Speech and Language Therapist

Come and work with us An exciting opportunity has arisen in the Stroke Team at Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust for a Band 5 Speech and Language Therapist.

Our Stroke Unit, at Maidstone Hospital, cares for over 1,000 patients every year, and is in the top 15% of stroke units in the UK. The post will help deliver specialist speech and language therapy as part of a passionate and innovative multidisciplinary Stroke team, who take pride in delivering excellent patient care and strive to continuously improve our service.

What makes our Stroke Team different?

Our stroke service is comprised of different inpatient, outpatient and community pathways, giving you the opportunity to expand your skillset in different settings. This includes a stroke assessment bay for emergency admissions, a hyper-acute and acute stroke units, inpatient stroke rehabilitation at Sevenoaks hospital, a home-based rehabilitation pathway, and an outpatient assessment pathway which allows patients to return to hospital to complete further assessments from the stroke MDT.

We have a weekly videofluoroscopy service and a stroke specific FEES stack to ensure our assessments meet the gold-standard. This includes an in-house training programme. We are excited about research and innovation. We provide an enthusiastic and supportive learning environment to help you meet your individual goals and objectives.

You will help deliver specialist speech and language therapy to the new 49 bedded Stroke ward. You will need to be autonomous in dysphagia assessment and management. You will also need excellent communication skills, a professional approach to both clinical and administrative duties, be organised with excellent prioritisation and time management skills. We run a FEES and videofluoroscopy service and experience in instrumental assessments would be desirable but is not essential as training can be provided. Variable site and weekend working will be expected. In addition, there will also be the opportunity to provide some rehab sessions to our unit in Sevenoaks.

We offer excellent clinical support and supervision, and ongoing professional development is actively encouraged. Flexible working will be considered.

Speech and Language Therapy currently sits within the Core Clinical Services Directorate, within the Therapies Division and is co-located with Physiotherapy, Occupational Therapy and Dietetics, making easy work of joint working. The broader SLT team is made up of 19 SALTs and 4 SALT Assistant posts, split across both hospital sites.

Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust is a large acute hospital Trust in the county of Kent.

The Trust provides a full range of general hospital services and some areas of specialist complex care to around 760,000 people living in the south part of West Kent and the north part of East Sussex.

The Trust’s core catchment areas are Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells and their surrounding boroughs. We work from two main clinical sites: Maidstone Hospital and Tunbridge Wells Hospital at Pembury. Tunbridge Wells Hospital opened in 2011 and provides single rooms with en-suites for all in-patients - the first of its kind in the country.

We employ more than 7,000 full and part-time staff in a huge range of clinical and non-clinical roles across both of our hospital sites.

Would you like to work flexibly? In the NHS, we are reminded every day of how important life is. As a flexible working friendly organisation, we want to be sure that you can work in a way that is best for us, for our patients and for you. Speak to us about how we might be able to accommodate a flexible working arrangement. We celebrate each-other's differences and value our well-being.

Once your pre-employment checks have been completed you will be contacted by Recruitment to arrange your start date which will be in line with one of our Corporate Inductions.

**Interview Date**: To be confirmed.