Highly Specialist Speech and Language Therapist Mental Health

Our Vision is to provide the best mental health, learning disability, autism and community-based services for the populations we serve. As an integrated mental health, learning disability and community Trust, Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust provides a range of services including:

• Primary and secondary mental health care for children and adults including specialist inpatient child and adolescent mental health provision, perinatal mental health, forensic services including low and medium secure care.
• Specialist community support for children and adults with learning disabilities and autism, including intensive support.
• Community physical health and well-being services for children and adults.

The Trust was first established in 2002 and employs approximately 7,000 staff who provide care from more than 400 sites. The organisation offers opportunities for medics, mental health and general nurses, allied health professionals, psychology, administration and clerical staff, apprentices, and volunteers. Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust supports flexible working; we believe that a positive work/life balance benefits NHS employees through improved health and wellbeing. We would consider working patterns such as term time, part time, compressed hours, home/remote working, and flexi-time.

We are looking for experienced and enthusiastic speech and language therapists to work as part of the wards multi-disciplinary teams and join our established trust-wide mental health SLT team. We are looking for highly motivated and creative individuals with excellent interpersonal and communication skills. This role will give the successful applicants opportunities to work within specialist inpatient services to support adults with mental health conditions. We work with adults with communication and/or swallowing difficulties, using evidence-based pathways to support standardised best practice, covering the needs of this client group. We have positive regard for service users and aim to work in partnership with them to offer person-centred, quality, and equitable care. The wards are based across several sites; therefore, access to transport will be needed.

Main duties of the job

• The post holder will work within the MDT and be responsible for the wards caseloads and offer assessment, treatment, planning, and delivery of evidence-based highly specialised speech and language intervention across mental health wards.
• To provide a dysphagia and speech, language and communication needs service.
• To identify audit/research/quality improvement opportunities, initiating, designing and implementing agreed projects as required.
• To lead/contribute to training and development programmes relating to the field of expertise, delivering to other professionals.
• To actively participate in the delivery of the ward objectives, and support implementation of the Care Quality Commission requirements and regulatory standards.
• To work within the wider SLT mental health speech and language therapies team to share best practice, co-ordinate projects, progress clinical developments and co-ordinate cover arrangements for wards during leave.

Person specification

Education/Qualifications

• Degree or master’s degree in Speech and Language Therapy
• Current professional registration with HCPC as Speech and Language Therapist and responsibility for maintaining this registration
• Evidence of CPD in related field of clinical expertise (Mental Health, autism).
• Masters or short courses, to master’s level or equivalent

Knowledge

• In-depth knowledge relevant to the post including dysphagia
• Understanding of clinical governance framework and implications for practice including audit and research governance.
• In-depth understanding of relevant current NHS/government policy/Public Health/NICE guidelines on organisational change and the ability to adapt these appropriately to local service needs through publication of documents.
• Knowledge and appreciation in the assessment and management of risk including lone working risks – policy and procedure.

Experience

• Treatment of a broad range of speech, language and communication, and dysphagia conditions relating to clinical speciality
• Demonstrable evidence of improving and developing service and practice
• Evidence of leading and implementing clinical change
• Supervision and/or mentoring of staff/students.
• Multi-disciplinary/multi-agency collaborative working.

Skills and Abilities

• Dysphagia skills aligned to the RCSLT Dysphagia competency framework to practice as an autonomous dysphagia practitioner
• Ability to communicate highly complex pathologies and diagnostic reasoning to all levels in the medical and non-medical field at the appropriate level.
• Sound knowledge of psycho-social problems and ability to understand how SLCN can impact on behaviours that challenge
• Experience of stakeholder negotiation and persuasion skills.
• Problem solving/Decision making in relation to clinical practice.

Please ensure that you read the person specification attached below as your application will be measured against this document. Applications from job share partners are welcome and other forms of flexible working will be considered for all posts. LSCft is committed to celebrating difference as an asset and we know that recruiting talent from diverse backgrounds helps to create a more flexible, creative and effective workforce. We actively challenge discrimination and welcome applications from people regardless of age, disability, ethnicity, gender, religion or belief or sexual orientation.