Bank Highly Specialist Paediatric Speech & Language Therapist Band 7

Job overview

The post holder will provide a highly specialist speech and language therapy service for children and young people with severe and complex learning difficulties in Perseid special schools, in accordance with the service level agreement for Sutton Health and Care Alliance.

They will contribute to the development of the special schools speech and language therapy service for children. They will plan and provide highly specialist speech and language therapy assessment, advice and treatment to a defined caseload of children with severe and complex needs.  They will work in partnership with the children, their families and with other professions and agencies, including school staff and the wider health team, to reduce the impact of these difficulties on children’s social and emotional development, their learning and their ability to participate in daily life.

They will work autonomously and without direct supervision, and be accountable for their own actions.

Main duties of the job

• To be responsible for a clinical caseload of children and young people attending Perseid Special Schools as identified by the service specification, managing the defined caseload independently and prioritising own workload to ensure effective service provision
• To manage the needs of children presenting with eating and drinking difficulties, including assessment, diagnosis and treatment as appropriate
• To provide support and training to families and school staff to enable eating and drinking programmes to be implemented as part of children’s therapy packages.
• To assess, diagnose, treat and manage a defined caseload of children with complex communication needs within the school including the use of AAC devices where identified
• To provide training to enable SLT communication programmes to be implemented as part of the child’s therapy package
• To be involved in planning the development of the SLT service in liaison with the school management team and Perseid Team Leader / Service Manager for Children’s Specialist Nursing and Therapies.
• To act as a resource to the Sutton Health and Care Alliance SLT service and other agencies.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• To assist the Service Manager in planning and providing the commissioned speech and language therapy input to children attending Perseid schools, including attendance at appropriate meetings, developing guidelines and protocols and reviewing service provision.
• To keep the Service Manager up to date with service provision issues and report promptly any untoward incidences, clinical or non-clinical, co-operating with any investigation undertaken.
• To actively review efficacy of service delivery and facilitate setting up of new standards or amendment of existing ones, in close liaison with the Service Manager
• To actively contribute to formulating policies for specialist area and proposals for general service changes.
• To support the development of the speech and language therapy service in the special schools, facilitating development and implementation of effective client / care pathways and outcomes for children in conjunction with the Service Manager.