Specialist Speech & Language Therapist (Locality)

Find out about the current vacancies available at the Trust and take the next step in your career with us.

Specialist Speech & Language Therapist (Locality)

Band 6

Main area: Speech and Language Therapy
Grade: Band 6
Contract: Permanent
Hours: Full time - 37.5 hours per week
Job ref: 345-COM6939259

Site: Hartlepool and Stockton
Salary: £37,338 - £44,962 per annum
Salary period: Yearly
Closing: 14/04/2025 23:59

We are on a continuous journey of improvement and transformation; however, our main priority is, and always will be, providing safe and high-quality care to our patients every day; the kind of care we would want for ourselves and our loved ones. If you share our passion then apply for this opportunity and help us make our patients’ experience the best it can possibly be.

With a budget of around £365m, three hospitals and 5,500 staff, North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust provides hospital-based services to the population of Hartlepool, Stockton on Tees and parts of East Durham and Sedgefield as well as community, therapeutic and screening to a wider population across Durham and Teesside.

Job overview

We have an exciting opportunity for qualified speech and language therapists to join our team.

From April 1st 2025, there will be a single Children & Young People’s Speech & Language Therapy Service across the Tees Valley covering local authority areas of: Darlington, Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Redcar & Cleveland and Stockton.

This is an exciting new development that brings together speech and language therapy services in the local area to deliver support in a flexible, responsive and equitable way. You will be joining us at a key time of creativity and innovation. The service will aim to:

1. Develop consultative models of service delivery – expanding our services into schools, nurseries and Family Hubs.
2. Enable parents, carers and families to be empowered to meet the needs of children and young people, and ensure that they are supported effectively throughout their journey with the service.
3. Work in partnership with colleagues in health, education, day care settings and social care to support the development of children & young people effectively.
4. Offer a comprehensive workforce development programme.
5. Offer a highly specialist therapeutic service for those children & young people who need specific therapeutic interventions.
6. Ensure that clinical pathways are underpinned by the current evidence base.
7. Ensure that support is available from the right person, in the right place at the right time.

The Children & Young People's Speech & Language Therapy Department comprises qualified therapists and assistant practitioners, as well as full administrative support. Clinical specialisms covered within the team include voice, a diverse range of developmental language and communication needs, eating, drinking & swallowing, alternative and augmentative communication, speech sound disorder, hearing loss and deafness, stammering. There is also a strong focus on multi-lingualism and its impact on communication development. We are also committed to supporting children and young people with special educational needs and disability.

It is anticipated that one post will be based in Hartlepool and one post in Stockton.

Main duties of the job

This post will provide the opportunity for a clinician to retain their broad based skills working within a community setting. In addition to working with children and young people of all ages, the post-holder will have some line management responsibility for less experienced clinicians within the team. This post offers:

1. Partnership working with both professionals and families.
2. The opportunity to work with children with a range of different speech, language and communication needs.
3. Work within a designated locality, being part of a close-knit team.
4. The opportunity to be involved in developing the children’s workforce with support from our clinical leads in workforce development.
5. Work within a range of community settings including clinics, homes and education settings.

Working for our organisation

At North Tees & Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust our main priority is, and always will be, to provide safe and high-quality care to our patients every day; the kind of care we would want for ourselves and our loved ones.

We want our organisation to be the best place to work with the right staff, in the right roles, at the right time, to ensure we deliver exceptional patient care and experience.

We will support staff through providing an inclusive and supportive workplace with health and wellbeing initiatives, staff benefits and opportunities for personal and professional development. Staff recognition is very important to us; as well as performance reviews and appraisals, we recognise staff through Star and Team of the month, colleague recognition – a note of thanks, Managers Awards, Shining Stars and Service Awards.

We actively encourage staff involvement with staff networking events and staff surveys.

“Together we are North Tees & Hartlepool”

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

To contribute to the coordination, development and provision of a specialist clinical service to children with a complex and diverse range of speech, language and communication difficulties.

Generate appropriate strategies to manage an individual specialist caseload including the assessment, diagnosis, treatment and discharge of a diverse range of clients with complex developmental speech, language and communication difficulties with support and supervision from locality lead and clinical leads.

Develop and implement specialist care protocols and programmes of care and treatment, to meet the needs of clients in conjunction with their parents, carers, education staff and other members of the appropriate multi-disciplinary team (MDT) with support and supervision from locality lead and lead clinicians.

Independently manage and negotiate the management of complex cases with others e.g. onward referral to highly specialist clinicians or other specialist support agencies e.g. consultants, Educational Psychologists, with support from the locality lead.

To support less experienced staff in the areas of case and caseload management, providing supervision as appropriate.

To provide day to day management of allocated assistant practitioners and autonomous generalist therapists working in the locality including work allocation and checking, reviewing work performance and progress, and appraisal as required.

To ensure clients/families are involved in the planning and prioritisation of their care plans wherever possible.

Provide specialist education, training and supervision to speech and language therapy assistant practitioners and to speech and language therapists with less experience in the management of the client group, with appropriate supervision from the locality lead.

Work with the locality lead to develop and coordinate service provision and policy development for children with speech, language and communication difficulties.

Person specification

Qualifications

• First degree or equivalent in SLT.
• Evidence of post-graduate study relevant to the post.
• Evidence of leadership training.

Experience

• Experience of working as a SLT, which must have included working with clients with a wide range of speech, language and communication difficulties.
• Working in partnership with children and parents.
• Experience of working in a range of environments, including mainstream schools.
• Experience of planning and delivering teaching and training.

Skills

• High level problem-solving skills.
• Planning, organisation and evaluation skills.

Other

• Holds UK driving licence and has access to a car for work purposes.

Knowledge

• Knowledge of NHS and Education policies.
• Knowledge of national documents relating to SLCN.

**Please note - Once sufficient applications have been received this vacancy may close early**

Please check your email address on a regular basis as applicants invited to attend an interview will be notified via this method.

As part of our recruitment process, you will be required to undertake pre-employment screening:
Disclosure and Barring Scheme(previously Criminal Records Bureau)
Where a post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 it may be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Scheme to check for any previous criminal convictions. Should you require a copy of the Trust's Disclosure and Barring Service Policy, please contact a member of the recruitment team on 01642 624023.

It is the policy of North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust that all successful candidates who are new to the Trust who require DBS clearance for the post they have been offered, are required to pay the cost for their DBS certificate. The method of payment for this is via salary deduction from your first month's pay on commencement with the Trust.

Please note the essential qualifications required for the post outlined within the Person Specification. You are required to hold and provide evidence of the necessary qualifications for the post at interview should you be shortlisted.

For any new employees commencing employment with North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust, you will be subject to satisfactory completion of a 6 month probationary period. Please note that internal applications and individuals that are appointed to fixed term appointments of less than 6 months duration are exempt from the probationary period (unless you are an internal applicant currently part way through a probationary period or a bank member of staff).

If the hours advertised for the post are up to full time (37.5 hours per week), applications are still welcomed from individuals who may be seeking to work less than full-time hours and all requests will be considered in line with the post being appointed to for the successful applicant.

North Tees & Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust operates a No Smoking Policy.

If you experience any technical difficulties applying for this post please contact a member of our recruitment team on 01642 624023 quoting the vacancy reference.

The details in the Monitoring Information section of your application will be used for monitoring our recruitment process and will not be seen by the interview panel. The information you give will be treated in the strictest confidence. To meet its commitment to promoting equality of opportunity, the Trust’s policy is that individuals will be recruited, trained and promoted according to ability and job requirements only. As such we welcome your application irrespective of your gender, race, disability, colour, ethnic or national origin, and nationality, and marital status, responsibility for dependants, religion, trade union activity and age.

Disability

The Trust gives full and fair consideration to applications for employment received from disabled people. We are a “Positive about Disabled People” employer, and we hold the ‘two ticks’ Disability Symbol, which is a recognition given by Jobcentre Plus to employers who have agreed to meet five commitments regarding the recruitment, employment, retention and career development of disabled people. If you have a disability, which makes it difficult for you to complete our application form, please do not hesitate to contact the recruitment team on 01642 624023.

As a supporter of the Armed Forces and an employer of Reservists, North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust are proud to be a signatory of the Armed Forces Covenant, which is a promise by the nation to ensure that those who serve or who have served in the UK Armed Forces (and their families) are treated fairly.

We recognise that reservists and veterans bring a variety of transferable skills and qualities to our workplace, developed through their military careers. Our commitment to supporting the Armed Forces Community has been recognised through the Armed Forces Covenant as a Silver Employer.

What does this mean?

We proactively demonstrate our forces-friendly credentials within our recruitment and selection processes, by having a Guaranteed Interview Scheme for those indicated as part of the Armed Forces Community. We engage with our local and regional Career Transition Partnership representatives and are a member of Step Into Health. We employ veterans and reservists from differing branches of the Armed Forces and actively promote our positive policies for the Armed Forces Community, including our Special Leave policy. We advocate support for defence people issues, including facilitating easier access to Healthcare Services for our patients within the AF Community. We have supported employees through Reservist training, through additional leave for their training and ongoing support under our Special Leave policy.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

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: Lisa Piggott
Job title: Professional Lead - Children's Therapies
Email address: lisapiggott@nhs.net
Telephone number: 01429522717