Children\'s Speech and Language Therapist in Lancing

The Children's Speech and Language Therapy service has a vacancy for a Band 5 therapist. The successful applicant will be part of our Early Years and Mainstream Schools Teams. You will work with early years and school age children in a range of settings: community clinics, preschool settings, and schools. You will assess children, put together therapy plans, advise and train others, as well as carrying out therapy yourself. You will have a comprehensive induction period and be supported by friendly and experienced colleagues across the teams. Specifically, you will have regular supervision from a clinical lead and easy access to a buddy for those questions you feel you can't keep asking. This is an ideal post to help you transition from NQT to therapist or to further develop a wide range of therapeutic skills to carry forward into your career. Well-structured supervision arrangements enable you to draw upon the wealth of experience within the wider team. During your preceptorship year, clinical time will be reduced to allow a regular session for NQT development activities.

Main duties of the job:

• Assess children's speech language and communication needs (SLCN) and the functional impact of these.
• Advise families and settings on how they can help reduce this impact and facilitate communication skills.
• Provide individual or group therapy, demonstrating to parents/carers and setting staff how they can use strategies and techniques.
• Train parents/carers and setting staff so that they are empowered to identify and manage their child's communication needs.
• Write Reports and Intervention Plans, sharing information and setting targets with parents/carers and setting staff.
• Measure the success of your actions and report your outcomes.
• Maintain your clinical and professional development to be the best therapist you can be and progress in your career.
• Be part of clinical networks to ensure practice is evidence based and current.

About us: We are the main provider of NHS community services across East and West Sussex, with 6,000 staff serving 1.3 million people. We deliver essential care to adults and children, helping them manage their health, avoid hospital admissions, and reduce hospital stays. Our Trust vision is to provide excellent care at the heart of the community. We offer opportunities across medical, clinical, support, and corporate services.

Why work for us?

• Positive 2023 NHS Staff Survey results, highlighting compassionate leadership and well-being.
• Varied environments: community hospitals, patients' homes, and bases across Sussex.
• Flexible working options: part-time, flexi-time, annualised hours, and flexi-retirement.
• Excellent training, development, and research opportunities.
• Cost-effective workplace nurseries in Crawley, Hove, and Brighton.
• Active EMBRACE, Disability & Wellbeing, LGBTQIA+, and Religion & Belief networks.
• Level 3 Disability Confident Leader and Veteran Aware Trust.
• Beautiful Sussex location near the South Downs and coast.

Our values—Compassionate Care, Working Together, Achieving Ambitions, Delivering Excellence—guide everything we do. We embrace diversity and encourage applications from all backgrounds, particularly from ethnically diverse, disabled, and LGBTQIA+ individuals. We aim to create an inclusive environment and support reasonable adjustments during recruitment. This post may close early if sufficient applications are received.

Job responsibilities:

• To assess and provide therapeutic input to children and young people with communication difficulties.
• To manage a caseload independently and to manage service priorities and client needs.
• To assist in the organisation of caseloads within the scope of the post with support from other speech and language therapists and/or relevant Clinical Lead, advising Operational Team Lead of shortfalls and difficulties as they arise.
• Manage clinical risk within own caseload, and generate strategies for caseload management.
• Adapt practice to meet the individual circumstances, having regard to cultural and linguistic differences.
• Ensure that the child/young person and parent/carers are involved in planning and decision making relevant to therapy intervention.
• To provide accurate and timely statistics as required by Speech and Language Therapy and Sussex Community Foundation Trust.
• To provide all clinical practice in line with HCPC Standards of Proficiency and RCSLT clinical guidelines, ratified local policies and with due regard to evidence based practice.
• Any other duties in line with the band and scope of the post.

SCFT is committed to developing staff professionally - with access to training funds, frequent in-house training and to staff Wellbeing with a range of resources and courses available within the Trust. We also have equipment budgets which enable the service to continually improve resources for assessment and therapy. As a large team (over 100 SALTs plus SALTAs and administrative staff across the Trust) we have many opportunities for career development and it is often worth asking about the likely availability of additional sessions across the C-SALT team in West Sussex. If you think you might be interested in working with us, why not get in touch? Please see attached job description and person specification for more details.

Person Specification:

• Recognised Speech and Language Therapy Degree.
• HCPC registration applied for.
• RCSLT membership.
• Ability to communicate well with people with communication difficulties.
• Relevant experience at undergraduate/post graduate level.
• Experience of using assessment tools relevant to client group.
• Knowledge of a range of appropriate therapeutic interventions relevant to children with speech/language and communication difficulties.
• Experience of evaluating research material to identify efficacy of therapeutic methods.
• Demonstrates good analytical and reflection skills.
• Good presentation skills, both written and verbal.
• Good organisational skills.

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.