Job summary
The Children's Speech and Language Therapy service has a vacancy at band 5 for a therapist seeking their first post, or an opportunity to extend their experience & skills further at this level. We can offer a full or part time position (a minimum of 0.6 WTE) based from our team hubs in Chichester and covering the areas to the south and west of West Sussex.
Our current vacancy offers the opportunity to gain experience in Early Years/community clinic settings and supporting children in mainstream schools.
This is an ideal post to help you transition from student to therapist and develop a wide range of therapeutic skills to carry forward into your career.
Successful applicants must be registered with the HCPC, and undergo an enhanced DBS check before appointment.
Please get in touch to discuss this role. We look forward to hearing from you!
Main duties of the job
Our Speech and Language Therapy service is jointly funded by Health and Education and has a service specification that is broadly divided into Early Years and Mainstream Schools. We use a universal, targeted and specialist approach focused on enabling the best possible communication between parents, carers and setting staff and the children and young people in their care.
As a member of our Early Years team you will have 0.6 wte sessions developing a broad range of assessment and therapy skills within our community clinic team, working alongside other therapists and our EY SaLTA. Here the work may be clinic-based; assessing need, running individual or group therapy sessions, or may involve working alongside school staff to support children with speech sound disorders. Overall, this is a full and varied role in which you will be supported by experienced specialist therapists as well as the highly specialist clinical leads.
Within the Mainstream team you will have 0.4 wte sessions helping to build on our excellent relationships with our schools who report a high level of satisfaction with the service, and value our link therapist support as well as the quality of training we provide. You would be mentored and supported by our experienced clinical leads to enable you to confidently assume the link therapist role for a group of schools.
About us
Our busy and enthusiastic team covers Chichester, Bognor Regis and Midhurst and have access to a well-stocked resource base as well as IT hardware and software to enable flexible and agile working. We are a small and close-knit group who strive to make new staff feel welcomed and included from their first day.
Therapists who have taken up their first post with us in recent years have commented that the support provided by the team has been fantastic. Not limited to the work sphere, it provides a sense of community through social events and contact outside work that has made moving to a new area much less daunting.
Our most recent B5 NQT appreciated a very thorough induction including shadowing other members of the team to get a good understanding of the service. She valued the support given by her supervisor and team colleagues in developing essential clinical skills such as taking case histories and carrying out assessments. She found the supervision process was well structured to provide regular contact in the first few months when there was so much new information to process. She was surprised how quickly she felt confident to work independently, although both the formal and the informal team support continues as she works through her NQT competencies and makes a valuable contribution to her team and the service.
Job description
Job responsibilities
To assess and provide therapeutic input to children and young people with communication and/or eating and drinking difficulties.
To manage a caseload independently and to manage service priorities and client needs.
To assist in the organisation of caseloads within the scope of the post with support from other speech and language therapists and/or relevant Clinical Lead, advising SLT Clinical Service Manager of shortfalls and difficulties as they arise.
Manage clinical risk within own caseload, and generate strategies for caseload management.
Adapt practice to meet the individual circumstances, having regard to cultural and linguistic differences. Ensure that the child/young person and parent/ carers are involved in planning and decision making relevant to therapy intervention.
To provide accurate and timely statistics as required by Speech and Language Therapy and Sussex Community Foundation Trust
To provide all clinical practice in line with HCPC Standards of Proficiency and RCSLT clinical guidelines, ratified local policies and with due regard to evidence based practice.
Any other duties in line with the band and scope of the post
Therapists who have taken up their first post with us in recent years have commented that the support provided by the team has been fantastic. Not limited to the work sphere, it provides a sense of community through social events and contact outside work that has made moving to a new area much less daunting. Recent feedback has included:
This has been a fantastic start to my career; the role has offered a wide range of clinical experience within an incredibly supportive and welcoming team. The substantial supervision has enabled me to develop confidence to make independent clinical decisions. I am so grateful for having had the opportunity to work with such wonderful people!
"There has been a constant level of support throughout my development...clinical and peer supervision has allowed me to settle into the team and have a comprehensive understanding of how the service works."
"I feel I can always contribute to discussions and ideas, despite being newly qualified, and my training needs are always considered.
Please see attached job description and person specification for more details.
Job description
Job responsibilities
To assess and provide therapeutic input to children and young people with communication and/or eating and drinking difficulties.
To manage a caseload independently and to manage service priorities and client needs.
To assist in the organisation of caseloads within the scope of the post with support from other speech and language therapists and/or relevant Clinical Lead, advising SLT Clinical Service Manager of shortfalls and difficulties as they arise.
Manage clinical risk within own caseload, and generate strategies for caseload management.
Adapt practice to meet the individual circumstances, having regard to cultural and linguistic differences. Ensure that the child/young person and parent/ carers are involved in planning and decision making relevant to therapy intervention.
To provide accurate and timely statistics as required by Speech and Language Therapy and Sussex Community Foundation Trust
To provide all clinical practice in line with HCPC Standards of Proficiency and RCSLT clinical guidelines, ratified local policies and with due regard to evidence based practice.
Any other duties in line with the band and scope of the post
Therapists who have taken up their first post with us in recent years have commented that the support provided by the team has been fantastic. Not limited to the work sphere, it provides a sense of community through social events and contact outside work that has made moving to a new area much less daunting. Recent feedback has included:
This has been a fantastic start to my career; the role has offered a wide range of clinical experience within an incredibly supportive and welcoming team. The substantial supervision has enabled me to develop confidence to make independent clinical decisions. I am so grateful for having had the opportunity to work with such wonderful people!
"There has been a constant level of support throughout my development...clinical and peer supervision has allowed me to settle into the team and have a comprehensive understanding of how the service works."
"I feel I can always contribute to discussions and ideas, despite being newly qualified, and my training needs are always considered.
Please see attached job description and person specification for more details.
Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential
- Recognised Speech and Language Therapy Degree
- HCPC registration applied for
Desirable
Experience
Essential
- Ability to communicate well with people with communication difficulties
- Relevant experience at undergraduate/post graduate level.
- Experience of using assessment tools relevant to client group
Skills and Knowledge
Essential
- Knowledge of a range of appropriate therapeutic interventions relevant to children with speech/language and communication difficulties
- Experience of evaluating research material to identify efficacy of therapeutic methods
- Demonstrates good analytical and reflection skills.
- Good presentation skills, both written and verbal.
- Good organisational skills
Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential
- Recognised Speech and Language Therapy Degree
- HCPC registration applied for
Desirable
Experience
Essential
- Ability to communicate well with people with communication difficulties
- Relevant experience at undergraduate/post graduate level.
- Experience of using assessment tools relevant to client group
Skills and Knowledge
Essential
- Knowledge of a range of appropriate therapeutic interventions relevant to children with speech/language and communication difficulties
- Experience of evaluating research material to identify efficacy of therapeutic methods
- Demonstrates good analytical and reflection skills.
- Good presentation skills, both written and verbal.
- Good organisational skills
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.
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).
Additional information
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.
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).
