Senior Speech & Language Therapist

East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust

The closing date is 29 April 2025

Job summary

This post offers an exciting opportunity for a skilled and enthusiastic clinician to join our Speech & Language Therapy team on a fixed term basis to cover maternity leave, delivering services for adults with Learning Disability & Autism. We are seeking a therapist who is passionate about delivering quality services for this population, and who has experience of working with people with complex communication needs. This countywide Learning Disability service is part of the East Suffolk Speech and Language Therapy team, facilitating an integrative model of support and specialism across other areas of speech and language therapy. This includes provision of videofluoroscopy and FEES.

As part of our friendly and innovative integrated SLT service, this specialist SLT team currently provides communication and dysphagia services across Suffolk community, as well as supporting the adult autism diagnostic service. We also deliver the SLT services within the local mental health LD multidisciplinary teams and alongside the local specialist communication aid service. Our integrated model and extensive MDT working requires someone who is a strong team player, comfortable with working independently at times and skilled at building and maintaining relationships with colleagues across professions and organisations.

Main duties of the job

You will provide specialist assessment and interventions for people with a learning disability who present with complex communication difficulties. Depending on your skill set and clinical interest, the role could also involve providing support for dysphagia, and/or autism diagnosis. The role may include working alongside MDT colleagues to support people who present with behaviours that challenge. Developing and delivering training packages will also be a key component of this role as part of our Inclusive Communication service.

You will be based in one of our community clinics, though there is likely to be an element of remote working. Some countywide travel may be required at times.

If you are looking to broaden your clinical skills or if you enjoy working with a range of clinical presentations, this job will give you this experience, and we encourage our team to work closely with the paediatric, adult acquired and acute services.

About us

We are ESNEFT and we provide hospital and community health services to almost one million people across east Suffolk and north Essex. Our dedicated staff deliver care from acute hospitals in Colchester and Ipswich, community hospitals, surgeries, community clinics and in patients' own homes.

We are one of the largest NHS organisations in England, employing more than 12,000 staff.

We pride ourselves on supporting our staff. We offer a wide range of training and development opportunities, as well as flexible working options.

Along with supporting you to achieve your career goals we offer a generous pension scheme, unsocial hours payments (where applicable), 27 days annual leave on commencement (pro rata) and access to a range of NHS discounts. Our Staff Health and Wellbeing programme offer a variety of services.

Our philosophy is that Time Matters to everyone. Across the Trust, we concentrate on improving the things we do and removing those which cause time delays for our staff and patients.

We are investing in our commitment to Time Matters with a partnership with leading electronic patient record (EPR) supplier Epic. This digital transformation will bring what's widely regarded as the world's best EPR system to ESNEFT, transforming life in hospital for staff and patients.

If you are passionate about patient care and want to develop your skills and knowledge, then we want to hear from you.

Find out about living and working here - www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkPu7HphU8A

Date posted

15 April 2025

Pay scheme

Agenda for change

Band

Band 6

Salary

£37,338 to £44,962 a year per annum

Contract

Fixed term

Duration

12 months

Working pattern

Full-time

Reference number

432-HR88-25

Job locations

Ipswich Hospital

Ipswich

IP4 5PD

Job description

Job responsibilities

For full details of theresponsibilitiesand dutiesof this role please see the attached job description.

Job description

Job responsibilities

For full details of theresponsibilitiesand dutiesof this role please see the attached job description.

Person Specification

Experience

Essential

oExperience of working in various settings
oExperience of working as a member of a multi-disciplinary team
oLiaising with other agencies/other staff groups
oExperience of working with people with learning disabilities
oExperience of independently managing own caseload
oExperience of delivering Inclusive Communication approaches to provider services and evaluating effectiveness

Desirable

oTeaching/training other staff
oExperience of supervising staff
oExperience of working with people with physical disability or mental illness
oExperience of working with autistic / neurodivergent people.
oExperience of working with people with swallowing problems

Qualifications

Essential

oRCSLT recognised degree or equivalent
oEligible for registered membership of RCSLT
oHCPC membership
oAbility to travel to different places of work/driving licence
oPortfolio of relevant post qualification CPD including specialist knowledge of the client group.

Desirable

oEvidence of attendance at specialist courses. eg PECS, Intensive Interaction, Makaton
oIndependent Dysphagia practitioner
oCertificate for training in ADOS/ ADI-R/ ACIA (or other relevant autism diagnostic assessments)

Person Specification

Experience

Essential

oExperience of working in various settings
oExperience of working as a member of a multi-disciplinary team
oLiaising with other agencies/other staff groups
oExperience of working with people with learning disabilities
oExperience of independently managing own caseload
oExperience of delivering Inclusive Communication approaches to provider services and evaluating effectiveness

Desirable

oTeaching/training other staff
oExperience of supervising staff
oExperience of working with people with physical disability or mental illness
oExperience of working with autistic / neurodivergent people.
oExperience of working with people with swallowing problems

Qualifications

Essential

oRCSLT recognised degree or equivalent
oEligible for registered membership of RCSLT
oHCPC membership
oAbility to travel to different places of work/driving licence
oPortfolio of relevant post qualification CPD including specialist knowledge of the client group.

Desirable

oEvidence of attendance at specialist courses. eg PECS, Intensive Interaction, Makaton
oIndependent Dysphagia practitioner
oCertificate for training in ADOS/ ADI-R/ ACIA (or other relevant autism diagnostic assessments)

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.