An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Highly Specialist Speech and Language Therapist to join our School Therapy Team. This role will require the successful candidate to provide specialist speech and language therapy and clinical leadership to children, young people and families accessing the Childrens Trust School and residential services.
You will provide high quality, evidence-based speech and language therapy assessment and intervention to children and young people with neurodisabilities and neurodevelopmental concerns, within a multidisciplinary and multi-agency setting.
Our service delivery aims to promote outcome focussed interventions, safe care, function and participation of children and young people accessing home, school, and community life. You will support children and young people with communication needs, speech, and language difficulties, eating and drinking and tracheostomy care at a highly specialist level, working within a multi-disciplinary and multi-agency setting
With experience of working in a complex environment, across a large and diverse workforce, you will be exceptionally organised with a high-level of attention to detail. You will naturally possess excellent inter-personal skills, and an ability to consult and positively engage with key stakeholders across the organisation.
The Childrens Trust is
the UKs leading charity for children with acquired brain injury, providing
expert rehabilitation, education, therapy, and care at our national specialist
centre in Tadworth, and to children and their families across the UK, via our
Brain Injury Community Service.
Boasting a beautiful 24-acre site in Surrey, we
are located just outside of London, close to the M25 (accessible via Junction
8, A217 to Tadworth) and easily accessible via National Rail, by way of:
Clapham Junction, Sutton, and Epsom.
The work we do is
highly rewarding, and in addition to an attractive salary, we offer a valuable
range of benefits, including, adoption pay, time off for fertility treatment,
enhanced paternity leave, paid carers leave, time out days for those
experiencing menopause symptoms, time off for gender reassignment.
We also offer
additional annual leave days for those with long service, with entitlements
ranging from 35 to 41 days (including bank holidays) depending on your length
of service.
Other benefits include
free on-site parking; a staff shuttle service from Epsom and Sutton train
stations to Tadworth Court, subsidised cafeteria, on-site staff accommodation
(subject to availability), the ability to retain your NHS pension (where
applicable) or the opportunity to join an alternative scheme, and the
opportunity to develop your career in a supportive and collaborative
environment.
Job description
Job responsibilities
Clinical
Skills and Responsibilities:
Provide high quality, evidence based and equitable speech and language
therapy interventions
for children and young people attending The Childrens Trust.
Lead the provision of high quality, evidence
based speech and language therapy provision for children and young people
attending The Childrens Trust School in partnership with other members of the
Multidisciplinary Team and Education services.
Support the Multidisciplinary Team regarding the impact of
tracheostomies, on speaking and swallowing following assessment of laryngeal
integrity, secretion management and swallow.
Undertake specialist speech and language therapy
assessments of children with highly complex needs e.g. multiple co-morbidities,
neurodisabilities and chronic conditions, through standardised and
non-standardised assessments and clinical observations.
Devise suitable, individual, speech and language
therapy plan that fit within the childs daily routine, whether to be carried
out by parents or members of the Multidisciplinary team; these should be
monitored, evaluated, and adjusted appropriately according to the needs of the
child.
Be an autonomous practitioner with responsibility for assessment, treatment,
and planning for an allocated caseload of children/young people.
Be a key point of support and advice for the speech
and language therapy team and Multidisciplinary team.
Work closely with all members of the
Multidisciplinary team, as well as the child and family, to provide a fully
integrated approach to the overall management of the child. This will include
any home/school visits, professional child related meetings and / or
appointments, as required.
Liaise with all appropriate medical staff,
whether employed by The Childrens Trust, visiting consultants or at off-site
clinics, and attend clinics with the child as required.
Contribute to the assessment and discussion of
new referrals to The Childrens Trust, carrying out off site referral
assessments around the United Kingdom, as required.
Contribute to child related reports, including
looked after children and annual review reports as required, and assist with
the collation of these as and when required, in a timely manner and in line
with organisational targets.
Utilise patient reported and standardised outcome measures for each
allocated child/young person and complete in a timely manner.
Assess, evaluate, and recommend discharge/transition plans for
children/young people within the multidisciplinary team framework.
Provide assessment and management guidelines for
young people with assistive technology needs, sharing information with the
assistive technology team, and referring to national hubs where appropriate.
Provide assessment and intervention in the
clinical area of alternative and augmentative communication (AAC) for school,
teaching and integrating skills with members of the Multidisciplinary and
educational teams.
Support the Multidisciplinary and Education team
with measuring short term targets through using the IMpacts curriculum, therapy
outcome measurement tools e.g. Goal Attainment Scaling (GAS).
Teach, integrate, and monitor speech and
language therapy interventions in the childs environment, whether it is
carried out by parents, school staff, therapy staff, nursing and care staff or
volunteers.
Assess, and organise the provision of necessary
speech and language therapy / eating and drinking equipment.
Keep appropriate and accurate intervention
records, fulfilling legal, professional and all other requirements of The
Childrens Trust.
Contribute to child related reports, including
looked after children and annual review reports as required, and assist with
the collation of these as required, in a timely manner in line with
organisational targets.
Escalate any concerns around
dysphagia to our specialist providers and medical teams, where appropriate.
Lead and deliver a tiered model approach for
speech and language therapy at The Childrens Trust School, providing regular
integrated time to classes and houses.
Provide leadership within the context of MDTs in
Special Schools internally and externally.
Work closely with all members of the
multidisciplinary team and the child and family to provide a fully integrated
approach to the overall management of the child. This will include any
home/school visits, professional child related meetings and appointments as
required.
Assess, evaluate, and recommend discharge/transition plans for
children/young people within the multidisciplinary team framework.
Provide clinical
cover across the service during episodes of staff shortage/heavy workload, in
order to ensure effective service delivery.
Work
flexibly in terms of hours, in order to meet the needs of the service,
including an early evening (weekly) and one weekend day, per calendar month.
Represent
the Therapy Team and The Childrens Trust when appropriate, deputising for the
Heads of Therapy as required.
Actively participate in and support the running of relevant meetings and
groups.
Communication
Facilitates effective communication with families and members of the
multidisciplinary team, supporting others to embed the advice regarding
management of needs around communication and eating and drinking and
tracheostomy care.
Recognises barriers to communication and be able to reduce these as
appropriate.
Communicates regularly and effectively with the Heads of Therapy.
Maintains clear and concise documents and records, in accordance with The
Childrens Trust Policy.
Ensures documents are managed confidentially at all times.
Involve children and families in areas of service
development.
Use a range of advanced communication skills, to share
specialised information and discussions with a range of audiences, with
different levels of knowledge and expertise.
Attend, contribute and chair Multidisciplinary Team
meetings, to discuss individual children/ young people.
Develop and promote relationships with external networks,
including professionals, stakeholders, and specialist centres, in order to
ensure excellence of care, whilst representing the organisation and reflecting
The Childrens Trust core values.
Manage informal complaints, in line with The Childrens
Trust polices and contribute to the resolution of written complaints and as
they occur, taking immediate action where necessary.
Management
of Self and Others
Working alongside the School Leadership Team and Head
of Therapy, lead on identified and agreed areas of service development
and quality improvement within a defined clinical area, including designing,
implementing and reviewing these.
Participate in the overall day-to-day management and
development of the speech and Language Therapy Service, to ensure an efficient
and safe service for all.
Provide day-to-day leadership, support and
supervision for junior staff, technicians, volunteers, and students, within
area of responsibility, providing direction, motivation, and support to achieve
key objectives.
Represent the Therapy Team on behalf of the Head
of Therapies for Rehabilitation/School, when requested.
Take on the role of Lead Professional or Coordinating
Therapist, following team discussion or as requested by the Head of Therapy, in accordance with the current profile
description.
Participate in the
annual Performance Development Review and monthly supervision sessions, as
required by The Childrens Trust, both as Appraiser and Appraise.
Advise the Head of Therapy, regarding resources
and equipment needs, including shortfalls.
Manage time effectively, prioritising and
delegating work, as required.
Assess
needs, decide priorities, and organise, monitor, and evaluate the provision of
an efficient and effective Therapy service, in liaison with the Head of
Therapy.
Governance
Read and implements
all policies, procedures, and risk assessments, pertinent to working practice
and keeps up to date with policy changes as they occur.
Critically evaluate new intervention methods and
implement where appropriate.
Critically evaluate practice through clinical audits
and by appraisal of the information gained, in combination with current
knowledge of evidence-based practice; identify opportunities for service
improvement and development.
Recognise and
critically appraise situations where the effectiveness, efficiency and quality
of the service are compromised and take appropriate action to resolve the
situation.
Critically
reflect on own performance and that of other staff; use this evaluation to
enhance the effectiveness, efficiency, and quality of future practice.
Actively
participates in local clinical governance activities.
Undergo The
Childrens Trust Risk Assessor training, to ensure that all activities are risk
assessed and documented in the most appropriate format. Ensure that detailed
risk assessments are completed, as required.
Career Long Learning, Education and Research
Undertake all
mandatory training, in line with The Childrens Trust policies.
Independently
advance personal knowledge, understanding and skills, in line with identified
learning needs, by making appropriate use of a variety of learning and
development resources and opportunities, e.g. by attending courses/ lectures,
contact and involvement with relevant special interest groups, and/ or visiting
other departments.
Develop and deliver
external training courses in area of specialism, where potential demand is
identified.
Disseminate and ensure the embedding of relevant new
practice, through attendance at and contributing to in-service education,
Literature Reviews, mentoring and shared sessions.
Record outcomes of learning activities, in a format
that reflects personal preferences and professional requirement, in line with the RCSLT competencies for dysphagia
and tracheostomies.
Take an active
part in the training of junior colleagues and lead the development of
Reflective Practice in others.