Speech & Language Therapist

Job description

Job responsibilities

2. Job Purpose

To provide a Speech & Language Therapy (SaLT) Service within Dysart School, for children and young people, aged 4-19 years, who have severe learning difficulties (SLD), the majority of whom have an autism spectrum conditions (ASC) and associated communication impairments. Some children may also have physical disabilities, challenging behaviour and/or sensory needs and/or eating, drinking and swallowing needs (EDS).

3. Dimensions

To have a knowledge and understanding of the strengths and needs of children and young people, who have severe learning difficulties, ASC and a variety of associated communication disorders, in order to support their developing skills within their educational settings.

To have knowledge and understanding of others areas of need that may impact on the children and young people with severe learning difficulties and/or ASC, such as physical disabilities, challenging behaviour and/or sensory needs and/or eating, drinking and swallowing needs (EDS), e.g. Dysphagia and/or Avoidant and Restrictive Food Intake Disorder - ARFID.

To have experience of or interest in managing a caseload of children/young people with Dysphagia needs.

To work as part of the Dysart Speech and Language Therapy team, supporting the Band 7 Speech and Language Therapists in ensuring the delivery of effective clinical services to the children and young people with communication and EDS needs.

To be an active member of the Childrens Speech and Language Therapy Team, committed to initiate developments and improving services.

To contribute to the evidence-base of clinical effectiveness for interventions and strategies that support children and young people in specialist educational settings.

4. Key Result Areas/Principle responsibilities

Patient/client care:

1. To have knowledge, experience and understanding of the strengths and needs of children and young people with a variety of communication disorders in order to support their developing skills within educational settings.
2. To have knowledge and understanding of others areas of need that may impact on the children and young people with severe learning difficulties and/or ASC, such as physical disabilities, challenging behaviour and/or sensory needs and/or eating, drinking and swallowing needs (EDS).
3. To have knowledge and experience in supporting children and young people with EDS needs or an interest in developing these skills, in their home and education environments.
4. To contribute to the development of specialist Speech and Language Therapy programmes and provision of appropriate evaluation of outcomes for the management of children and young people with complex needs.
5. To contribute to service development that reflects the needs of the children/young people, their carers/parents and considers the needs of other professionals involved in their care.
6. To assess, interpret results and differentially diagnose the communication and EDS needs of children and young people on the caseload.
7. To demonstrate skills in motivating clients and/or their carers to engage in the therapeutic process.
8. To provide specialist advice and training to significant others e.g. parents, teaching staff and support staff as appropriate in the delivery of the service, in order that opportunities for communication and/or EDS development and reinforcement of newly acquired skills are carried over into everyday life.
9. To produce meaningful and useful reports, when required, that summarise the childs needs and indicate a proposed plan and monitoring arrangements, including reports submitted to Education as formal advice as part of the Education Health and Care Plan (EHCP) process. To be competent in understanding the process and deliver Education, Health and Care Plans according to the Special Educational Needs Code of Practice (Childrens Act 2014).

10. To work closely with our Multi-Disciplinary Colleagues (MDT) and carers/parents involved in the child/young persons care and outcome setting, ensuring that holistic approaches are used, therapy programmes are focused according to main areas of need and managed effectively and in a timely way to improve outcomes.

1. Setting and reviewing of individual outcomes collaboratively with members of the multi-disciplinary team, child/young person and carers/parents to ensure outcomes have incorporated the child/young persons preferences and carers/parents preferences and that they are meaningful and functional.
2. To demonstrate a high level of clinical effectiveness by use of evidence-based practice, SLT plans and outcome measures, which involve monitoring and reviewing the childs progress against the Speech and Language Therapy plans and outcomes set.
3. To have knowledge and experience of using clinical interventions such as MAKATON, PECS, VERVE, Attention Autism, Intensive Interaction and Alternative and Augmentative Communication systems (AAC). To be able to support others to develop skills in these interventions, including devising and delivery training presentations/workshops.
4. To demonstrate empathy and adapt practice to meet individual clients circumstances. Ensuring that effective communication is achieved particularly where barriers to understanding exist, including due regard for cultural and linguistic differences.
5. To reflect on clinical practice both individually and with peers identifying strengths and needs and providing evidence of sound clinical judgements.
6. To ensure that clients are referred to other services as appropriate, if necessary, as part of their care.

Policy/service development and implementation:

17. To contribute to reflective clinical practice both individually and with peers, identifying strengths and needs to support the teams development of the current evidence base and to support effective clinical decision making.

1. To provide supervision and support to Speech and Language Therapy Assistants within the Dysart Speech and Language Therapy team and wider Childrens Speech and Language Therapy Team, as required.

19. To use Speech and Language Therapy plans and outcome measures, e.g., TOMS, and contribute to the collating of outcome measurement data.

1. To develop and maintain clinical expertise, consulting with other Speech and Language Therapists as necessary, keeping up to date with new techniques and developments, for the promotion and maintenance of good practice and your own personal and professional development as evidenced by Continuing Professional Development (CPD).

21. To adhere to policies, guidelines and professional standards.

1. To use knowledge and experience to inform service/policy developments and contribute to future service design to support the service offer and improve the outcomes of children and young people, ensuring that these reflect local health, education and social care priorities, policies and legal issues.

23. To contribute to innovations in areas of risk management, quality standards and clinical effectiveness in conjunction with peers and supervisors in order to ensure a safe, effective and efficient service.

1. To have knowledge of considerations in service delivery in education, e.g., National Curriculum and SEND code of practice.

Financial and physical resources:

1. To oversee the maintenance of speech and language therapy equipment and resources used in clinical service areas and advise Team Leads of equipment needs.
2. To develop specialist resources in collaboration with teaching staff.

Human resources:

27. To undertake the clinical supervision of speech and language therapy students on placement, for some sessions per week, attending teaching sessions and meetings organised by the education establishments as necessary.

28. To provide support and supervision to members of the Speech and Language Therapy team, teaching staff within educational settings, and volunteers as required.

1. To effectively work with a range of professionals and ensure work undertaken is suitable to their level of skills, knowledge and expertise and measuring effectiveness and quality through regular observation, supervision and appraisal.

30. To identify/coordinate and provide regular specialist training both for education staff groups, parents and the Speech and Language Therapy team on a range of topics that will support the development of the children on the case load and SLT team members professional development.

31. To contribute to the induction of new members of the team.

32. To keep up to date with current clinical developments through reading, attendance at courses, meetings and Hubs and share this information with other colleagues.

Information resources:

33. To maintain childrens clinical notes in line with the organisations Standards and Policy.

34. To carry out administrative duties including data collection; managing appointments and maintaining general equipment.

35. To maintain up to date records of annual leave and other absence.

Research and development:

36. To contribute to audits and the design and interrogation of data in order to inform the evidence base for clinical effectiveness with this client group (complex needs population with SLCN and EDS).

37. To evaluate the effectiveness of the training provided.

38. Understand, plan, do and review the service that you are providing.

39. To contribute to action research design and outcome measurement in the area of SLT delivery to mainstream settings.

Freedom to act / decision making:

40. To manage a complex case load (with support from the Band 7 Speech and Language Therapist), advising Team Leads of shortfalls or difficulties as they arise and identify initiatives / plans in order to manage these shortfalls or difficulties and contribute to decision making for future service developments.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

• Recognised speech and language therapy qualification
• HPC registration
• Member of RCSLT
• Makaton, PECS, Intensive Interaction, AAC, PODD

Desirable

• SCERTS
• Early Bird
• ACI/Hanen PCI
• Colourful Semantics
• Sensory Stories
• Lis N Tell
• Attention Autism
• PROMPT
• TOMS
• Sensory feeding/ ARFID
• Dysphagia training/ competencies

Experience

Essential

• Implementation of a range of communication programmes/ approaches listed above.
• Setting clear therapy plans and monitoring and evaluating/measuring outcomes.
• A minimum of 3 years post qualification experience in working with children/young people with SLCN.
• Experience of working collaboratively within a multi-disciplinary team and with parents/carers.
• Experience of working within a specialist and/or mainstream education setting.
• Delivering training workshops to a range of professionals/parents/carers in order to ensure enskilling others in a range of therapy approaches/strategies/service delivery and capturing effectiveness of the training.
• Clinical supervision of SaLT students and SaLT Assistants.

Desirable

• Knowledge of risk management, quality standards and clinical effectiveness.
• Working collaboratively with our key partners, e.g., SEN team at Achieving for Children, SENCOs and Senior Leadership Teams in schools, GP Federation, voluntary sector.
• The Balanced System framework.
• Supporting children/young people with EDS.
• Managing an EDS caseload.

Knowledge, skills and abilities

Essential

• Maintaining clinical expertise, keeping up to date with and sharing new techniques and developments, for the promotion and maintenance of good practice within the team.
• Of using SaLT plans and outcome measures to ensure children/young people s communication skills are supported in a relevant, functional and measured way.
• Working with children and young people/parents/carers, educational colleagues and other professionals to ensure collaborative outcome setting and focused therapy.
• Of relevant developments in Education, the National Curriculum and Code of Practice and competently understand the process and delivery of Education, Health and Care Plans.
• Working with a range of professionals and ensuring work undertaken is suitable to their level of skills, knowledge and expertise and using effective measurement.
• Of a wide range of assessments and approaches to support children with speech, language and social communication needs, including telehealth.
• Of outcome planning and monitoring for Education, Health and Care Plans and children at SEN.
• Of clinical governance, research and audit procedures/plans.
• Of applying visual systems to support communication in an educational context, e.g. TEACCH, PECS, AAC, Makaton signs and symbols.
• Knowledge of a Total Communication approach.
• Information Technology skills.
• Good organisational skills.
• Excellent communication & interpersonal skills.
• Good presentation skills.
• Reflective practitioner.
• Problem solving skills.
• Negotiation skills and resolution of conflict.

Desirable

• Sensory impairment
• IT software (e.g. widgit/boardmaker/MS Teams/webinars).
• Awareness and understanding of principles of neurodiversity and consideration of this in practice.
• Experience of being exposed to a diverse range of people/cultures/ways of doing things.
• Partnership working practices, e.g., SEN Panels, Council for Disabled Children (CDC), ISCD at Moor Lane, etc.
• Interest in managing a caseload of children/young people with eating, drinking and swallowing needs (EDS).

Personal qualities

Essential

• Professional Manner
• Reliable time keeper
• Team Worker
• Committed and motivated
• Can do attitude
• Problem Solving Approach

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.

UK Registration

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

Employer details

Employer name

Your Healthcare CIC

Address

Hollyfield House, 22 Hollyfield Road

Surbiton

KT5 9AL

Employer's website

http://www.yourhealthcare.org (Opens in a new tab)