Specialist Speech and Language Therapist

Employer NELFT NHS Foundation Trust Employer type NHS Site The Acorn Specialist Children\’s Centre Town Romford Salary £38,682 – £46,580 pa pro rata (plus HCAS) Salary period Yearly Closing 24/11/2025 23:59

Specialist Speech and Language Therapist

NHS AfC: Band 6

Joining TeamNELFT means you’ll become part of a welcoming and supportive working environment. We’re CQC rated Good, and we want you to join us on the journey towards an Outstanding rating. NELFT has sites across North East London, Essex, Kent and Medway. We provide community and mental healthcare services to adults and children within these areas.

The Trust has award winning equality and diversity initiatives and staff health and wellbeing activities. We invest heavily in your development, because when you are valued and supported, we provide the best care to our patients. We are a Level 3 Disability Confident Leader, have been featured in the Working Families Top 10 Employers benchmark for five consecutive years, and we have achieved a Carers UK Level 1 Accreditation. Along with our staff networks and training opportunities, we work hard to embed a just and compassionate culture here at NELFT.

Find out more about NELFT careers and what makes our Trust a great place to work, in this video

Job overview

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Band 6, Specialist Speech and Language Therapists to work within a well-established, innovative and supportive team in the London Borough of Havering. This is a great position for a therapist looking to join a progressive and innovative children\’s speech and language therapy service.

We are looking for an enthusiastic and motivated individual to be part of our team and to contribute to the future of our service. This role will provide the opportunity to work on some of our specialist pathways including stammering, situational mutism and speech sound disorders. There may also be opportunities to support our core mainstream and pre-school services. While the specifics of this role will be guided by the needs of the service, there is scope to tailor the position based on clinical interest and experience.

Based in Romford with established transport links from London: We are 17 minutes by train from London Liverpool Street and 20 minutes from Stratford on the new Elizabeth Line, we also have good transport links to Essex and Kent.

Main duties of the job

You will join a team of passionate and enthusiastic professionals that support children and their families with their speech, language and communication needs.

Key Responsibilities:

• To work autonomously as a Specialist therapist within the community team, providing an effective service in Havering for children.
• To carry out screening, assessments and onward referrals to other specialists in integrated services, as early as possible to identify those with speech, language and communication needs.
• To signpost those who have been assessed to appropriate services that offer specialist interventions as well as general advice and guidance.
• To ensure that those identified with speech, language and communication needs receive support to understand and manage their condition where appropriate.
• Where appropriate (and required) the speech and language therapist will signpost children and young people who have difficulties with eating, drinking and swallowing to specialist services.
• To ensure that all children and young people who require a service receive it in accordance within the mandated timeframe appropriate to their needs.
• To be able to work with clients to identify issues with communication, and give them strategies to help address these issues, which may take the form of one-to-one, group sessions or other forms of support.
• To engage typically disengaged populations and work with them to improve their outcomes.

Working for our organisation

Our Values 2025 – 2030

Working with our colleagues, patients and carers we have co-produced three new values that we aim to embed within our culture here at NELFT. They are:

• We are kind.
• We are respectful.
• We work together with our communities.

Probationary Period: This post will be subject to a probationary period.

Starting with Us

NELFT places great importance on new starters being properly welcomed into the Trust. All new starters will join the Trust on the first Monday of each month and undertake a comprehensive induction of up to two weeks, including mandatory training, systems training and the allocation of equipment. As part of the process, new starters will also have the opportunity to meet the executive team, senior managers, and attend several drop-in sessions focusing on engagement, health and wellbeing, and key processes. The induction will be held at our head office in Rainham, Essex.

High Cost Area Supplement – Outer London

This post also attracts payment for High Cost Area Supplement of 15% of the basic salary (with a minimum of £4,714 to a maximum of £5,941 p.a. pro rata for part time).

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Detailed Job Description and Main responsibilities

Please see the attached job description and person specification for more information about this role and working at Northeast London NHS Foundation Trust. We encourage you to refer closely to this when completing your application. We welcome your application even if you do not meet all the criteria listed in the person specification. Any development needs to help you succeed in the role can be discussed at the interview stage.

Certificates of Sponsorship

Although we are a registered sponsor organisation, we are unable to offer sponsorship for all job roles. Please check your eligibility under the UKVI points-based system.

Use of AI

Please see attached document regarding acceptable use of AI during the recruitment process.

Person specification

Trust Values

• We are kind, We are respectful, We work together with our communities

Qualifications

• Recognised Speech and Language Therapy Degree Qualification or equivalent
• HCPC Licence to Practice
• Member of Royal College of Speech and Language Therapy
• Show active interest in CPD in line with RCSLT guidelines

Experience

• Working collaboratively with parents/carers and other professionals
• Experience of working in a multi-agency and/or multi-disciplinary team
• Working with clients who have a range of speech, language and communication needs
• Planning and delivery of training to other professionals

Knowledge

• Awareness of NHS Plan and changing service needs
• Child development and its application to speech and language therapy
• Knowledge of assessment tools, treatment techniques and therapeutic interventions
• Awareness of the roles of other professionals
• Awareness of standards of record keeping
• Understanding of safeguarding
• Government policy and legislation and how this may affect service delivery
• Knowledge of acquired communication and swallowing disorders

Other

• Able to travel efficiently throughout the area

Skills

• Basic awareness of IT and IT skills
• Demonstrate clear clinical reasoning based on evidence-based practice
• Able to use own initiative
• Able to organise and manage own caseload
• Good auditory discrimination skills and ability to transcribe speech phonetically
• Formulate care plans and identify goals by organising and prioritising
• Excellent interpersonal skills including observation, listening and empathy
• Negotiation, problem solving concentration, analytical and reflection skills
• Present information in clear and logical manner
• Ability to be a good team member
• Allocate duties and supervise therapy assistants

We believe in bringing your authentic and best self to work, in order to deliver the best care to our patients. We are committed to supporting our employees holistically. Here is a snapshot of what is on offer at NELFT:

• A long-standing and award-winning approach to equality and diversity with supportive networks for ethnic minority staff, staff with disabilities or long term/chronic conditions and LGBT staff.
• A commitment to supporting colleagues to achieve a work life balance, through flexible working opportunities and our efforts to support our working parents and carers. This has resulted in us being recognised as a ‘Top 10 Family Friendly Employer’ from the Working Families Charity.
• Proactive health and wellbeing support, including access to our employee assistance programme, staff psychological support, individual wellbeing conversations and a network of health and wellbeing ambassadors.
• Detailed information about our wellbeing and benefits offer can be found in this link .

As a flexible working friendly organisation, we want to be sure that you can work in a way that is best for us and for our patients, and for you. Speak to us about how we might be able to accommodate a flexible working arrangement whether that’s a job share, part time hours or another flexible pattern.

We recognise the valuable contribution that the Armed Forces community make to our organisation. We have signed the Armed Forces Covenant and achieved Gold Award under the Armed Forces Employer Recognition Scheme. We have supportive policies, guaranteed interview schemes for veterans, reservists and military spouses and give additional leave to our Reservists so that they can attend their annual camp.

Equal opportunities employer

We are committed to equal opportunities and diversity and positively encourage applications from all sections of the community regardless of any protected characteristic.

We are a Disability Confident employer and have made the pledge to commit to employing more people with disabilities. If you require this application in another format i.e. Braille or audio tape please contact the recruitment team on 0300 300 1530 or email recruitment@nelft.nhs.uk.

Correspondence with us

You are advised to regularly check your emails (including any junk mail/spam folders) for correspondence related to this post.

As part of our recruitment process, we may be required to share information you provide on the application form with NHS Counter Fraud Authority (NHSCFA) and/or other organisations for the purpose of the prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of fraud or any other unlawful activity affecting the NHS. We also use third party providers to check and verify your qualifications who may be contacting you on our behalf to verify the same.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

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.

Application numbers

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, we encourage you to submit your application as soon as possible to ensure consideration.

If you require any additional support during the application process please contact recruitment@nelft.nhs.uk. We are happy to make reasonable adjustments to support you throughout the recruitment journey.

Name Kara Morrison Job title Team/ Clinical Lead Speech and Language Therapist Email address kara.morrison@nelft.nhs.uk Telephone number 0300 300 1888