Clinical Specialist Speech and Language Therapist, Band 8a

Job responsibilities

Leadership in the provision of innovative, high quality, evidence based and equitable therapeutic interventions, with specialisms across dysphagia and tracheostomy care.

Assess, interpret results, manage, and measure outcomes in children with complex speech and language therapy needs, including communication, feeding, and swallowing.

Accept high level clinical responsibility for a small caseload of children with feeding, swallowing and communication needs in a specialist field of complex conditions including tracheostomy and long-term ventilation across a range of ages.

Facilitate involvement of family and carers to participate in the rehabilitation process, including day-to-day therapy sessions, and the handing over of practical skills and care.

Be an autonomous practitioner with responsibility for assessment, treatment, and planning for a small, allocated caseload of children/young people.

Work closely with all members of the multidisciplinary team (MDT), as well as the child and family, to provide a fully integrated approach to the overall management of the child and embed functional skills. This will include any home/school visits, professional child related meetings and / or appointments, as required.

To be an active part of the respiratory team around the child for children with complex respiratory presentations, working closely with the medical team, nursing team, Respiratory Physiotherapist, Respiratory Clinical nurse specialist and the Clinical Support and Education Team; supporting the liaison with external professionals in tertiary hospitals as required

Development and implementation of individualised recommendations and plans that can be embedded within the childs daily routine, whether to be carried out by parents or members of the MDT; these should be monitored, evaluated, and adjusted appropriately in a timely manner according to the needs of the child.

Lead and support evidence-based practice with the site wide speech and language therapy team, offering regular clinical supervision and support.

Lead quality improvement projects across the MDT, utilising QI methodology and tools, sharing learning and recommendations internally and externally to improve clinical practice.

Support regulation and governance, reporting into the Clinical Governance meetings.

Lead on areas of teaching and education for the MDT in relevant field.

Sit within the therapy leadership team and contribute to the development and improvement of the service.

Contribute to child related documentation including progress and discharge reports, looked after children and annual review reports as required and assist with the collation of these as and when required, in a timely manner and in line with organisational targets.

Utilise patient reported and standardised outcome measures in a timely manner for each child/young person allocated.

Assess, evaluate, and recommend discharge/transition plans for children/young people within the multidisciplinary team framework.

Contribute to the assessment and discussion of new referrals to The Childrens Trust. To support this process, may be requested to carry out referral assessments around the United Kingdom.

Provide clinical cover across the service during episodes of staff shortage/heavy workload, in order to ensure effective service delivery.

Work flexibly in terms of hours, in order to meet the needs of the service, which may include an early evening (maximum one per week) and weekend day (maximum one per month)

Represent the Therapy Team and The Childrens Trust when appropriate, deputising for the Head of Rehabilitation Therapies as required.

Actively participate in and support the running of relevant meetings and team leadership meetings.

To undertake other or additional duties that are within your skills and abilities, as the organisation may reasonably require from time to time.

Communication:

Facilitate effective communication with families, children, and you people, as well as members of the MDT. You will support others to embed recommendations and advice regarding communication and eating and drinking and tracheostomy care management needs.

Through effective communication and support you will challenge barriers to communication and support others to enable communication repair.

Communicates regularly and effectively with the Therapy Leadership Team and Director of Therapies.

Maintains clear and concise documents and records, in accordance with The Childrens Trust Policy.

Ensures documents are managed confidentially at all times.

Involve children and families in areas of service development, research, outcomes, and reflective practice.

Use a range of advanced communication skills, to share specialist information and facilitate discussions with a range of audiences, with different levels of knowledge and expertise.

Lead and contribute to multidisciplinary and team meetings.

Develop and promote relationships with external networks, including professionals, stakeholders, and specialist centres, in order to ensure excellence of care, whilst representing the organisation and reflecting The Childrens Trust core values.

Manage informal complaints, in line with The Childrens Trust polices and contribute to the resolution of written complaints and as they occur, taking immediate action where necessary.

Management of Self and Others:

Provide effective line management for the Rehab Service Speech and Language Therapists

Provide clinical supervision and clinical support for the school speech and language therapy team

Participate in the overall day-to-day leadership and development of the speech and language therapy service, to ensure an efficient and safe service for all.

Provide day-to-day leadership, support and supervision for junior staff, technicians, volunteers, and students, within area of responsibility, providing direction, motivation, and support to achieve key objectives.

Represent the Therapy Team on behalf of the Head of Therapy for Rehabilitation, when requested.

Participate in the annual Performance Development Review and monthly supervision sessions, as required by The Childrens Trust, both as appraiser and appraise.

Oversee the resource and equipment needs, including shortfalls, liaising with the Heads of Therapy, as appropriate.

Demonstrate excellent time management skills and flexibility, using prioritising and delegating work, as required.

Assess needs, decide priorities, and organise, monitor, and evaluate the provision of an efficient and effective Therapy service, in liaison with the Heads of Therapy.

Governance:

Read and implements all policies, procedures, and risk assessments, pertinent to working practice and keeps up to date with policy changes as they occur.

Critically evaluate new intervention methods and implement where appropriate.

Critically evaluate practice through clinical audits and by appraisal of the information gained, in combination with current knowledge of evidence-based practice; identify opportunities for service improvement and development.

Recognise and critically appraise situations where the effectiveness, efficiency and quality of the service are compromised and take appropriate action to resolve the situation.

Critically reflect on own performance and that of other staff; use this evaluation to enhance the effectiveness, efficiency, and quality of future practice.

Actively participates in local clinical governance activities.

Undergo The Childrens Trust Risk Assessor training, to ensure that all activities are risk assessed and documented in the most appropriate format. Ensure that detailed risk assessments are completed, as required.

Professionalism:

Meet the current HCPC and Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists standards with respect to professionalism and to keep up to date with any changes.

Be responsible for maintaining registration with HCPC and other Professional Bodies.

Adhere to the policies and procedures of The Childrens Trust.

Career Long Learning, Education and Research:

Undertake all mandatory training, in line with The Childrens Trust policies.

Independently advance personal knowledge, understanding and skills, in line with identified learning needs, by making appropriate use of a variety of learning and development resources and opportunities, e.g., by attending courses/ lectures, contact and involvement with relevant clinical excellence networks, and building links with local networks to optimise skills sharing and learning.

Develop and deliver high quality external training courses in area of specialism, where potential demand is identified.

Disseminate and ensure the embedding of relevant new practice, through attendance at and contributing to in-service education, research outputs, for example, literature reviews, mentoring and peer sessions.

Record outcomes of learning activities, in a format that reflects personal preferences and professional requirement, in line with the RCSLT competencies and HCPC standards.

Actively participate and support the speech and language therapists in the development of research outputs, with direction and support from the Research Team.

Take an active part in the training of junior colleagues and lead the development of reflective practice in others.

Deliver, review, and reflect on in-service competency training programmes and teaching sessions, to ensure high-quality learning, as appropriate.

Maintains up to date knowledge of the external health, social, education and political environment and highlights any issues that will impact upon existing policies and procedures.

A willingness to develop self and complete competencies to improve service needs and delivery, for example, tracheostomy competencies if you do not already have this.

Skills & Abilities

Essential

• Assessment of speech, language and communication and ability to devise and carry out intervention plans.
• Assessment and management of eating, drinking and swallowing problems and ability to devise and manage relevant eating and drinking plans.
• Ability to meet the physical demands of a speech and language therapy role.
• Professional integrity, particularly in clinical governance.
• Commitment to working flexibly to meet the needs of the service.
• Demonstrable competency in supporting junior staff in developing clinical and professional skills.
• Analytical and creative problem-solving skills in unpredictable situations, synthesising a variety of evidence and presenting this in a relevant format e.g., report; presentation.
• Workload management including delegation of tasks and day-to-day team leadership.
• Advanced verbal, non-verbal and written communication skills including communicating complex or potentially distressing or difficult information to parents/carers and managing conflict, as appropriate.
• Reflective practice skills able to give clear and effective feedback and support others to develop.
• Develop and lead clinical audit within specialist clinical area.

Personal Qualities

Essential

• Commitment to the vision and values of The Childrens Trust.
• Physically fit and able to comply with trust manual handling guidelines. Able to carry out moderate to intense physical effort throughout the working day and carry out concurrent activities.
• Flexible and can do attitude to competing commitments in workload.
• Highly motivated and reliable.
• Ability to cope working in a demanding environment.

Knowledge

Essential

• Knowledge of dysphagia assessment and management including innovative practice.
• Knowledge of current research and evidence-base, clinical audit, and service evaluation methods.
• Formal and informal clinical assessment and intervention skills relevant to children and/or adults with neuro-disability.
• Knowledge and understanding of safeguarding children and young people with complex disabilities.
• Flexible, can do, solution focused attitude to competing commitments in workload.
• Embodying Trust values; being highly motivated, reliable, and compassionate.

Desirable

• Knowledge of tracheostomy impact on voice; cough, secretions, and swallowing; and knowledge of management of tracheostomy care and one-way valve use.
• Understanding of physical, communication, behavioural and emotional changes, and long-term impact of acquired brain injury (ABI).

Qualifications

Essential

• RCSLT recognised degree or postgraduate diploma in Speech and Language Therapy.
• HCPC registration.
• Member of Royal College of Speech and Language Therapy.
• Evidence of successful completion of post-basic training or courses OR Masters degree equivalent such as Advanced Dysphagia or Tracheostomy management.
• Dysphagia competency to at least Level C (RCSLT Competencies).
• Willing to participate in any relevant training identified to develop skills required to carry out duties including extended role activities.
• Maintains a portfolio of CPD in line with regulatory body standards.

Desirable

• Tracheostomy Competency - trained to meet Core Competencies and Paediatric or adult competencies (RCSLT).

Experience

Essential

• Minimum of five years clinical experience post basic qualification.
• Minimum clinical experience of five years working in Dysphagia and/ or tracheostomy care.
• Experience in any one or a combination of the following:
• Neuro rehabilitation; adults or paediatric
• Children or adults with complex medical needs.
• Competent and experienced in managing children and/or adults with dysphagia and/or those with tracheostomies.
• Worked within a multidisciplinary team.
• Experience of service development and quality improvement.

Desirable

• Experience of leading a team.

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.

Certificate of Sponsorship

Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).

From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).

UK Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).