Highly Specialist Speech and language Therapist

Job overview

The post holder will provide a highly specialist clinical service to children in the Early Years SLT Service diagnosed with Autism or having a social communication disorder.

Key Aspects of the Post:

Being a member of the multidisciplinary team carrying out social communication assessments. Developing the service to children and their families who have social communication difficulties or autism diagnosis. Having an individual caseload of complex children/ families and supporting social communication groups. Providing second opinions as required to other Speech and Language Therapists within the Early Years team. Advising and training staff working in early years settings and working in partnership with families. Supporting / supervising staff and developing their knowledge specifically regarding working with autistic children and their families . Keeping abreast of current research in the field of autism.

There is a strong focus on clinical audit, user involvement and outcomes and support for ongoing professional development.

Main duties of the job

To be a lead specialist in the area of children diagnosed with autism and manage complex cases independently maintaining an extremely high level of professional competence.

·To work effectively with clients, carers, and colleagues providing highly specialist advice, guidance and support as necessary and involving them in the planning of care

·To monitor and review the progress of children on caseload and facilitate the development or modification of packages of care / targets as appropriate using evaluation/outcome measurement tools.

·To adapt practice to meet individual client/carer's circumstances, taking into account cultural and linguistic backgrounds.

·To produce accurate and detailed reports, therapy programmes, advice and information as necessary in a timely manner, reflecting clinical expertise.

·To support the effective transition of students between SLT teams as appropriate.

·To participate in the development of local clinical guidelines informed by evidence for clinical specialism. To identify, prioritise and manage unpredictable clinical or non-clinical situations, including those that are sensitive and potentially distressing, to achieve an appropriate and safe outcome.

·To ensure adequate handover, caseload cover for prolonged absences and be accountable for the appropriate discharge of duties in managing the clinical caseload when leaving Trust employment.

Working for our organisation

North Mid is part of North Central London integrated care system – consisting of the NHS and Local authority organisations in Camden, Islington, Barnet, Enfield and Haringey. As with other ICS's, we are working increasingly closely with partners and indeed many of our financial and performance objectives are measured at this system level. Whilst all organisations remain as standalone, statutory bodies we have an ICS infrastructure for making shared decisions and agreeing shared approaches.

We are proud of our staff and want to ensure their training allows them to provide excellent clinical care. We are also a training unit for medical students from UCL and St George's University Grenada, and for nursing and midwifery students from Middlesex and City Universities.

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Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Communication

·To be able to analyse conflicting information provide clear guidance and detailed reports that will enable effective differential diagnosis.

·To work closely with clients and carers using empathy, tact, reassurance and active listening to complete/discuss results and diagnosis, and agree treatment options.

·To contribute to multidisciplinary clinical team meetings by discussing own and others input about children on the caseload ensuring a well co-ordinated care plan that reflects the holistic needs of the child and their parents/carers.

·To discuss diagnosis and potential outcomes with parents/carers and work collaboratively in decision making regarding referral on and intervention.

·To routinely overcome barriers to communication during assessment and intervention. This includes the use of sign, symbols or other alternative and augmentation strategies with communication disordered clients/carers, as well as the use of interpreters for clients and carers who do not have English as a first language.

·To have highly developed skills in being able to motivate clients/carers to engage in the therapeutic process.

·To manage conflict effectively in a range of settings including when working with distressed parents.

·To have highly developed skills of negotiation, tact and persuasion when presenting information where there may be conflicting opinions.

·To deal with complaints from parents/carers and colleagues sensitively, avoiding escalation where possible.

·To employ excellent presentation skills to promote multidisciplinary liaison and collaborative practice to a broad range of audiences, including professionals and service users in order to represent the Speech and Language Service at a local, regional and national level.

·To form effective therapeutic relationships with clients and/or carers who may be under stress and/or having challenging behaviour.

·To provide training to a variety of audiences on aspects of speech and language therapy and area of specialism.

Service/Policy Development and Implementation

·To take delegated lead on the development of team objectives or projects in liaison with peers in own specialist area.

·To use specialist knowledge to inform service/policy developments as appropriate.

·To develop care protocols/packages relating to specialist area in liaison with Team Manager to improve patient care.

·To advise line manager on issues of service delivery including shortfall, service pressures etc.

·To undertake service audits, to collect and provide data as required, as well as in agreed evaluation of research projects.

·To lead in the development of projects within clinical speciality, including evaluation and reporting on progress.

·To assume delegated tasks as requested by line manager, including participation in or leading working groups, policy development groups

·To contribute to interagency/multi-disciplinary team building and policy development.

·To be aware of, adhere to and implement service and team plans and policies

·To report complaints, commendations/incidents to manager immediately. To understand and act on the Complaints Procedure

·To implement proposals to address quality issues

·To adhere to all Trust policies including Child Protection/Vulnerable Adults.

·To participate and contribute to innovations and developments in areas of Risk Management, Clinical effectiveness and Quality Standard Setting.

Human Resources

·To provide clinical supervision to junior colleagues and students

·To participate in induction programmes for new staff.

·To participate in student placements.

·To facilitate the development of problem solving, negotiation and reflective practice within peer review and supervision frameworks.

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Training

·To provide training packages to a variety of audiences on aspects of clinical specialism.

·To provide training to staff groups regarding management/support of clients with complex communication needs in order to facilitate access to functional learning context and reduce impact on behavioural challenges.

·To identify and evaluate training delivered within the team for other professional groups.

·To contribute to teaching, facilitation of others within clinical area of knowledge.

Professional Development

·To demonstrate highly specialist knowledge in clinical specialisms underpinned by current evidenced based practice, maintained through specialist courses and self study.

·To maintain professional and clinical expertise through regular supervision/appraisal/personal development review.

·Identify individual training needs through appraisal and attend further training as necessary to maintain and further develop the skill and knowledge required of a highly specialist SLT in clinical specialist area.

·To maintain up to date professional registration with HPC and RCSLT at all times and adhere to RCSLT and HCPC Clinical National Guidelines and Professional Standards.

·To be aware of, and act in accordance with, agreed management/ human resources, policies, procedures, legislation and legal frameworks.

·To keep up to date with current interventions/trends through reading, active learning, journal discussions, reflecting on practice with peers/ clinical supervision to maintain relevant training and enhance specialist skills and knowledge and maintain effective clinical networks

Information Resources

·To maintain up to date and accurate case notes in line with RCSLT professional standards and local trust policies.

·To share information with others, observing data protection guidelines.

·To gather and update activity data accurately and regularly, ensuring the provision of such information promptly within local Trust Guidelines.

Other

·To actively support the effective functioning and team work of the whole Service

·To undertake any other duties as required by the Manager for Pre-School services as required, providing it is within the your abilities and commensurate with your grade

·To have due regard for your own safety and that of clients, in particular in regard to moving and handling regulations and restraint policies and to respond to the unpredictable physical behaviour

Person specification

EDUCATION/QUALIFICATION

Essential criteria

•Highly specialist knowledge through degree/equivalent qualifications, further theoretical training and experience to Master's level equivalent •Recognised Speech & Language Therapy Degree Qualification or equivalent (Post Graduate Diploma or MSc in Speech & Language Therapy leading to registration with HCPC)

Desirable criteria

•Registered member of Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists •Membership of relevant Special Interest Groups

Experience

Essential criteria

Highly specialist knowledge of Autism and impact of the condition on the SLCN of the preschool age population. Experience of service development for children with ASD. Knowledge of a range of relevant diagnostic assessments and ability to analyse and interpret results in relation to theoretical and clinical knowledge of individual clients in relation to ASD.

Desirable criteria

Experience of being part of a multi-disciplinary diagnostic clinic for children with autism.

Skills

Essential criteria

Ability to carry out structured and detailed observations of verbal and non-verbal communication behaviours. Highly developed negotiation and problem solving abilities, including the ability to present information to multi-disciplinary meetings with little opportunity to plan in advance and where there may be conflicting opinions.

Personal Qualities

Essential criteria

Excellent interpersonal skills to enable the SLT to work collaboratively and liaise with a wide range of professions from a variety of agencies. Ability to present complex information under pressure and when an opinion must be provided without preparation To be able to demonstrate empathy, support and reassurance to individuals who have a language/communication difficulties and with their carers and families

We reserve the right to expire vacancies prior to the advertised closing date once a sufficient number of applications have been received.

You will only be contacted by the Recruitment Team via email if you are shortlisted for this post. Please ensure therefore that you check your e-mail account regularly.

Please note in order to progress your application, your data will be processed by our 3rd party recruitment providers – North London Partners Shared Service, (NLPSS) who conduct recruitment activities on behalf of NMUH.

If you are offered a role with one of the NLPSS partner trusts, as part of pre-employment checks your identity and right to work documentation will be verified remotely (in most circumstances), using a certified identity verification service provider TrustID. You will be asked to capture an image of the relevant documents as well as a "selfie" using your smartphone/tablet (if available) for facial matching. TrustID will also perform a digital address check using Trunarrative and Equifax, which is a soft check and does not leave a footprint on your credit rating. For more information, visit

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By applying for this post you are agreeing to NMUH transferring the information contained in this application to its preferred applicant management system. All subsequent information regarding your application will be generated from You will not be able to track the progress of your application or receive messages through the NHS Jobs website, and as an employer, we will not be able to respond to any e-mails sent to us via the NHS Jobs website. If you are offered a job, information will also be transferred into the national NHS Electronic Staff Record (ESR) system and other secure, internal NHS workforce systems.

By applying for this role, you accept in the event you are successful that your personal data may be transferred from the Trust to another NHS organisation where your employment transfers within the NHS. This is in accordance with the streamlining programme which is aimed at saving you time and improving efficiencies within the NHS when your employment transfers. Therefore we want you to complete your e-learning modules prior to joining our organisation.

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