NELFT North East London Foundation Trust

Clinical Lead Speech and Language Therapist

The closing date is 08 September 2025

Job summary

The post holder will provide line management and clinical leadership to the Speech and Language Therapy team within the BHR Neurodevelopmental service as part of the overall clinical leadership structure in the Directorate.

The clinical lead will ensure safe, high-quality evidence-based services are available to children and young people referred onto the neurodevelopmental pathway; developing and delivering a comprehensive specialist service that is child-centred and works in partnership with families and other agencies. The post holder will independently manage a caseload of clients with moderate/complex/profound communication needs. The post holder will provide high quality speech and language therapy supporting the neurodevelopmental pathway in close conjunction with families and other professionals.

The clinical lead will have highly specialist knowledge in the assessment, diagnosis and treatment of specific disorders, communication disorders on the neurodevelopmental pathway including autism. This includes developing innovative practice and service redesign to contribute to the development and implementation of the integrated clinical neurodevelopmental pathways.

Main duties of the job

This role provides clinical leadership and operational management to the Speech and Language Therapy team, supporting service delivery across health and education settings. It involves developing and leading innovative, evidence-based therapy services that align with integrated care pathways for children and young people with complex communication needs. Responsibilities include staff supervision, recruitment, professional development, and managing service level agreements with local authorities and schools.

The role works collaboratively with multidisciplinary teams to design and deliver coordinated care within neurodevelopmental pathways. It requires strong engagement with families, schools, and wider stakeholders to ensure the service is responsive, inclusive, and outcome-focused. The postholder also supports systems and processes to improve service delivery and manages demand and capacity across the team.

Alongside leadership duties, the postholder maintains a specialist clinical caseload, delivering expert assessment and intervention. They ensure compliance with Trust policies, manage clinical risk, and contribute to training, supervision, and service evaluation. The role supports a high standard of care while promoting ongoing development across the team and wider workforce.

About us

Starting with NELFTNELFT place a great deal of importance on new starters being properly welcomed and inducted into the Trust. All new starters will join the Trust on the first Monday of each month and will undertake a comprehensive induction of up to two weeks which will include mandatory training, systems training and the allocation of equipment. As part of the process new starters will have the opportunity to also meet the executive team, senior managers and attend a number of drop in sessions focusing in engagement, health and wellbeing and key processes. The induction will be held at our head office in Rainham, Essex.

Probationary Period

This post will be subject to a probationary period. Internal applicants are exempt from the probationary period (unless you are an internal applicant currently part way through a probationary period or currently a bank member of staff).High Cost Area Supplement - London

This post attracts payment for High Cost Area Supplement of 15% of the basic salary (minimum payment of £4,714 and a maximum payment of £5,941 per annum pro rata).

Our Values 2025 - 2030

Working with our colleagues, patients and carers we have co-produced three new values that we aim to embed within our culture here at NELFT.

They are:

We are kind.
We are respectful.
We work together with our communities.

These three values help us tostrive to provide the best care by the best people.

Date posted

12 August 2025

Pay scheme

Agenda for change

Band

Band 8a

Salary

£55,690 to £62,682 a year plus HCAS per annum pro rata

Contract

Fixed term

Duration

10 months

Working pattern

Full-time

Reference number

395-BD066-25

Job locations

The Child and Family Centre

79 Axe Street

Barking

IG11 7LZ

Job description

Job responsibilities

Clinical Skills

1. To act as an autonomous, registered, health care professional who is legally and professionally accountable for own unsupervised actions guided by the professional code of conduct and Trust guidelines and protocols

2. Further professional knowledge will have been gained through accredited courses and study, as well as Trust Mandatory Training

3. To maintain high professional standards of practice as designated by the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists, including maintaining continual professional development and registration with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC).

4. To provide a high-quality Speech and Language Therapy service to children presenting with communication difficulties

5. To provide children and families with information and education thus ensuring they have meaningful choices that promote dignity, independence and quality of life.

6. To ensure practice is supported by research, evidence-based practice, literature and peer review.

7. To manage and prioritise a complex caseload independently providing assessment, highly specialist treatment and evaluation of outcomes for children with a range of communication and feeding difficulties in a community context.

8. To make differential diagnosis following assessment and develop care plans based on this assessment that consider a range of factors including evidence, best practice and the views of the child and others involved in their care.

9. To provide assessments and reports on patients, including the requirements of contributing to education, Health and Care Plans under the new Children and Families Act 2014 and the Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Reforms.

10. To communicate complex clinical information and intervention plans to children and young people (where appropriate), their parents, carers, staff in other agencies, so that they understand therapeutic intervention and carry out effective treatment of management of the child

11. To establish therapy programmes based on evidence-based practice designed to enable functional improvement and access to the National Curriculum and current models of good practice

12. To deliver therapy services in a variety of settings e.g. homes, schools, childrens centres, community clinics, and in consultation with the parents/carers, health, education and social care.

13. To plan and provide regular specialist training to parents/carers and other professionals as appropriate, adapting training so that it meets the needs of course participants.

14. To provide a second opinion service within own area of expertise to local teams as well as outside agencies

15. To use complex and advanced clinical reasoning skills to analyse assessment results, taking into account the childs function, social, emotional and educational needs.

16. To ensure maximum involvement of the family/carer, other professional staff and where appropriate the children in the planning and prioritisation of their care plans

17. To provide therapy intervention within a multidisciplinary framework wherever possible

18. To maintain and develop effective and innovative partnership arrangements with other agencies to ensure care pathways for children are integrated and operate within a multidisciplinary framework

19. To use reasoning, communication, and negotiation skills to establish a therapeutic relationship, managing barriers to communication and dealing with challenging behaviours from children and families.

20. To demonstrate empathy with clients, carers, families and colleagues, ensuring that effective communication is achieved, particularly where barriers to understanding exist e.g. English not being spoken at home, or clients with sever communication difficulties.

21. To be able to initiate referrals to other health professional specialist services and agencies

22. To respond to the requirements of SEND reforms including the Local Offer and Education and health Care Plans

23. To keep accurate contemporaneous documentation and provide patients case records in line with Trust record keeping policies and HCPC standards.

24. Develop a working knowledge of relevant procedures including safeguarding children and vulnerable adults, and other legal frameworks.

25. Develop a working knowledge of the principles of Clinical Governance and their application to professional practice.

Leadership

1. To participate in the development of an effective team and the development of productive working relationships throughout the Trust

2. To provide expert advice to the leadership team for childrens services, on matters pertaining to therapy and the service

3. To actively promote integrated working internally and externally to the Trust

4. To facilitate the development of a positive and supportive team culture by taking responsibility for dealing effectively with potential conflict

5. To take an active interest in working parties and groups within the Trust and improve on service delivery, protocols and guidelines.

6. To participate in the audit process, linking in with the clinical governance agenda.

7. To advise, encourage and share knowledge utilising the latest research and practice development, through literature and peer reviews

8. To provide transformational leadership in line managing, leading and supporting the team on a day-to-day basis, as well as implementing change arising from national and local agendas

9. To lead on the development of integrated health, education and social care teams to develop effective care plans for children and young people with complex needs in a variety of settings.

10. To be a professional lead for all Speech and Language Therapists working in the specialist clinical field through exemplary working in evidence-based clinical practice

11. To identify training needs of the team, developing and encouraging access to professional development opportunities for staff

12. To coordinate and provide professional, clinical and safeguarding supervision for the team, supporting reflective learning within the team. To ensure all team members are compliant with managerial and safeguarding supervision requirements. This includes supervision of senior therapists and development of a supervision line throughout the service.

13. To work in partnership with internal and external care providers to promote safeguarding of children and young people with special needs or additional needs with enhanced clinical knowledge and expertise.

14. To lead on the development and updating of clinical and professional policies and guidelines within the specialist area and implement these according to service needs.

15. To develop links with voluntary and statutory agencies and provide training on health issues to enable children and young people to access therapy input and/or services.

16. To take overall responsibility for ensuring the equitable distribution of work across the team and supervise caseload manager of junior therapists and assistants.

17. To provide clinical leadership and line management support for the team. This will include management of performance and personal development planning in conjunction with HR e.g. grievance/disciplinary procedures, appraisals and Personal Development Plans (PDP), induction, recruitment and retention of staff.

18. To be responsible for information and data collection to ensure efficient and effective use of resources and to provide monthly activity data and performance analysis within expected timeframes to management

19. To be responsible for audit, research, and evaluation of the therapy services in collaboration with health and education colleagues.

20. To actively seek the views of children, young people and parents to contribute to the development of the service

21. To take overall responsibility for the development and implementation of policies and guidelines relevant to the team

22. To ensure all staff are fully compliant with mandatory training including safeguarding for children and adults

23. To respond to complaints in line with Trust Policies

24. To plan and chair team meetings

25. To attend clinical leadership, multi-disciplinary and multi-agency meetings within this specialist clinical area and participate in the development of local services in response

26. To interpret and advise on national guidance and policy within this specialist clinical area and participate in the development of local services in response.

27. To represent the local service at NELFT-wide or London-wide forums.

28. To ensure the delivery of key performance and quality indicators for service

Use of AI

Applications for this role should be written by the applicant. If artificial intelligence (AI) programmes are used then the application may be rejected due to this document being an important part of the assessment process. This does not prevent applicants seeking appropriate support with applications should they need to for the purposes of any declared disability.