Senior Speech and Language Therapist

Job overview

Do you have an interest in acute care and rehabilitation?

Do you want to join a service with strong leadership and an emphasis on staff development?

Due to internal development we are are looking for the right candidate to join us full-time as a Band 6 Senior Speech and Language Therapist across our acute inpatient services and Brain Injury Unit.  This is a split-post role with 0.6 WTE acute inpatient services and 0.4 WTE Brain Injury Unit.

Options for flexible working will be considered. Car driving is not an essential requirement of this role.

Main duties of the job

You will be based in the Adult Speech and Language Therapy Service within University Hospitals of Leicester (UHL).

Acute inpatient services: You will provide input to the acute inpatient services at the Leicester Royal Infirmary, Leicester General Hospital and Glenfield Hospital as needed. You will be working as part of a growing services which includes an Operational Lead, Band 7 Clinical Specialist, Band 6 and Band 5 therapists and a Band 3 Amin Assistant. In acute care every day is different. You will be supporting individuals with a range of conditions including dementia, stroke, traumatic brain injury, respiratory conditions, cancer and infectious diseases.

Brain Injury Unit: You will be working as part of an experienced Speech and Language Therapy team which includes a Band 7 Clinical Specialist, Band 6 and Band 5 rotational colleagues and a Band 4 Assistant.  BIU is a 9-bedded unit providing specialist rehabilitation for people aged 16-65 who have had a brain injury, the cause of which could include trauma, lack of oxygen to the brain or a brain tumour. This unit supports patients with highly complex needs including those in prolonged disorders of consciousness and with tracheostomy. Patients are offered a family meeting to discuss their progress, goals and next steps in treatment, before being discharged to the NRU, another community hospital, a specialist rehabilitation centre outside UHL, a specialist nursing home or home.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• Working independently with adults with a range of acquired and often complex communication and swallowing disorders, their carers and the multi-disciplinary team.
• Supporting with morning processes.
• Contributing to regular team meetings and in-service training.
• Providing clinical supervision, mentoring and training opportunities for junior members of staff
• Facilitating student placements.
• Supporting the wider service to provide a community videofluoroscopy clinic (on rota).
• A large part of this role involves supporting individuals with dysphagia. You will be expected to demonstrate completion of Level B of the RCSLT Dysphagia Training and Competency Framework as part of the application process.

We believe in supporting our team to achieve their goals and are committed to offering:

• Regular 1:1 and peer supervision
• Annual appraisal
• Opportunities for joint working
• Continuing professional development, both through in-house training and external courses
• A 4-6 weekly ‘STARS’ session to work towards individual objectives
• Support to complete in-house video fluoroscopy competencies and MBSImP training