Highly Specialist Speech & Language Therapist

Job overview

Are you an ambitious Speech and Language Therapist ready to take your career to the next level in a dynamic and highly specialist forensic mental health service?

Join the Thames Valley Forensic Mental Health Service, part of the For Me Provider Collaborative, and play a vital role in transforming the lives of adults with complex mental health needs, neurodevelopmental conditions, communication difficulties and dysphagia. Working within secure inpatient settings, you will help some of the most vulnerable individuals find their voice, access treatment, and move forward in their recovery journey.

This is much more than a traditional Speech and Language Therapy role. As a key member of our multidisciplinary team, you will work across medium and low secure services in Oxford, Milton Keynes and Aylesbury, providing specialist assessment, intervention and consultation to patients with complex communication and swallowing needs.

Every day brings variety and challenge. You will work alongside psychiatrists, psychologists, nurses, occupational therapists and other professionals, using your expertise to shape care plans, inform risk management, enhance patient engagement and support positive outcomes. Your work will directly influence patients' ability to understand, participate in and benefit from their treatment, helping them build independence and achieve their recovery goals.

Main duties of the job

In this role, you will work across medium and low secure forensic mental health wards in Oxford, Milton Keynes and Aylesbury providing specialist assessment, intervention and consultation for patients with communication and swallowing difficulties. You will support individuals to engage in their care, maximise independence and achieve their recovery goals. You will work collaboratively with patients, carers and colleagues across a variety of professional disciplines, contributing your specialist expertise to inform care planning and risk management.

The successful candidate will be a confident and autonomous practitioner with excellent clinical and interpersonal skills. You will have opportunities to contribute to service development, staff training, quality improvement initiatives and the continued development of speech and language therapy within forensic mental health inpatient services.

We offer a supportive and innovative working environment, regular clinical supervision, opportunities for leadership and service development, and access to continued professional development.

If you are passionate about reducing communication barriers, promoting patient voice and delivering high-quality, person-centred care within a specialist forensic setting, we would love to hear from you.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Why Join Us? Forensic mental health care offers a unique and intellectually stimulating clinical environment where communication is often central to successful treatment and recovery. This role provides the opportunity to:

• Develop advanced clinical expertise in forensic mental health, neurodevelopmental disorders, complex communication needs and dysphagia.
• Work with a diverse patient group whose needs will challenge and expand your clinical skills.
• Shape and influence the future of Speech and Language Therapy within secure services.
• Lead and contribute to service development, quality improvement projects and staff training initiatives.
• Be part of an innovative, forward-thinking multidisciplinary team committed to excellence in patient care.

About You You will be a confident, compassionate and autonomous practitioner with excellent clinical reasoning, communication and interpersonal skills. You will be motivated by the opportunity to make a tangible difference to patients' lives and excited by the challenge of working within a specialist forensic setting.

What We Offer We are committed to helping our staff thrive. In return, we offer:

• A supportive and experienced Speech and Language Therapy network.
• Regular professional and clinical supervision.
• Opportunities for leadership, innovation and service development.
• Access to ongoing professional development and specialist training.
• The chance to develop a highly sought-after specialist skill set within forensic mental health services.
• If you are passionate about breaking down communication barriers, championing patient voice and delivering outstanding person centred care, this is an exciting opportunity to make a lasting impact while advancing your career in a truly specialist field.
• Join us and help people be heard, understood and empowered to recover.

Please see the job description for full details of the role, including education, knowledge and skills requirements.

We hope that the advert has given you a clear understanding of the skills we are seeking and the opportunity at hand. You will need to use the “supporting statement” element of your application form to demonstrate your suitability for this role and you should refer to the job description, person specification and the guidance notes attached to this role to help you tailor your application.

The essential and desirable criteria will be used to shortlist for interview, and you should ensure that you refer to these within your application to increase your chances of being selected for interview.

We are aware that some candidates may choose to use AI tools to support their application. We kindly remind applicants that submissions should remain an honest and accurate representation of their experience and must take care to ensure the use of AI tools does not generate an application that does not accurately reflect their knowledge, skills and values.

Applicant requirements

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.