Specialist Speech & Language Therapist (Locality)

NHS; Hartlepool; On-site; GBP 30,000 - 50,000

Job description

Specialist Speech & Language Therapist (Locality)

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.

About us

At North Tees & Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust our main priority is, and always 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 survey.

"Together we are North Tees & Hartlepool"

Job responsibilities

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. To support less experienced staff in the areas of case and caseload management, providing supervision as appropriate.
6. 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.
7. To ensure clients/families are involved in the planning and prioritisation of their care plans wherever possible.
8. 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.
9. 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.

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.

Professional Lead - Children's Therapies