Highly Specialist Neonatal Speech and Language Therapist in Northampton

Highly Specialist Neonatal Speech and Language Therapist

Serving a population of approximately 350,000 from Northampton and its surrounding area, Northampton General Hospital is a busy district general hospital with a level 2 Local Neonatal Unit, Gosset ward (LNU) that typically admits around 450 babies per year. Our neonatal service provides intensive, high-dependency and special care for 20 babies (from 27 weeks gestation) as part of the East Midlands Neonatal Operational Delivery Network (EMNODN), Admissions to the unit comprise both Northampton-born babies and those born in other hospitals within EMNODN and referred to us for short-term intensive and high-dependency care.

Are you an ambitious and passionate Speech and Language Therapist looking to make a lasting difference by supporting babies from the very beginning of their feeding and communication journey?

We have an exciting opportunity for a highly specialist Band 7 Speech and Language Therapist to join our expanding Neonatal Speech and Language Therapy Service. This newly created permanent role offers the chance to play a key part in shaping and developing an innovative service that supports babies and their families during some of the most critical stages of early development.

Working within our neonatal team, you will help deliver specialist assessment, intervention and support for infants with feeding, swallowing and communication needs, while contributing to service development, quality improvement and multidisciplinary working across the neonatal pathway.

Main duties of the job

• CLINICAL: Provide autonomous specialist assessment, treatment and advice to inpatients on the local neonatal unit and neonatal transitional care unit. Neonates are ward based inpatients who present with feeding/swallowing difficulties.
• CONSULTATION:To provide expertise and specialist neonatal speech and language therapy advice and consultation to other professionals in relation to patient assessment, diagnosis, treatment and care.
• MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP To attend Trust working parties as requested by the Service Lead to contribute to strategic service and at times for Trust wide development
• RESEARCH To carry out and co-operate in audit/service-related projects.
• TEACHING, TRAINING AND SUPERVISION To provide teaching and training to other professional colleagues/staff groups at a local, and national level.
• ADMINISTRATIVE/ORGANISATIONAL To take part in service/departmental policy implementation and development
• GENERAL:To observe personal duty of care in relation to equipment and resources within the team, such as assessments, resources, technology, equipment. To maintain effective paper and electronic records and develop information recording systems as appropriate in performing the duties of the job.
• More in depth duties can be found on the attached job description

About us

We recognise that AI tools can support application writing; however, candidates are asked to keep their use to a minimum. Responses should reflect your own experience, skills and knowledge, as over-reliance on AI-generated content may result in generic answers that do not accurately represent your abilities.

University Hospitals of Northamptonshire (UHN) brings together Kettering General Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Northampton General Hospital NHS Trust. As a group, we are committed to improving services for our communities through collaboration, modernising care delivery and striving for excellence. Working together enables us to share expertise, strengthen services and create greater opportunities, and there may be a requirement to work across sites depending on service needs.

Our Excellence Values are Compassion, Accountability, Respect, Integrity and Courage. UHN welcomes applications from all backgrounds and is committed to an inclusive working environment. We are proud signatories of the Armed Forces Covenant and hold the Gold Award under the Employer Recognition Scheme. Candidates who identify as members of the Armed Forces community and meet the essential criteria will be guaranteed an interview.

Job responsibilities

• Provide autonomous specialist assessment, treatment and advice to inpatients on the local neonatal unit and neonatal transitional care unit. Neonates are ward based inpatients who present with feeding/swallowing difficulties.
• To be able to identify neonates with feeding difficulties, swallow dysfunction, and dysphagia and develop suitable management plans to reduce their risk of stress, aspiration and feeding aversion.
• Utilise a range of informal and formal approaches to assess the neonates early communication and pre‑feeding/breastfeeding/bottle feeding skills and to support the MDT in identifying these needs to inform optimum care planning and intervention.
• Maintain an in‑depth, comprehensive knowledge of neonatal clinical needs and presentations resulting from a range of acquired conditions.
• To communicate complex information effectively and clearly with clinical colleagues regarding assessments and interventions both in spoken and written reports, as well as in day to day liaison.
• Deliver therapy programmes based on current evidence and clinical knowledge to meet the needs of the infant and familys profile.
• To be aware of the boundaries of own practice, and to always manage the associated clinical risk effectively.
• Work closely with members of the MDT to holistically identify the range of needs of the infant and family and how best to support these.
• To communicate effectively, empathically and clearly with families and carers regarding issues which will sometimes be complicated or emotionally charged.
• To sensitively deal with distressing or emotional circumstances regarding patient care e.g. imparting news or poor prognosis
• To work with the MDT to ensure timely community referrals, discharge planning meetings, liaison with other medical specialities and healthcare professionals.
• To be able to identify need for further instrumental swallowing assessment.
• To critically reflect on own and others performance and use this evaluation to enhance the effectiveness, efficiency and quality of future practice.
• To identify own training needs and to keep skills up to date.
• To continue to meet the clinical competencies according to RCSLT standards
• To demonstrate good organisational skills in terms of time and caseload management.
• To attend meetings and seminars/case conferences as appropriate, and liaise with and advise other disciplines, as appropriate, to achieve comprehensive, effective and confidential patient management through to discharge.
• To always behave in a professional manner.
• To appropriately seek and use supervision to review complex case material, develop skills, plan continuing professional development, set learning targets and address any issues which may be relevant to the fulfilment of your role.
• To actively engage with East Midlands Neonatal operational delivery network (EMNODN) via network meetings and externally via relevant Clinical Excellent Networks (CENs).
• To provide expertise and specialist neonatal speech and language therapy advice and consultation to other professionals in relation to patient assessment, diagnosis, treatment and care.
• To attend Trust working parties as requested by the Service Lead to contribute to strategic service and at times for Trust wide development
• To provide governance, strategic and recruitment support as requested to Acute SLT Team Lead and Childrens Therapies Manager
• To fully engage in the Trust and team strategies including five-year plans and visions.
• To carry out and co-operate in audit/service-related projects.
• To contribute to team outcome measures which are reported back to the Neonatal Operational Delivery Network and maintain SLT specific outcome measure database.
• To monitor and evaluate clinical effectiveness and evidence-based practice using appropriate outcome measures
• To participate in research conducted within the department in discussion with the lead for the service.
• To use computer software in developing and operating systems for storage and analysis of data and creation of reports for colleagues in relation to audit activities and clinical research.
• To provide teaching and training to other professional colleagues/staff groups at a local, and national level.
• To present on relevant research/practice at events/forums
• To supervise junior members of staff and provide line management support within the team.
• To provide student education and create an appropriate learning environment for placement-based education.
• To take part in service/departmental policy implementation and development
• To ensure a high standard of documentation including clinical notes, reports and goals and outcome measures are maintained.
• To manage own time effectively within the demands of the service.
• To ensure timely recording in patients records paper and or electronic systems
• Work across the Trust to support gaps in service as identified by the Lead for the service, as required.
• To complete admin tasks on behalf of patients or team members within the service.
• To observe personal duty of care in relation to equipment and resources within the team, such as assessments, resources, technology, equipment.
• To maintain effective paper and electronic records and develop information recording systems as appropriate in performing the duties of the job

Person Specification

Qualifications/ Education/ Registration

• Recognised Speech and Language Therapy Degree or equivalent
• RCSLT Registration
• HCPC Registration
• Post qualification training in paediatric dysphagia
• Experience working at Paediatric Dysphagia Competency Level C
• Completion of HEE Modules (Introduction to Neonatal Care and Speech Language Therapy modules)
• Membership of relevant clinical excellence networks (CENs) e,g, PDCEN, Neonatal CEN
• Experience working at Paediatric Dysphagia Competency Level D
• Experience working at Neonatal Dysphagia Competency Level C

Experience

• Experience working with neonates and infants and/or children with complex needs
• Experience of independently managing feeding and swallowing difficulties associated with a neonatal or paediatric caseload
• Experience of working as part of a multi-disciplinary team
• oExperience working in a neonatal or acute setting

Knowledge and Skills

• Knowledge of processes and policies relating to work in a neonatal setting e.g. safeguarding, developmental/educational needs, RCSLT guidelines etc.
• Knowledge of assessment tools relevant to neonates in order to assess, diagnose, plan and treat neonates and infants with swallowing difficulties
• Excellent interpersonal skills - including observation, listening and empathy skills
• Ability to recognise own training and supervision needs and use these to further enhance clinical skills
• Ability to interpret and apply evidence based practice in clinical work
• Excellent presentation skills, both written and verbal
• Excellent organisational skills
• Understanding of the roles of other professionals working on the neonatal unit
• Knowledge of standards of record keeping
• Competence in computer skills, word processing, data management and analysis
• Able to develop and deliver internal and external training

other

• Adherence to RCSLT and HCPC guidelines, codes of ethics and professional conduct

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

University Hospitals of Northamptonshire

£49,387 to £56,515 a yearpro rata/per annum

Contract

Permanent

Working pattern

Reference number

265-8115918-FAM

Job locations

University Hospitals of Northamptonshire