Lancashire & South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust

Principle Practitioner Dysphagia Speech and Language Therapist

The closing date is 07 October 2025

Job summary

Principal Practitioner Dysphagia Speech and Language Therapist

Permanent - Part Time - 22.50 hours per week

Are you an experienced Speech & Language Therapist with specialist skills in Eating, drinking and swallowing, who is looking to develop your clinical and leadership skills? Due to service developments, we are recruiting to this highly specialist community role within our Children's Therapy Service as part of our current service redesign.

The Children's Therapy Service operates across the Pennine area comprising of Occupational Therapists and Speech & Language Therapists and Assistants who offer services to children and their families. The service works in a variety of locations and in collaboration with other partner agencies.

An exciting clinical leadership opportunity now awaits a suitably qualified, registered and experienced speech and language therapists who wants to continue to develop their specific clinical skills and knowledge in the specialist areas of paediatric dysphagia particularly within early years.

This post will provide clinical leadership to SLT staff undertaking an EDS role in Pennine specially supporting with developing expertise within early years feeding. The postholder will work with the Clinical Lead for EDS in a shared responsibility for clinical care pathway. Researching evidence practice and current treatment approaches will form a part of this responsibility as well as working on referral and system pathways.

Main duties of the job

The service is currently working with Commissioners and System Partners to develop a system wide model to support speech, language and communication needs in Pennine Lancashire. Your specialist skills will be integral to current programmes of change so a experience in managing continuous improvement projects would be a benefit.

We are looking for a motivated person to join our team who has a personal interest, specialist knowledge and relevant skill base in improving speech, language and communication skills for children and young people.

We require commitment and drive for promoting exceptional care and excellent leadership skills to engage and support the system in providing coordinated services to meet a range of communication needs.

You will work in partnership with the Team Coordinator to support the day to day management of Speech and Language Therapy staff as well as the wider leadership team including the AHP Consultants.

You will be able to provide effective clinical and professional supervision, be able to identify training needs of individuals and lead on the delivery of suitable training, demonstrating high level, expert speech and language therapy skills and knowledge with in EDS.

You will be required to support student placements and be required to meet the travel requirements of the post.

For further information about the post please contact us using the details provided.

About us

Within Lancashire Care NHS Foundation Trust we are passionate about providing the best possible care and continuing to improve and develop the services we provide.

Lancashire & South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust provides a range of services including secondary mental health care across this area. Specialist provision comprises inpatient child and adolescent mental health services, perinatal mental health and forensic services including low and medium secure care.

The Trust also provides a range of physical health and well-being services in the community alongside a range of partners in the Lancashire, Cumbria and Sefton area.

Lancashire & South Cumbria Foundation Trust encourages flexible working, we believe that a positive work/life balance benefits NHS employees through improved health and wellbeing. We would consider working patterns such as; term time, part time, compressed hours, flexi-time and career breaks. We encourage applicants to state clearly on their application forms this request and discuss these options at interview.

For more information please visit our website via Lancashire & South Cumbria NHS FT

Details

Date posted

25 September 2025

Pay scheme

Agenda for change

Band

Band 8a

Salary

£55,690 to £62,682 a year pa pro rata

Contract

Permanent

Working pattern

Part-time

Reference number

351-CEN2315-EB

Job locations

Acorn Primary Healthcare Centre

Accrington

BB5 1RT


Job description

Job responsibilities

Please see attached the job description and person specification for more information about this role.

Job description

Job responsibilities

Please see attached the job description and person specification for more information about this role.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

  • Professional Degree or equivalent in speech and language therapy
  • Current Professional Registration with HCPC
  • Validated /nationally recognised post graduate advanced competencies in the management of dysphagia

Knowledge

Essential

  • Detailed understanding of clinical governance framework & implications for practice, including audit and research governance
  • Extensive knowledge of a broad range of assessment tools for children with diverse needs.
  • Extensive knowledge of a range of therapy techniques and programmes and their applications for children with diverse needs/ related to client group

Experience

Essential

  • Evidence of recent and relevant post graduate experience encompassing the specialist field of practice. that demonstrates an in depth knowledge of specialist area
  • Multi-disciplinary/multi-agency collaborative working
  • Extensive experience of working with children with complex needs and their families in community settings.
Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

  • Professional Degree or equivalent in speech and language therapy
  • Current Professional Registration with HCPC
  • Validated /nationally recognised post graduate advanced competencies in the management of dysphagia

Knowledge

Essential

  • Detailed understanding of clinical governance framework & implications for practice, including audit and research governance
  • Extensive knowledge of a broad range of assessment tools for children with diverse needs.
  • Extensive knowledge of a range of therapy techniques and programmes and their applications for children with diverse needs/ related to client group

Experience

Essential

  • Evidence of recent and relevant post graduate experience encompassing the specialist field of practice. that demonstrates an in depth knowledge of specialist area
  • Multi-disciplinary/multi-agency collaborative working
  • Extensive experience of working with children with complex needs and their families in community settings.

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.

UK Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).

Additional information

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.

UK Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).

Employer details

Employer name

Lancashire & South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust

Address

Acorn Primary Healthcare Centre

Accrington

BB5 1RT


Employer's website

https://www.lscft.nhs.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)


Employer details

Employer name

Lancashire & South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust

Address

Acorn Primary Healthcare Centre

Accrington

BB5 1RT


Employer's website

https://www.lscft.nhs.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)


Employer contact details

For questions about the job, contact:

Aspiring Consultant SLT

Claire Nield

Clare.Nield@lscft.nhs.uk

07971822750

Details

Date posted

25 September 2025

Pay scheme

Agenda for change

Band

Band 8a

Salary

£55,690 to £62,682 a year pa pro rata

Contract

Permanent

Working pattern

Part-time

Reference number

351-CEN2315-EB

Job locations

Acorn Primary Healthcare Centre

Accrington

BB5 1RT


Supporting documents

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