Highly specialist speech & language therapist - mainstream schools

Job Overview

Do you want to be part of a friendly and supportive SLT team?

Do you want to be able to offer direct therapy to children in mainstream schools?

Do you want to develop your leadership skills?

Full Time Band 7 role:

We are looking for a passionate speech and language therapist to work in the Hillingdon mainstream schools team supporting children and young people who have a speech, language or communication need.

You will be offering direct therapy for CYP in schools - working closely with school staff.

You will be part of a supportive band 7 team - and take a lead in developing projects and supervising more junior staff.

Have a look on our Hillingdon Talks, Moves and Plays website to find out about our wider service.

Main duties of the job

• To provide a highly specialist speech and language therapy service to children in mainstream schools who have an identified speech/language/communication need. This role will include primary and secondary schools.
• To be responsible for providing highly specialist assessment & therapy packages into allocated schools.

Working for our organisation

We can offer you:

• A buddy who will meet with you every week at first to help you settle in and who you can ask lots of questions
• Regular supervision meetings with the team leader every 6 weeks, alongside annual appraisal and informal support
• Termly peer supervision meetings where you can discuss difficult cases, read articles together and share your experiences
• Regular meetings with the other band 7 mainstream team SLTs to ensure that the workload is being shared and support given
• A busy but manageable caseload across a range of schools
• Opportunities for remote working in school and at home at the end of the day once a week
• Opportunities to develop your clinical and leadership skills and knowledge through termly study afternoons, shadowing more experienced therapists/ leaders, membership of a CEN, training courses - clinical and leadership
  
  

We are proud to say that the service has:

• Excellent relationships with schools - 91% of SENCO’s report that they are happy or very happy with the service
• Good relationships with parents - 92.5% of parents report that they are happy or very happy with the service. A parent representative attends all of the mainstream schools meetings and parent feedback is sought for new developments

To lead on identified clinical working groups for the service

To deliver workshops for the wider speech and language therapy team

To deliver training workshops for parents and school staff

To offer joint consultations to other members of the team

To jointly lead on developing the quality of the service provided to schools

To be responsible for the performance management of identified team members

To formally and informally support team members

To support the team leader in the leading and development of the team

To deputise for the team leader in the day to day management of the team as requested

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential criteria

• Recognised Speech and Language Therapy Degree qualification or equivalent (minimum of 2:2 or equivalent)
• Further training courses relevant to the post
• Attendance at special interest group/ clinical excellence group
• Health and Care Professions Council licence to practice.
• Registered member of Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists.
  
  

Desirable criteria

• First class honours degree or equivalent
• Extensive training relevant to the post
  
  

Experience

Essential criteria

• Extensive experience of working in a mainstream/special school as a therapist
• Experience of developing and delivering a range of training
• Experience of leading on a project to improve/develop the service
• Experience of providing informal support to junior colleagues
• Experience of supervising students
  
  

Desirable criteria

• Experience of formally supervising less experienced staff
• Experience of leading appraisals for junior staff
• Experience of leadership tasks
  
  

Skills and Knowledge

Essential criteria

• In-depth knowledge of assessment tools, and experience of using them relevant to school age children with SLCN.
• In-depth knowledge of a range of appropriate therapy approaches, and experience in using them with school age children with SLCN including: speech, language, stammering, social communication, selective mutism.

Experience of contributing to an audit

Knowledge of national policies and procedures relevant to school age children with SLCN

Good knowledge of the roles of other professionals relevant to school age children with SLCN

Desirable criteria

• Experience of leading clinical audits
  
  

Other

Essential criteria

• Good IT skills
  
  

Desirable criteria

• Car driver
  
  

Attitudes, aptitudes, personal characteristics

Essential criteria

• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills with professionals, children and their families
• Excellent empathy skills
• Evidence of being a pro-active and supportive team member.
• Good negotiation and problem solving skills.
• Good analytical and reflection skills
• Well developed concentration skills
• Good presentation skills; both written and verbal.
• Good organisational skills and ability to prioritise and meet deadlines