School Age Speech and Language Therapist

Job overview

We are looking for an enthusiastic and innovative Band 6 Speech and Language Therapist to join our School-Age team. This exciting role combines a specialist clinical caseload alongside working within our Expert at Hand model. This includes providing consultation, coaching and training to children, families, school staff and professionals within the MDT. The successful candidate will be passionate about empowering others whilst delivering high-quality specialist support.

This exciting role offers the opportunity to work collaboratively with families, education staff and wider professionals, providing consultation, coaching and targeted support to build communication friendly environments and develop other's skills and confidence as part of the experts at hand model. Alongside this, working with children, parents and schools at a specialist level.

Main duties of the job

• Independently assess and manage children’s speech, language & communication difficulties.
• Deliver training to parents, school staff and other professionals

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Clinical Responsibilities

To exercise full responsibility for a designated caseload of school-aged children.

To use highly developed interpersonal skills to:

facilitate communication so that the needs of the child and family are central to the clinical process

play a pivotal role in ensuring effective joint working for children with communication difficulties and their families

To prioritise own caseload and manage own workload effectively and efficiently.

To assess and analyse complex information related to children’s speech, language and communication using specialist knowledge to select appropriate formal and informal assessments including standardised psychometric tests.

To formulate a diagnosis based upon assessment, case history information and information from family and other professionals.

To evaluate and make decisions about therapy options taking into account the child’s educational attainments, learning style and curriculum requirements.

To formulate a detailed individual management plan based upon relevant research and best practice.

To agree options in collaboration with all those involved in order to implement the individual management plan, which may include any combination of the following:

therapeutic intervention with children individually or in groups (in school or clinic)

programmes jointly planned and implemented with teaching staff

Supporting others to implement programmes according to individual needs

Providing advice on curriculum differentiation through Individual Education Plans (IEPs)

Providing advice on specific strategies to employ in the classroom and/or at home.

Advising referral to other professionals where indicated

To provide demonstration / training on how to maximise communication opportunities for the individual.

To provide individualised packages of care for children with a range of complex needs

To plan and deliver high quality training to enable settings to provide the optimum language learning environment

To manage children’s behaviour and motivate them to achieve positive therapy outcomes including those who have severe/complex difficulties or who may be challenging.

To recognise potential conflict or breakdown in the above process and use negotiation and problem-solving skills to reach agreement.

To communicate complex and specialist information to others by way of written reports and face-to-face discussions, adapting own communication style and content to the needs of the situation.

To form productive relationships with families, recognising the need for and ensuring sensitivity and care where:

There may be emotional stress

Difficult or potentially distressing news to be given

There are potential barriers to communication

To contribute to Special Educational Needs & Disability (SEND) including providing:

Assessment and support at the Targeted and Specialist level as set out in the Warwickshire SEND Provision Matrix

Specified and quantified advice for Education, Health & Care Plan (EHCP) as required by the SEND Code of Practice (2014) and Children & Families Act (2014)

To attend Annual Reviews and termly reviews of targets as required

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.