Specialist Speech and Language Therapist

Are you passionate about working with children with complex or additional needs including autism?

Do you have experience working with pre-school and school-aged children?

With a strong ethos of clinical support and supervision, our dynamic team provides evidence-based advice, training and interventions to children and young people. We give children what they need, when they need it. Our aim is to change the lives of children and young people with communication difficulties across Norfolk and Waveney.

**If you join our team, you will**:

- Receive high quality support and supervision from your locality coordinator and your area lead, as well as from clinical specialists and wider team members
- Provide direct therapy to children who need it, when they need it
- Work with children with a range of needs with a person-centred approach to supervision, meaning that senior clinical specialists are available to support you depending on your own confidence and experience
- Access in-house training which aims to meet your needs and interests
- Receive the NHS annual leave entitlement which can be taken flexibly in the year

Rated ‘Outstanding’ by the Care Quality Commission, we are proud to provide high quality innovative services across most of the east of England that enable people to receive care closer to home and live healthier lives.

There’s one reason why our services are outstanding - and that’s our amazing staff who, for the seventh year running, rated us incredibly highly in the national staff survey.

Main

**Responsibilities**:
To independently manage a specialist caseload of pre-school and school age children who have speech, language and communication difficulties

To undertake a range of assessments, both standardised and non-standardised, taking account of medical, social and educational factors, which combined with specialist theoretical knowledge will lead to differential diagnosis

To plan, deliver and evaluate specialist intervention following professional guidelines and agreed service standards

As part of that process, to be able to plan appropriate long term and short term goals working towards discharge

To undertake administrative duties connected with the caseload including maintenance of case notes and provision of written reports, following service standards

To ensure that all work is carried out in close collaboration with all those involved in childrens care so that the approach to intervention and support is co-ordinated and comprehensive

To identify when there is a need for a second opinion, referring to senior colleagues or SLT specialists as appropriate

To make onward referral as appropriate

To identify any variations to service delivery or demands and inform the Locality Co-ordinator and Area & Clinical Lead of the likely impact on the service

Policy & Service development

To participate in development of policy, clinical guidelines, clinical governance and service development through discussion and involvement in projects as appropriate, including innovative practice, in collaboration with senior colleagues

Responsibility for specific, clearly defined projects as delegated by the Locality Co-ordinator

To be familiar with local and national standards and to work in line with these

To ensure that parents/carers are aware of the standards they should expect from the speech and language therapy service

Communication

To ensure effective communication of complex condition-related information to parents/carers regarding the assessment process, assessment findings and planned intervention, including engagement of parents/carers in intervention

To ensure children are involved in goal setting and decision making around their own care as appropriate to their age, developmental level and language skills

To ensure parents/carers are involved in decision making around their childs care including discharge from the service

To liaise effectively and work in partnership with other professionals (particularly teachers and teaching assistants), including the development of shared goals for intervention

To write reports on children, in line with service standards, including contributions to statutory assessment

To offer advice to others concerning support for individual children

To actively contribute to case conferences/ review meetings for children on the caseload

To recognise how and when information may be shared within the bounds of confidentiality and the Data Protection Act

To attend SLT team meetings, actively contributing as appropriate

Contribute to CCS internal communication strategies ensuring effective two-way communication and engagement within the organisation

Contribute to CCS external communication strategies working with the Head of Communications to raise awareness and promote the reputation of CCS services

Patient and Public Engagement

To contribute to ensuring that CCS responsibilities to engage and consult with patients and the public are met in