Specialist Speech & Lanaguage Therapist

Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust is an integrated primary care and mental health Trust, providing physical, mental health and specialty services in both hospital settings and out in the community. Our vision, mission and values are all part of the roadmap for all we do. Our dedication to caring and making a difference extends to our staff too. Wellbeing is a Trust priority – we were the second-highest scoring Trust in the country for the Wellbeing measure on the 2018 National Staff Survey. We are actively committed to promoting equal opportunities and diversity, and welcome applications from all sections of the community.

We offer excellent employment benefits including:

• Large variety of learning and development courses available to staff throughout the year
• Contributory pension scheme
• A wide range of family friendly policies
• Salary sacrifice scheme
• A variety of Occupational Health services and classes
• 27 days holiday plus bank holidays for new starters, rising with service

In 2018, 72.2% of our staff recommended NHFT as a place to work, the highest score for trusts of our type. We were also honoured to win the Health Service Journal’s coveted Trust of the Year award the same year.

Key details:

• Location: St. Marys Hospital, London Road, Kettering, NN15 7PW
• Contract: Fixed term: 12 months (Maternity Leave Cover)
• Hours: Part time - 22.5 hours per week
• Salary: £37,338 - £44,962 pa pro rata
• Grade: Band 6
• Main area: Speech & Language Therapist
• Interview date: 07/04/2025

We are looking for an experienced therapist to join our friendly and supportive team to provide Maternity Leave cover and play an integral part in delivery of the community service in the North of the County. You will work within the community Team in local clinics providing Specialist Speech & Language Therapy to our service users, in clinics, care homes or their own homes. You will possess excellent interpersonal and team-working skills and approach your work with energy and enthusiasm. You will be supported to continue to develop and demonstrate leadership behaviours as you are encouraged to actively contribute to the ongoing development of the service. You will be expected to provide mentorship support to colleagues, SLT Assistant Practitioners and students. Dysphagia experience is essential.

This post involves working as part of the Countywide team and having a flexible approach to service delivery.

Advert:

• To assess, develop and implement specialist speech and language therapy treatment to outpatient adults with swallowing and speech and language disorders (non-complex cases).
• To demonstrate clinical effectiveness by use of evidence based practice and outcome measures.
• To use clinical skills to generate written reports reflecting specialist knowledge.
• To provide advice to others regarding the management and care of patients with speech and language and/or swallowing disorders (non-complex).
• To develop the ability to reflect on auditory, visual and kinaesthetic aspects of client’s communication and to identify appropriate strategies to facilitate and enhance communicative effectiveness, adapting and facilitating according to perceived client needs, including cultural and linguistic differences.
• To manage and prioritise own workload, developing clear treatments plans based on best practice.
• To provide appropriate specialist intervention and evaluate outcomes.
• To use skills to general appropriate strategies for caseload management for complex clinical issues.
• To work collaboratively with clients, carers and families, agreeing decision making relevant to the patient/client management, across a variety of locations and agencies.
• To demonstrate and use specialist knowledge and skills to analyse complex issues in order to inform clinical judgements/decision making for caseload management and to design appropriate treatment from a range of options.

Working for our organisation, NHFT promotes a culture of learning to improve the care and safety of our patients and staff, which focuses on people who enable our Trust to be ‘outstanding’ by supporting opportunity, innovation, development and growth.

Applicant requirements:

• You must have appropriate UK professional registration.
• This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.

Person specification:

• Essential criteria: Degree in Speech & Language Therapy, Dysphagia training and experience.
• Desirable criteria: Membership to CEN.

• Essential criteria: Excellent interpersonal skills; able to listen well and counsel patients and carers; able to demonstrate empathy with clients, carers and families and colleagues; able to communicate effectively, particularly where barriers to understanding exist; demonstrates good analytical and reflection skills; able to organise workload and manage time.
• Desirable criteria: Knowledge of national policies and procedures relevant to client group.

For further information on the advertised role, please refer to the job description located under the Supporting Documents heading. The full person specification can be accessed under the ‘About You’ Section of the document.

For informal visits, contact Leonie Bird, Professional Lead, Email: leonie.bird@nhft.nhs.uk, Telephone: 03000270027. Additional information: Rhenna Fay Ritchie, Email: rhenna.ritchie@nhft.nhs.uk.