Band 5 Speech and Language Therapist | Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

Come and join our Children’s SaLT team in Birmingham: a vibrant multicultural city! Are you a newly qualified Speech and Language Therapist? Or an experienced Band 5 looking for a new challenge? Are you passionate about integrated working, functional outcomes for children, and enabling education staff and parents as part of The Balanced System® approach? If so come and join us!

It’s an exciting time for the service:

• Community SaLT teams working in localities developing local networks and building skills in the wider workforce.
• A SEND locality therapy agenda to integrate education and Local Authority and early years partners, supporting a graduated approach to helping children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND).
• We are in our third year of delivering a Balanced System® approach to support children with SLCN; working in partnership with families and a wide range of stakeholders.

We offer excellent preceptorship support for NQPs with regular individual and group sessions & access to Specialists. We offer flexible working options, delivering care face to face and virtually, in education settings, clinics, family homes, and out in the community.

Successful candidates will have the opportunity to:

• Work in the Special Schools team to support children, families, and staff in specialist settings across the city.
• Work with an Early Years caseload in the East locality of the city of Birmingham. (Posts in other localities may also be available).
• Manage your own caseload of children with speech, language, and communication needs (SLCN) including assessment, diagnosis, and intervention, using an enabling model to support functional outcomes, and responding flexibly to the highest areas of need.
• Work alongside education, Local Authority, and Early Years partners, supporting a graduated approach to helping children with SLCN.
• Work within a locality to develop networks, build skills in the wider workforce, and increase the impact of our interventions.

The SaLT service works as part of Inclusion Services within the Children and Families Division of Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust. We work across the whole city, within a range of community and educational settings, thus requiring successful applicants to demonstrate a high level of flexibility.

We have an experienced team committed to taking NQPs through preceptorship, and a culture of ongoing learning and clinical supervision. We value our staff and advocate career progression internally. We encourage our therapists to contribute to service development, and we welcome and value new ideas and experiences.

BCHC has more than 5000 staff working across Birmingham and the West Midlands in a wide range of community nursing and specialist healthcare roles. BCHC delivers over 100 clinical services, in people's homes, health centres, clinics and inpatient facilities. We deliver a wide range of services for children, young people and families as well as adults and community services, two community hospitals, services for people with learning disabilities, the internationally recognised West Midlands Rehab Centre and one of Europe’s leading Dental Hospitals and School of Dentistry.

If you want to 'Be Part of Our Team' and work with a Foundation Trust which is continuously striving for best care and healthy communities, we want to hear from you.

To provide Speech and Language Therapy, functioning in partnership with other agencies and disciplines. To support partners in implementing The Balanced System® across the 3 levels (universal, targeted, and specialist) and 5 strands (family support, workforce, environment, identification, and intervention) of the approach.

Managing your own caseload of children with Speech, Language and Communication Needs (SLCN). You will be part of a Locality Team and will have access to supervision, training, and advice from Advanced Specialists in specific clinical areas. Offering intervention in the environment most appropriate to client needs including special schools, Early Years settings and clinics in your locality, and patient homes.

Developing professional skills through a range of CPD activities. Work as part of multidisciplinary and multi-agency teams, including educational colleagues, providing early intervention for children and young people. Enable and empower staff, parents/caregivers to identify children’s needs and provide strategies to help at the earliest opportunity.

Provide training and bespoke coaching to children and young people, early years/school staff and parents/caregivers. Consult and work collaboratively with children and young people, parents, caregivers and school staff to problem solve functional difficulties. Participate in meetings with staff from the wider SEND locality teams, as required, to support early identification of need, ensuring specialist help through locality forums.

Use specialist knowledge to inform clinical judgments and decision-making. Structuring clear therapy plans based on best practice. Advising and facilitating the decision-making process regarding patient/client management by ensuring that effective communication is achieved. Using highly developed communication skills to explain complex condition related information from assessment/therapy plan to clients/carers and multidisciplinary team members.