Specialist Speech & Language Therapist

Northamptonshire Healthcare Foundation Trust

A fantastic opportunity has arisen through collaborative and partnership working with the Acute trusts, resulting in a number of new posts being resourced within the service level agreement.

This exciting opportunity has arisen for a Band 6 Specialist Speech & Language Therapist to join the Head and Neck Cancer S&LT team and Acute Team within Northampton General Hospital.

You will join a team of Speech and Language Therapists who are situated within the H&N S&LT team and Acute S&LT Team, as well as a larger countywide team of Adult Speech & Language Therapists and Support Practitioners.

You will be supported to continue to develop and demonstrate leadership behaviours as you are encouraged to actively contribute to the ongoing development of the service. You will be expected to provide mentorship support to colleagues, SLT Assistant Practitioners, and students.

There is good professional support and supervision from more senior therapists. We are a dynamic & friendly service who look forward to working with you.

All staff are encouraged to attend regular team meetings, countywide staff meetings, and in-house clinical forums. The service promotes a strong culture of clinical supervision. Professional development is encouraged through membership of relevant Clinical Excellence Networks, in-house and external training courses, and is monitored through annual appraisal.

We will consider Band 5 to Band 6 development posts.

Main duties of the job

The post holder will be an experienced Speech and Language Therapist (SLT) with some specialist knowledge of the Head and Neck cancer pathway.

The post holder will join the Acute ward team who assess and manage dysphagia in a wide range of client groups including elderly medicine, respiratory, cardiology, and gastro.

The post holder will work independently and manage a complex caseload comprising a range of adult clients with Head and Neck cancer.

The post holder will supervise SLT Support Practitioners and volunteers, as needed.

The post holder will provide clinical teaching of SLT students and will participate in the development and delivery of specialist SLT training to others.

The post requires significant inter-agency liaison.

You will be joining a small, supportive team. There will be lots of opportunities to develop your specialist dysphagia skills. We offer robust supervision and joint working.

About us

NHFT is an integrated primary care and mental health Trust, providing physical, mental health, and specialty services in both hospital settings and out in the community. Because we put the person at the centre of all we do, we focus on delivering care that is as easy to access as possible. This means many of our services can be provided at home, work, or in schools. We also provide health services to various prisons and detention centres in Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire.

NHFT promotes a culture of learning to improve the care and safety of our patients and staff, which focuses on people who enable our Trust to be 'outstanding' by supporting opportunity, innovation, development, and growth.

Job responsibilities

For further information on the advertised role, please refer to the job description located under the Supporting Documents heading. The full person specification can be accessed under the About You Section of the document.

Person Specification

Experience

• Evidence of clinical experience in the field of Head & Neck

Skills

• Excellent interpersonal skills
• Evidence of completion of dysphagia course
• Dysphagia skill within specialist area

Knowledge

• Demonstrates established knowledge in specialist field regarding relevant assessment tools
• Demonstrates knowledge of clinical standards
• Knowledge of National drivers and policies

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.

Northamptonshire Healthcare Foundation Trust