Job Description

We have an exciting opportunity for a highly innovative and experienced Speech and Language Therapist to join our Mainstream Team. We are looking for a therapist who is passionate about working in Secondary and who thrives on sharing their knowledge and expertise with school staff to influence and enhance the every day school environment. The post holder will work alongside Occupational Therapy and local authority Outreach colleagues to contribute towards the development of the Universal Offer to schools, based on neurodivergent affirming principles, to support better educational, health, social and developmental outcomes for children and young people within Islington. A key part of this role will be assessing, reviewing, and writing recommendations for advice towards children and young people's Education Health, and Care Plans (EHCPs).



The post holder will also take a lead on collating data on activity and outcomes and preparing reports for the Local Authority and Integrated Care Board.



The post is based in Islington; an inner-London borough which is vibrant and diverse. The Mainstream Therapies Team provides a multi-disciplinary service for children with additional needs and disabilities. We are renowned for being a friendly and supportive team, as evidenced by winning the Whittington Health AHP Awards Team of the Year in 2023, for innovation, dedication, and supportive team environment.



The post holder is responsible for delivering a comprehensive and highly specialist therapy service consisting of assessment, diagnosis and intervention for individual children as well as providing a support service to schools themselves to enable them to meet the needs of all pupils with SLCN.



The post holder is an autonomous practitioner and is responsible for organising and managing their own timetable in various schools across the Borough, working from a central base. They will need highly specialist knowledge in the assessment, diagnosis and treatment of developmental language disorders, and social communication difficulties including those associated with Autistic spectrum disorders and selective mutism. They will also need to be knowledgeable and experienced in assessing, treating and managing children who have associated syndromes or special educational needs which interact with their language development. This will include emotional and behavioural problems, ADHD, and syndromes such as Down's syndrome. They will require excellent written skills and ability to efficiently write high quality advice suitable to contribute towards a child's EHCP, as well as good data collection and analysis skills, to demonstrate outcomes.



Whittington Health serves a richly diverse population and works hard to ensure that all our services are fair and equally accessible to everyone. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the way we look after our staff. We aim to employ a workforce which is as representative as possible of this population, so we are open to the value of differences in age, disability, gender, marital status, pregnancy and maternity, race, sexual orientation, and religion or belief. The Trust believes that as a public sector organisation we have an obligation to have recruitment, training, promotion and other formal employment policies and procedures that are sensitive to these differences. We think that by doing so, we are better able to treat our patients as well as being a better place to work.



CLINICAL

1. To demonstrate highly specialist clinical expertise in the assessment, treatment and management of language and communication problems in school aged children, with a wide range of language and communication needs, providing appropriate specialist intervention and evaluating outcomes

2. To demonstrate highly specialist knowledge in this clinical area underpinned by current evidence-based practice and outcome measures

3. To take a clinical lead in an area of expertise for the Islington mainstream schools service area

4. To demonstrate highly developed auditory and perceptual skills in the assessment diagnosis and treatment of patients/clients

5. To make appropriate differential diagnoses and highly specialist clinical decisions on evidence from assessment of complex cases, including differential diagnoses

6. To use / apply specialist knowledge to inform sound clinical judgements/decision making for case management, developing clear care plans based on best practice

7. To demonstrate clinical effectiveness reflecting on evidence-based practice and outcome measures

8. To provide advice to others regarding the management and care of patients/clients with a wide range of language and communication needs

9. To communicate complex condition related information from assessment to clients, carers, families and members of the multi-disciplinary team/other professions, demonstrating empathy and ensuring that effective communication is achieved, particularly where barriers to understanding exist

10. To work closely with clients, carers and families, in order to agree plan of management

11. To deal with initial complaints sensitively, avoiding escalation where possible

12. To form productive relationships with others who may be under stress and/or have challenging communication difficulties.

13. To employ excellent communication skills

14. To demonstrate skills in motivating clients and / or carers to engage in the therapeutic process

15. To employ counselling skills with patients, carers / clients with highly complex needs

16. To maintain sensitivity at all times to the emotional needs of children and their carers in particular when imparting potentially distressing information regarding the nature of the child's difficulties and implications of the same

17. To demonstrate the ability to manage children with challenging behaviours including the application of appropriate management strategies

18. To monitor and review the progress of children and young people against the targets set and agreed, and to modify targets as appropriate

19. To adapt practice to meet individual patient/client circumstances

20. To reflect on clinical practice both individually and with peers identifying strengths and needs and providing evidence of sound clinical judgements, based on research and evidence based practice.

21. To develop the ability to reflect on auditory, visual and kinaesthetic aspects of client's communication and to identify appropriate strategies to facilitate and enhance communicative effectiveness

22. To be aware of legal requirements relating to the provision of a speech and language therapy service

23. To maintain up to date and accurate case notes and write reports reflecting highly specialist knowledge, ensuring that they meet departmental standards and are in line with local Trust Policy, best practice, and RCSLT professional standards

24. To demonstrate knowledge of current policies and practice in education and incorporate these into the model of working as appropriate

25. To manage and prioritise a complex and specialist caseload independently, advising line manager on issues of service delivery including shortfall, service pressures etc

26. To demonstrate skills in dealing with complex issues to generate appropriate strategies for caseload management

27. To contribute to multi-agency assessment procedures as required, including statutory educational assessment

28. To demonstrate good negotiation skills across a range of issues and situations, recognising and resolving potential breakdown and conflict when it occurs

29. To ensure that children and young people are referred to other services as appropriate

30. To monitor and evaluate highly specialist service delivery and provide progress reports as required

31. To demonstrate comprehensive understanding of the issues associated with clinical governance and their application to professional practice. This will include compliance with / adherence to, and implementation of service and service area policies, National and Local guidelines and RCSLT Professional and Clinical Guidelines and competency framework

35. To develop a working knowledge of relevant procedures including: Safeguarding Children, SEN procedures, Working with Vulnerable Adults and other legal frameworks

32. To contribute to the local Trust's systems of clinical governance, developing innovations in areas of risk management, quality standards setting and clinical effectiveness in collaboration with others

33. To be accountable for professional action and recognising professional boundaries, and working within defined departmental and national protocols/policies and professional code of conduct

34. To work independently accessing appraisal within an Individual Performance Framework at pre-determined intervals



Please see attached Job description for further details on role and responsibilities.