Highly Specialist Speech and Language Therapist

Do you have a passion for supporting children and young people with Autism and/or physical and learning disabilities to meet their full potential? Are you looking for an opportunity to develop both your clinical and leadership skills within a large, dynamic and supportive service? This could be the perfect post for you

**The department offers**:

- An extensive and supportive clinical team with access to Highly Specialist and Principal Therapists within clinical specialisms
- Excellent CPD opportunities for growth and development tailored to your specific needs.
- Designated admin and planning time
- Involvement in innovative research and project work contributing towards service development and best practice.

The team has excellent relationships with the school’s senior leadership team which provide exciting opportunities for creativity and innovative practice at both a whole school level and individual child level. In addition, the team are in the fortunate position of working closely with the other multi-disciplinary providers within the school which includes other therapies (physiotherapy, occupational and music therapy), nursing etc.

You would be responsible for developing and implementing the strategic direction for service delivery in Willow Dene School.

You would lead a team of therapists to meet the needs of the caseload and deliver on strategic service priorities.

You would be a lead across the whole Speech and Language Therapy team, being a source of support for team members working in Early Years and School Years as well as Special Schools.

You would provide expert specialist management of students with complex communication needs and/or dysphagia. This may include preparing for and attending tribunals.

You would develop and enhance our universal and targeted service to the whole setting, so that quality first teaching benefits all students on role as well as those requiring specialist management.

Oxleas offers a wide range of NHS healthcare services to people in community and secure environment settings. Our services include community health care such as district nursing and speech and language therapy, care for people with learning disabilities and mental health care such as psychiatry, nursing and therapies. Our multidisciplinary teams look after people of all ages and we work in close partnership with other parts of the NHS, local councils and the voluntary sector and through our new provider collaboratives. Our 4,300 members of staff work in many different settings including hospitals, clinics, prisons, secure hospitals, children’s centres, schools and people’s homes.

We have over 125 sites in a variety of locations in the South of England. In London we operate within the Boroughs of Bexley, Bromley Greenwich and into Kent. We manage hospital sites including Queen Mary’s Hospital, Sidcup and Memorial Hospital, Woolwich, as well as the Bracton Centre, our medium secure unit for people with mental health needs. We are the largest NHS provider of prison health services providing healthcare to prisons within Devon, Dorset, Bristol, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire, Kent and South London. We are proud of the care we provide and our people.

Our purpose is to improve lives by providing the best possible care to our patients and their families. This is strengthened by our new values:

- We’re Kind
- We’re
- We Listen
- We Care

You would be responsible for leading the team of therapists and assistants delivering communication and dysphagia support to Willow Dene School within the Royal Borough of Greenwich, well supported by the Co-ordinator of Service, and Principal Therapists. Willow Dene School provides for students from nursery through to secondary provision and has recently received an outstanding Ofsted inspection.

This post provides the opportunity to further develop leadership, management and clinical skills though continuing to build on the excellent clinical practice within the team, and also having joint responsibility for supervising and supporting the team of therapists and assistants delivering the service in these settings. In addition the post holder would have specialist clinical responsibility which will be negotiated on appointment.