Speech and Language Therapist | Cambridgeshire Community Services NHS Trust

Overview

We are recruiting an enthusiastic and motivated Band 5 Speech and Language Therapist. With a strong ethos of clinical support and supervision, our dynamic, award-winning team provides evidence-based advice, training and interventions to children and young people. We are looking for first class clinicians with strong communication and interpersonal skills to join our friendly and welcoming team. The successful candidates will work in the community with both pre-school and school-age children and in a named special school. We welcome applications from students who expect to graduate this year and who have the relevant experience and knowledge gained from placements and self-directed learning. The post holder will be responsible for the independent management of a clinical caseload of children in community clinics and mainstream schools in and around Cambridgeshire; working independently with access to more senior colleagues as needed. The client group is children who have a range of difficulties in understanding and/or using speech and language.

Why not click on the link to the Job Description and find out more about the role. We look forward to receiving your application! Should we receive a high number of applications we reserve the right to close this vacancy at any point after 24th September 2025. In recent years, we have embraced the opportunity to try new ways of working to meet the needs of the children and families we work with. We have seen real benefits in working virtually and continue to do this, while also seeing children in person where needed. We recognise that all children are different and the successful candidate will be supported to consider the best way to work with the children on their caseload.

Benefits and Support

If you join our team, you will:

• Receive high quality support and supervision from your mentor, your locality coordinator and your area lead, as well as from clinical specialists, wider team members and other newly qualified therapists who have recently joined the team. We have a clearly structured support package for new starters, but also recognise that we cannot always plan when support will be needed and so we ensure that team members are available to provide support whenever needed
• Provide direct therapy to children who need it, when they need it
• Work with children with a range of needs (including speech sounds, stammering, deafness, AAC) with a person-centred approach to supervision, meaning that clinical specialists are available to support you depending on your own confidence and experience
• Access in-house training which aims to meet your needs and interests
• Receive the NHS annual leave entitlement which can be taken flexibly during the year

Rated ‘Outstanding’ by the Care Quality Commission, we are proud to provide high quality innovative services across most of the east of England that enable people to receive care closer to home and live healthier lives. There’s one reason why our services are outstanding – and that’s our amazing staff – who, for the seventh year running, rated us incredibly highly in the national staff survey. If you share our passion for innovative and high-quality care delivery, then please submit your application and join us on our exciting journey as a leading-edge specialist community provider. All are welcome to apply and our promise to you is a culture which prioritises staff engagement and development.

Main Duties and Responsibilities

• To independently manage a caseload of pre-school and school age children who have speech, language and communication difficulties
• To undertake a range of assessments, both standardised and non-standardised, taking account of medical, social and educational factors, in order to make a differential diagnosis
• To plan, deliver and evaluate intervention following professional guidelines and agreed service standards
• As part of that process, to be able to plan appropriate long term and short-term goals working towards discharge
• To undertake administrative duties connected with the caseload including maintenance of case notes and provision of written reports, following service standards
• To ensure that all work is carried out in close collaboration with all those involved in children’s care so that the approach to intervention and support is co-ordinated and comprehensive
• To identify when there is a need for a second opinion, referring to senior colleagues or SLT specialists as appropriate
• To make onward referral as appropriate
• To identify any variations to service delivery or demands and inform the Locality Co-ordinator and Area & Clinical Lead of the likely impact on the service
• To contribute towards policy, clinical governance and service development through discussion and involvement in projects as appropriate
• To be familiar with local and national standards and to work in line with these
• To ensure that parents/carers are aware of the standards they should expect from the speech and language therapy service

Communication and Collaboration

• To ensure effective communication of complex condition-related information to parents/carers regarding the assessment process, assessment findings and planned intervention, including engagement of parents/carers in intervention
• To ensure children are involved in goal setting and decision making around their own care as appropriate to their age, developmental level and language skills
• To ensure parents/carers are involved in decision making around their child’s care including discharge from the service
• To liaise effectively and work in partnership with other professionals (particularly teachers and teaching assistants), including the development of shared goals for intervention
• To write reports on children, in line with service standards, including contributions to statutory assessment
• To offer advice to others concerning support for individual children
• To actively contribute to case conferences/review meetings for children on the caseload
• To recognise how and when information may be shared within the bounds of confidentiality and the Data Protection Act
• To attend SLT team meetings, actively contributing as appropriate
• Contribute to CCS’ internal communication strategies ensuring effective two-way communication and engagement within the organisation
• Contribute to CCS’ external communication strategies working with the Head of Communications to raise awareness and promote the reputation of CCS’ services

Patient and Public Engagement

• To contribute to ensuring that CCS responsibilities to engage and consult with patients and the public are met in line with statutory requirements

Training and Development

• To participate in training other professionals/parents as appropriate
• To identify training needs in the multi-disciplinary team needed to support the care of children on the caseload
• To attend all Trust mandatory training

People Management

• To supervise SLT assistants/teaching assistants/volunteers as appropriate
• To mentor newly qualified SLTs providing support and contributing to induction with guidance from more senior colleagues
• To offer observation sessions for SLT students as agreed with the supervising therapist
• Maintaining own professional development and requirement to take part in appraisal and KSF process

Research & Development

• To maintain and update skills and knowledge in relevant areas
• To develop and monitor own clinical expertise in specialist area through planned CPD
• To participate in service audit and projects as agreed with the Lead Practitioner
• To actively reflect on practice with peers and more senior colleagues to promote professional development and evidence-based decision making
• To be advised on developments in current practice by more senior colleagues

Clinical and Practice Governance

• Observe and maintain strict confidentiality with regards to any patient/family/staff/records and information in line with the requirements of the Data Protection Act
• Any data that is taken/shared as part of a phone call or transported, faxed or transferred electronically must be undertaken with regard to the Trust Information Governance and Information Security policies
• The post holder must adhere to the Trust risk assessment and risk management processes
• The post holder must adhere to infection control policies and procedures
• It is a condition of your employment that you are currently registered with HCPC and it is your responsibility to maintain your professional registration
• Undertake mandatory training and any other training relevant to the role as required by Cambridgeshire Community Services NHS Trust
• The post holder must participate in clinical and other audits as required
• Provide patients and their families /carers with information on standards they should expect from the team
• Participate in clinical supervision on a regular basis
• The post holder is required to participate in relevant emergency preparedness process for their team

This advert closes on Sunday 28 Sep 2025