Speech & Language Therapist | Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust in Chichester

The Children’s Speech and Language Therapy service (Chichester Locality) has a vacancy at Band 5 for a therapist seeking their first post, or an opportunity to extend their experience and skills further at this level. We are a friendly and supportive team based in Chichester with access to the sea, the South Downs, Portsmouth & Brighton. We are looking for a fast learner who can cope under pressure and in return we can offer an opportunity to gain a broad range of experience in Early Years Community Clinics. 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. During your preceptorship year, clinical time will be reduced to allow a regular session for B5 development activities.

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 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.

You will work as part of a supportive and friendly team to:

• Assess children’s speech language and communication needs (SLCN) and the functional impact of these.
• Advise families and settings on how they can help reduce this impact and facilitate communication skills.
• Provide individual or group therapy, demonstrating to parents/carers and setting staff how they can use strategies and techniques.
• Train parents/carers and setting staff so that they are empowered to identify and manage their child’s communication needs.
• Write Reports and Intervention Plans, sharing information and setting targets with parents/carers and setting staff.
• Measure the success of your actions and report your outcomes.
• Maintain your clinical and professional development to be the best therapist you can be and progress in your career.
• Be part of clinical networks to ensure practice is evidence based and current.

We are the main provider of NHS community services across East and West Sussex, with 6,000 staff serving 1.3 million people. We deliver essential care to adults and children, helping them manage their health, avoid hospital admissions, and reduce hospital stays. Our Trust vision is to provide excellent care at the heart of the community.

Why work for us?

• Positive 2023 NHS Staff Survey results, highlighting compassionate leadership and wellbeing.
• Varied environments: community hospitals, patients’ homes, and bases across Sussex.
• Flexible working options: part-time, flexi-time, annualised hours, and flexi-retirement.
• Excellent training, development, and research opportunities.
• Cost-effective workplace nurseries in Crawley, Hove, and Brighton.
• Active EMBRACE, Disability & Wellbeing, LGBTQIA+, and Religion & Belief networks.
• Level 3 Disability Confident Leader and Veteran Aware Trust.
• Beautiful Sussex location near the South Downs and coast.

Our values—Compassionate Care, Working Together, Achieving Ambitions, Delivering Excellence—guide everything we do. We embrace diversity and encourage applications from all backgrounds, particularly from ethnically diverse, disabled, and LGBTQIA+ individuals. We aim to create an inclusive environment and support reasonable adjustments during recruitment.

This post may close early if sufficient applications are received.

To assess and provide therapeutic input to children and young people with communication 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 Operational Team Lead 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.