Highly specialist speech & language therapist - Early Years Team in London

Become part of our team. We care for you as much as you care for others. There’s a place for you at CNWL. We’re passionate about delivering first-class patient-centred, safe and effective care, whether it is in a hospital setting, in a community clinic or in the patient’s own home. Patients are at the heart of everything we do. Providing top quality care depends on our ability to employ the best people. We’re always looking to recruit outstanding people who will go the extra mile to support our patients, colleagues, teams and the Trust. With every new employee we’re hoping to find our future leaders and we’ll support our staff by providing opportunities to develop your career.

CNWL (Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust) has almost 8,000 staff providing integrated healthcare to a third of London's population, Milton Keynes and areas beyond. We involve service users, carers, the public, staff and partner organisations in the way that we are run. Our catchment area spans diverse communities, with over 100 first languages spoken. It contains areas of great affluence as well as areas of much deprivation. We are committed to providing services that meet the needs of the people who use them, and we actively encourage involvement from local people who can help make a difference. We’re proud of our diversity and we continue to undertake new initiatives to advance equality for LGBT+, BME and people with disabilities to promote good relations and understanding between our staff. We are recognised locally, nationally and internationally for providing high quality, innovative healthcare.

Job overview: Would you like to be part of a friendly and supportive SLT team? Do you want to develop your leadership skills? We are looking for a passionate speech and language therapist to work in the Hillingdon Early Years team supporting children and young people who have a speech, language or communication need. You will be part of a supportive band 7 team - and take a lead in developing projects and supervising more junior staff.

Main duties of the job:

• To provide a highly specialist assessment and intervention service for children 0-19 with Speech Language and or communication needs.
• To be part of the ADOS assessment process.
• To provide a highly specialist assessment and intervention service to children 0-19 who have swallowing, eating and drinking difficulties.
• To support in the development of training packages to early years settings, staff / parents / other professionals, in order for them to identify concerns regarding the child / young persons needs and implement therapy advice effectively.
• To support the service to achieve Key Performance Indicators, maintaining Target Activity Levels and demonstrating impact re quality and outcomes.
• To lead on quality governance, audits and projects for the team/service.
• To be responsible for the performance management of identified team members.
• To support the team leader in the leading and development of the team.
• To be responsible with team leader support for service improvement initiatives.

We can offer you:

• A buddy who will meet with you every week at first to help you settle in and who you can ask lots of questions.
• Regular supervision meetings with the team leader every 6 weeks, alongside annual appraisal and informal support.
• Termly peer supervision meetings where you can discuss difficult cases, read articles together and share your experiences.
• Regular meetings with the other band 7 SLTs to ensure that the workload is being shared and support given.
• A busy but manageable caseload.
• Opportunities to develop your clinical and leadership skills and knowledge through termly study afternoons, shadowing more experienced therapists/ leaders, membership of a CEN, training courses - clinical and leadership.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities:

• To assess, develop and implement highly specialist Speech and Language Therapy intervention.
• To provide appropriate highly specialist intervention / assessment and evaluate outcomes.
• To demonstrate highly developed auditory and perceptual skills in the assessment, diagnosis and treatment of children 0-19.
• To facilitate relevant professionals/parents to carry out speech and language therapy programmes/strategies/advice.
• To monitor the effectiveness of speech and language therapy programmes/strategies/advice being delivered by other relevant professionals/parents and adjust as necessary.
• To make a differential diagnosis, including complex cases, on the basis of evidence from assessment.
• To develop clear packages of care based on best practice and differential diagnosis and to use highly specialist clinical knowledge to inform case management.
• To demonstrate clinical effectiveness by use of evidence based practice and outcome measures.
• To keep up to date with new techniques and developments for the promotion and maintenance of good practice in own highly specialist clinical area.
• To demonstrate the ability to reflect on practice with peers and supervisors and identify own strengths and development needs.
• To manage caseload independently and to prioritise workload using highly specialist skills.
• To recognise potential breakdown and conflict when it occurs and seek to resolve using highly developed negotiation skills, seeking further support from team leader if necessary.
• To ensure that children / young people, their families and schools / nurseries are involved in the planning and implementation of their care.
• To maintain sensitivity to the emotional needs of children & their families, especially when imparting potentially distressing information regarding the nature of the child’s difficulties and its implications.
• To attend case conferences & core group meetings for children / young people on the caseload, where appropriate.
• To submit safeguarding reports to case conferences and reviews.
• To record all concerns and discussions/supervision regarding safeguarding issues in Systmone clinical notes.
• To attend safeguarding supervision for all children / young people with a Child Protection Plan at least every 12 weeks.
• To provide safeguarding supervision (when trained) for team members on a rotational basis.
• To work independently and to access clinical supervision sessions on a regular basis & actively contribute to own appraisal on an annual basis.
• To collate evidence of professional development related to the RCSLT CPD log.
• To demonstrate highly developed negotiation skills across a range of issues and to negotiate with others around case management in highly complex cases.
• To deal with complaints sensitively avoiding escalation where possible, and to inform the team leader in a timely fashion.
• To communicate highly complex information from assessments and ongoing therapy to children / young people, families and other professionals.
• To write outcome focused reports, and programmes/target sheets reflecting highly specialist knowledge which meet the needs of the child / young person.
• To support the development of, and adhere to, service plans and policies giving constructive feedback as appropriate.
• To advise team leader on issues of service shortfall or pressure.
• To assume delegated leadership responsibilities and tasks as requested by TL.
• To work within infection control and health and safety guidelines.
• To report all incidents in a timely fashion and access learning following incident investigation outcomes & complaints.
• To support other team members in the reporting of incidents in a timely fashion.
• To work within legal frameworks including: SEND reforms e.g Statutory EHCP assessments, London safeguarding procedures and policies.
• To attend, contribute to and present at Team and Departmental meetings.

Person specification:

Qualifications:

• Recognised Speech and Language Therapy Degree qualification or equivalent (minimum of 2:2 or equivalent).
• Further training courses relevant to the post.
• Attendance at special interest group/ clinical excellence group.
• Health and Care Professions Council licence to practice.
• Registered member of relevant organisation eg Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists and other relevant bodies.
• Successful completion of highly specialist/expert short courses including ASD, Education practice.
• Successful completion of highly specialist advanced post graduate study at MSc or equivalent.

Experience:

• Extensive experience of working in a mainstream/special school as a therapist.
• Training and experience of working with children with eating and swallowing difficulties.
• Experience of working within multidisciplinary /multi-agency team. Detailed knowledge of multi-disciplinary team approaches.
• Experience of managing/supervising more junior staff and students and participating in appraisal.
• Evidence of continuing professional development.
• Experience of assessing children using the ADOS assessment tool.
• Experience of working with other agencies.
• Management experience, undertaking delegated departmental duties at Band 6 level or above.
• Experience of leading audits.
• Participate in research / evaluation of practice. Knowledge of basic qualitative & quantitative research approaches and of the key elements of writing a research protocol.
• Leadership of and/or participation in a special interest group across disciplines.

Skills and Knowledge:

• Ability to prioritise and manage time effectively.
• Ability to mentor and support junior therapists and students promoting clinical excellence in self and others.
• Ability to clearly communicate assessment findings giving verbal and written reports that deliver complex information to carers, young people and other health professionals.
• Knowledge of advanced approaches to support clients & carers with challenging behaviour, mental health needs or in high levels of distress.
• Demonstrate knowledge of standards of practice and guidelines e.g. HCPC Professional Conduct Guidelines.
• Demonstrate an awareness of current legislation and act in accordance e.g. Child protection.
• Implementation of national initiatives and legislation relating to Health and Social Care in relation to children with developmental concerns and disabilities.
• Ability to be actively involved in development and implementation of clinical policies and procedures.
• Evidence of knowledge of conditions likely to be encountered in Community Paediatrics and their impact on a child’s functional abilities, independence and development e.g. Cerebral Palsy, Developmental Co-ordination Disorders, ADHD, Autistic Spectrum Disorders, Severe Learning Disabilities and Developmental Delay.
• Working knowledge and understanding of a highly specialist range of assessment tools and procedures to evaluate the strengths and needs of young people (birth -19) who present with a wide range of needs (as relevant to professional discipline).

Other:

• Be proficient in data management and information governance and comfortable with learning new clinical record keeping systems.
• Demonstrate ability to analyse performance data and high quality performance reports.
• Be computer literate with working knowledge and ability to use appropriate computer software.