Job summary
We are looking for an enthusiastic and motivated therapist with experience and interest in working with children and young people with Learning Disabilities, AAC needs and ASD to join our Special Schools team and deliver a high-quality clinical service within Special Schools, primarily Marlborough School. Marlborough is a secondary school catering for students aged 11 - 19 years who have severe and complex learning difficulties. A number of the students have profound and multiple learning difficulties, and many have a diagnosis of ASD. The successful applicant will also work within Woodside Academy and, additionally, will contribute to the delivered of commissioned care packages within the wider service. Whilst delivering highly specialist assessment and intervention to children and young people across these settings, you will also be instrumental in shaping and influencing SLT clinical service delivery with the client groups identified above.
Main duties of the job
As a Highly Specialist SLT within the Special Schools you will support the delivery of the mission, vision and core priorities of the schools. You will provide assessment, advice and care planning. You will provide training to school staff and colleagues. You will have a track record of delivering evidence-based interventions, responsibility for care pathways (alongside the team lead), and of training and supervising staff. Multi-disciplinary working with our health and education colleagues is integral to this role.
Staff wellbeing is important to us - we won the 'Children and Young People's Directorate Team of the Year award' 2021-22 in recognition of the excellent care and support we provide to Bexley families and staff. We are also part of Trust initiatives, "Building a Fairer Oxleas", together with having designated Wellbeing Champions within the team.
The Bexley Children's Speech and Language Therapy service is a dynamic and supportive team, offering opportunities for continuing professional development in your clinical specialism. The service has excellent internal supervision and support structures and would provide the ideal environment to develop clinical skills and contribute towards operational projects to support service development.
You will deliver specific EHCP SLT provision/commissioned care packages and provide support to colleagues within areas of clinical specialism.
About us
Oxleas offers a wide range of NHS healthcare services to people in community and secure environment settings. Our services include community health care such as district nursing and speech and language therapy, care for people with learning disabilities and mental health care such as psychiatry, nursing and therapies. Our multidisciplinary teams look after people of all ages and we work in close partnership with other parts of the NHS, local councils and the voluntary sector and through our new provider collaboratives. Our 4,300 members of staff work in many different settings including hospitals, clinics, prisons, secure hospitals, children's centres, schools and people's homes.
We have over 125 sites in a variety of locations in the South of England. In London we operate within the Boroughs of Bexley, Bromley Greenwich and into Kent. We manage hospital sites including Queen Mary's Hospital, Sidcup and Memorial Hospital, Woolwich, as well as the Bracton Centre, our medium secure unit for people with mental health needs. We are the largest NHS provider of prison health services providing healthcare to prisons within Devon, Dorset, Bristol, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire, Kent and South London. We are proud of the care we provide and our people.
Our purpose is to improve lives by providing the best possible care to our patients and their families. This is strengthened by our new values:
- We're Kind
- We're Fair
- We Listen
- We Care
Job description
Job responsibilities
The post holder will:
- provide highly specialist assessment, diagnosis and intervention to children referred to the Speech & Language Therapy Service within Marlborough School and Woodside Academy and will provide the same support to those children and young people Oxleas SLT service is commissioned to work with.
- deliver intervention and provision to commissioned EHCP care packages.
- act as a resource within the Speech and Language Therapy service in the areas of Learning Disabilities, AAC and Autism. To maintain a high level of specialist knowledge in these areas
- provide highly specialist second opinions to Speech and Language Therapists and education staff.
- understand and meet professional and legal SEND responsibilities outlined in the Children and Families Act 2014 including contributing to statutory assessments of special educational needs and delivery of Speech and Language Therapy provision as specified in childrens Education Health and Care Plans (EHCPs).
- contribute to Trust, service and professional wide initiatives.
Key Task and Responsibilities
To demonstrate highly specialist knowledge in clinical specialism of Learning Disabilities, AAC and Autism underpinned by current evidence based practice.
To manage complex and highly specialist caseload independently and plan the workload of others where required.
To make highly specialist clinical decisions following assessment of complex cases and to work within a multidisciplinary team for assessment and provision planning/implementation.
To manage, lead and provide highly specialist supervision and PDR review to therapists working within the areas of clinical specialisms.
To work in partnership with parents /carers and education staff, to support them to develop their knowledge, skills, and confidence with regard to developing independence and management of the childs/young persons communication skills.
To adapt practice to meet the individual circumstances of child and family, including due regard for cultural and linguistic differences
To meet with parents, child and young people, taking and responding to feedback to develop care pathways and the quality of child and parent information alongside the team lead.
To participate in the development of local clinical guidelines informed by evidence for children and young people with Speech, Language and communication needs (SLCN).
To attend relevant training and development in order to maintain and develop skills and knowledge required of a highly specialist therapist and maintain up to date HCPC and RCSLT registration.
To demonstrate knowledge of the school-age and school-specific curriculums to enable effective goal setting.
To work collaboratively with relevant external partners such as colleagues in education, health and social care.
To demonstrate knowledge of, and adhere to RCSLT Professional, National and Local Clinical Guidelines with particular reference to SLCN, Learning Disabilities and Autism.
To develop and deliver specialist training (formal and informal) to parents, young people and professionals in specialist area.
To keep up to date with new techniques and developments for the promotion and maintenance of good practice in specialist area.
To provide second opinions/advice to non-specialists and other specialists within clinical field.
To demonstrate a sound working knowledge of the principles of Clinical Governance and their application to professional practice.
To be flexible to the demands of the environment including unpredictable work patterns, deadlines and frequent interruptions.
To work within infection control and health and safety guidelines in order to deal appropriately with conditions related to client contact as they arise: for example exposure to body fluids, infectious conditions.
To deputise for service leads as required.
Job description
Job responsibilities
The post holder will:
- provide highly specialist assessment, diagnosis and intervention to children referred to the Speech & Language Therapy Service within Marlborough School and Woodside Academy and will provide the same support to those children and young people Oxleas SLT service is commissioned to work with.
- deliver intervention and provision to commissioned EHCP care packages.
- act as a resource within the Speech and Language Therapy service in the areas of Learning Disabilities, AAC and Autism. To maintain a high level of specialist knowledge in these areas
- provide highly specialist second opinions to Speech and Language Therapists and education staff.
- understand and meet professional and legal SEND responsibilities outlined in the Children and Families Act 2014 including contributing to statutory assessments of special educational needs and delivery of Speech and Language Therapy provision as specified in childrens Education Health and Care Plans (EHCPs).
- contribute to Trust, service and professional wide initiatives.
Key Task and Responsibilities
To demonstrate highly specialist knowledge in clinical specialism of Learning Disabilities, AAC and Autism underpinned by current evidence based practice.
To manage complex and highly specialist caseload independently and plan the workload of others where required.
To make highly specialist clinical decisions following assessment of complex cases and to work within a multidisciplinary team for assessment and provision planning/implementation.
To manage, lead and provide highly specialist supervision and PDR review to therapists working within the areas of clinical specialisms.
To work in partnership with parents /carers and education staff, to support them to develop their knowledge, skills, and confidence with regard to developing independence and management of the childs/young persons communication skills.
To adapt practice to meet the individual circumstances of child and family, including due regard for cultural and linguistic differences
To meet with parents, child and young people, taking and responding to feedback to develop care pathways and the quality of child and parent information alongside the team lead.
To participate in the development of local clinical guidelines informed by evidence for children and young people with Speech, Language and communication needs (SLCN).
To attend relevant training and development in order to maintain and develop skills and knowledge required of a highly specialist therapist and maintain up to date HCPC and RCSLT registration.
To demonstrate knowledge of the school-age and school-specific curriculums to enable effective goal setting.
To work collaboratively with relevant external partners such as colleagues in education, health and social care.
To demonstrate knowledge of, and adhere to RCSLT Professional, National and Local Clinical Guidelines with particular reference to SLCN, Learning Disabilities and Autism.
To develop and deliver specialist training (formal and informal) to parents, young people and professionals in specialist area.
To keep up to date with new techniques and developments for the promotion and maintenance of good practice in specialist area.
To provide second opinions/advice to non-specialists and other specialists within clinical field.
To demonstrate a sound working knowledge of the principles of Clinical Governance and their application to professional practice.
To be flexible to the demands of the environment including unpredictable work patterns, deadlines and frequent interruptions.
To work within infection control and health and safety guidelines in order to deal appropriately with conditions related to client contact as they arise: for example exposure to body fluids, infectious conditions.
To deputise for service leads as required.
Person Specification
Clinical experience
Essential
- 3 years post qualification
Training attended
Essential
- Evidence of attending relevant training post qualification
clinical experience
Essential
- Relevant specialist experience gained 3 years post qualification in educational settings in line with PS
Person Specification
Clinical experience
Essential
- 3 years post qualification
Training attended
Essential
- Evidence of attending relevant training post qualification
clinical experience
Essential
- Relevant specialist experience gained 3 years post qualification in educational settings in line with PS
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.
Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).
From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).
UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see
NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).
Additional information
Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).
From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).
UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see
NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).
