Specialist Speech and Language Therapist

Job summary
Join Our Mainstream Schools Team in Islington

Are you passionate about supporting children and young people with speech, language and communication needs? We're looking for a Band 6 Specialist Speech and Language Therapist to join our dynamic school-based team and help improve outcomes across Islington's primary and secondary schools.

You'll manage a specialist caseload, providing assessment, intervention and consultation for children and young people with a range of speech, language and communication needs in mainstream schools.

Working within a highly skilled multidisciplinary team, you'll collaborate closely with school staff, Outreach services, Occupational Therapists, Physiotherapists and other professionals to deliver integrated, child-centred support.

This role offers excellent opportunities for professional growth. You'll receive regular specialist supervision, contribute to service development, and support students, assistants, school staff and junior colleagues. You'll also help design and deliver training, promote evidence-based practice and innovatively work with school staff to create communication-friendly learning environments.

You'll be joining a friendly, innovative team that values collaboration, learning and making a meaningful difference to the lives of children, young people and their families.

If you're ready to further develop your specialist skills and make a lasting impact in Islington schools, we'd love to hear from you.

Main duties of the job
The post holder will be responsible for delivering a comprehensive, specialist service to children and young people attending mainstream schools, including assessment, diagnosis and intervention for individual children and young people as well as providing a support service to schools themselves. The post holder is an autonomous practitioner and is responsible for organising and managing their own caseload in up to 6 mainstream schools (primary and potentially secondary), working from a central base. They will work with children and young people with a wide range of speech, language and communication needs including Developmental Language Disorders, Selective Mutism, Speech difficulties and children with language disorders in association with conditions such as Autistic Spectrum Condition, Down's Syndrome and ADHD. They will contribute to project work within the team, as well as offering student placements and mentoring and supporting junior colleagues.

Find out what it is like to work in our friendly, supportive teams which span hospital and community settings across vibrant and diverse North Central London first hand, visit (you may have to copy and paste this link into your browser) to hear from some of our current staff about why they chose to join and stay at Whittington Health.

About us
Medical services have been delivered on the Whittington Hospital site for over 500 years. On 1st April 2011, Whittington Health was launched as a new Integrated Care Organisation (ICO) comprising The Whittington Hospital NHS Trust, NHS Islington and NHS Haringey. The Whittington and the community health services in Islington and Haringey are award winning organisations, delivering acute and community based health services to a population of 443,000 people. The organisation is the biggest employer in the area, with over 4,500 staff; delivering healthcare not only on the acute hospital site which has 420 beds, but also from a variety of other community based health centres and through visits to patients homes across the boroughs to address the health needs of the local population. Whittington Health also works with other health, social care and voluntary sector partners to support patients and service users from their initial appointment whether it be with a community health team or at the hospital, all the way through to treatment and tailored after care. We are one of the three main teaching campuses for the Royal Free and University College Medical School. Our ICARE (Innovation, Compassion, Accountability, Respect and Excellence) Values not only help us shape what we do, but also how we do it and why. They are fundamental to the way we do business and care for our patients. For more information, please access the following link:

Job responsibilities

• 1. To demonstrate specialist clinical expertise in the assessment, treatment and management of language and communication difficulties in school age children, providing appropriate intervention and evaluating outcomes
• 2. To demonstrate specialist knowledge in this clinical area underpinned by current evidence-based practice and outcome measures
• 3. To demonstrate highly developed auditory and perceptual skills in the assessment, diagnosis and treatment of patients/clients
• 4. To make appropriate differential diagnoses and specialist clinical decisions based on evidence from assessment of complex cases, seeking advice as appropriate
• 5. To develop knowledge and skill in a range of language and communication difficulties in school age children consulting with clinical supervisor as appropriate.
• 6. To apply specialist knowledge to inform sound clinical judgements/decision making for case management, developing clear care plans based on best practice
• 7. To provide advice to others regarding the management and care of patients/clients with language and communication difficulties
• 8. To communicate complex condition related information from assessment to clients, carers, families and members of the multi-disciplinary team/other professions, demonstrating empathy and ensuring that effective communication is achieved, particularly where barriers to understanding exist
• 9. To work closely with clients, carers and families, to agree plans of management
• 10. To deal with initial complaints sensitively, avoiding escalation where possible
• 11. To form productive relationships with others who may be under stress and/or have challenging communication difficulties
• 12. To employ excellent communication skills
• 13. To develop skills in motivating clients and /or carers to engage in the therapeutic process
• 14. To maintain sensitivity at all times to the emotional needs of clients and their carers in particular when imparting potentially distressing information regarding the nature of the childs difficulties and implications of the same
• 15. To develop the ability to manage children with challenging behaviours employing appropriate management strategies
• 16. To monitor and review the progress of clients against the targets set and agreed, and to modify targets as appropriate
• 17. To adapt practice to meet individual patient/client circumstances
• 18. To reflect on clinical practice both individually and with peers identifying strengths and development needs, providing evidence of sound clinical judgements, based on research and evidence-based practice.
• 19. To develop the ability to reflect on auditory, visual and kinaesthetic aspects of clients communication and to identify appropriate strategies to facilitate and enhance communicative effectiveness
• 20. To be aware of legal requirements relating to the provision of a specialist speech and language therapy service.
• 21. To maintain up to date and accurate case notes and write reports reflecting specialist knowledge, and ensuring that they meet departmental standards and are in line with local Trust Policy, and RCSLT professional standards
• 22. To demonstrate an awareness of current policies and practice in education
• 23. To manage and prioritise a defined caseload and workload independently, advising line manager on issues of service delivery including shortfall, service pressures etc
• 24. To demonstrate skills in dealing with complex issues to generate appropriate strategies for caseload management
• 25. To contribute to multi-agency assessments, including the statutory educational assessment procedure, as required
• 26. To demonstrate negotiation skills
• 27. To negotiate with clients, carers and others around individual case management
• 28. To develop negotiation skills in the management of conflict across a range of situations recognising potential breakdown and conflict when it occurs and seeking advice and support to resolve
• 29. To ensure that clients are referred to other services as appropriate
• 30. To develop a working knowledge of the principles of Clinical Governance and their application to professional practice. This will include compliance with / adherence to, and implementation of service and team plans and policies, National and Local Guidelines and RCSLT Professional and Clinical guidelines.
• 31. To develop a working knowledge of relevant procedures including Safeguarding Children, SEN procedures, Working with Vulnerable Adults and other legal frameworks.
• 32. To contribute to the local Trusts systems of clinical governance, participating in and developing innovations in areas of risk management, quality standards setting and clinical effectiveness in collaboration with others
• 33. To be accountable for own professional action recognising professional boundaries and working within defined departmental and national protocols/policies and professional code of conduct, seeking advice as appropriate
• 34. To work independently accessing appraisal within an Individual Performance Framework at pre-determined intervals

For full job description and person specification, please see attached document.

Person Specification
Education / Qualifications

• BSc. Speech Path or Equivalent (including Dip. CST)
• HCPC licence to practise, and eligible for registered member of RCSLT
• Successful completion of specialist short courses relevant to the field including Developmental Language Disorder (DLD), Autism, and education practice

Desirable

• Basic Counselling

Skills & Abilities

• Able to deliver specialist presentations and training, and adapting style to a range of audiences

Personal Qualities

• Excellent written communication skills

Knowledge & Experience

• Of a specialist range of assessment tools and procedures to evaluate a wide variety of language and communication needs in mainstream schools for school-aged pupils.
• Of the key characteristics leading to a specialist differential diagnosis of a wide range of language and communication difficulties
• Of a specialist range of therapeutic interventions relevant to school age children with a wide variety of language and communication needs demonstrating the evidence base for these approaches
• The application of specialist knowledge of local cultural, linguistic & demographic factors to the management of a school aged caseload
• Of working with children with a wide range of language and communication needs in mainstream schools
• Of writing statutory assessment reports
• Of attending annual reviews and / or case conferences

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).