Able to reflect on clinical practice and initiate appropriate changes.
• Has insight into own coping strategies in stressful situations.
• Able to work under pressure.

Other job requirements

• Able and willing to travel when required to various work locations e.g., for home visits and meetings.
• Able to work a 7-day rota.
• Able to carry a variety of equipment between locations safely.

Qualifications

• Current registration.
• HCPC Licence to Practice.
• Registered with Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists.
• Evidence of recent relevant CPD activities.
• Degree in SLT or equivalent.

Experience

• Significant experience in specialised clinical area.
• Experience of assessing and treating complex neuro disability.
• Experience in providing training to a range of qualified professionals in area of specialism.
• Evidence of specialised management of a complex/diverse caseload.
• Able to develop specialised programmes of care.
• Able to use alternative means of communication appropriately for care group.
• IT literate.
• Highly developed empathy, negotiation, and influencing skills, demonstrating clinical leadership within a team.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, overcoming barriers to communication.
• Basic skills in the management of communication and swallowing needs in patients with tracheostomy.

Disability Confident Employer and Guaranteed Interview Scheme

BCHC offers a guaranteed interview to any candidate who is Disabled, Neurodiverse, has a hidden or long-term health condition as recognised under the Equality Act 2010, providing they meet the essential criteria of the job role, as set out in the person specification. We encourage applicants to submit their applications and to request any reasonable adjustments where required.

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

Birmingham is a fantastic place to live and we serve a wide range of people and communities. BCHC is an advocate of diversity and strives to mirror the community we serve as much as possible.

We are committed to and actively promote equality of opportunity for all staff and applications from individuals from all areas of the community who meet the specific criteria are encouraged regardless of age, disability, sex, gender reassignment, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, and marriage/civil partnerships.

Promoting Workforce Equality

In response to data held by BCHC which demonstrates that individuals from particular protected characteristics are under-represented, BCHC is striving to redress these imbalances. In order to do this, the Trust is committed to the employment and career development of individuals with these protected characteristics. As part of this commitment and given this under-representation, the Trust guarantees an interview to any applicants from under-represented groups for positions at Band 8a and above whose application meets the essential criteria for the post as detailed on the Person Specification.

The Trust is currently under-represented in terms of people who identify as Black, Minority Ethnic (BME) and welcomes applicants from these communities. Selection will be on the basis of merit. In order to ensure the diversity of our workforce and understand the differing needs of our communities, the Trust is committed to the principles of Positive Action.

Flexible Working

Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (BCHC) supports a variety of flexible working practices and, where possible (given our range of services and community settings), will actively consider requests made and support these where practically possible. This may include hybrid patterns of working to enable colleagues to request the flexibility of a mixture of home/base working.

In accordance with the NHS People Promise, the Trust is committed to facilitating a healthy work/life balance that is essential to health and wellbeing and to making BCHC a ‘Great Place to Work’. We will be happy to discuss and consider all requests relating to working patterns and hours at your interview so please do ask!

Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust acknowledges Artificial Intelligence (AI) or Generative AI (GenAI) tools such as ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, Gemini, etc.; are powerful tools that can help you in various stages of your job application and how they can be used in certain circumstances during your application process with BCHC. You can read more about acceptable use on our internet pages.

Benefits of working for us:

• Full NHS terms and conditions including extensive holidays, Agenda for Change pay with enhancements.
• Attractive relocation payment if you relocate to the local area.
• Discounts for local and national retailers.
• Dedicated well-being services for all employees.
• Flexible working where possible.

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.

Name: Emma Cowpe
Job title: Highly Specialist Speech and Language Therapist
Email address: Emma.Cowpe2@nhs.net
Telephone number: 0121 466 6590

Additional information:
Hannah Greco Clinical Lead for Speech and Language Therapist
hannah.greco@nhs.net
0121 466 6672

Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Trust
3, Priestley Wharf
Holt Street
Birmingham Science Park
B7 4BN

Office hours: Monday to Friday: 8.30 am - 5.00 pm

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