Speech and Language Therapist - Schools

Job overview

This post is in the schools speech and language therapy team. He/she will manage a caseload of children and young people with support from the principal therapist SLT. The post holder will provide speech and language therapy to a designated caseload of children with a range of speech, language and communication, eating/drinking difficulties and Special Educational Needs (SEN) attending school settings in and around Harrow.

A significant proportion of these children will be Bilingual. He/she will be expected to manage their own caseload with minimal support from a senior therapist. This post will involve travelling between schools and working alongside teaching staff and parents to ensure appropriate therapy programmes and education plans are in place for the children under their care.

He/she will be expected to work collaboratively with children/young people (CYP), parents/carers and with colleagues in health, education and social care in planning and delivery of services.

The post holder will participate in CPD activities, contribute to departmental meetings, audit and projects. They will deliver training to other professionals and parents/carers on all aspects of speech, language and communication.

Main duties of the job

In this post you will be working within the schools speech and language therapy team. You will manage a caseload of children and young people with support from a senior SLT.

The post holder will provide speech and language therapy to a designated caseload of children with a range of speech, language and communication, eating/drinking difficulties and Special Educational Needs (SEN) attending schools in and around Harrow.

A significant proportion of these children will be bilingual. You will be expected to manage your own caseload with minimal support from a senior therapist. This post will involve travelling between schools and working alongside teaching staff and parents to ensure appropriate therapy programmes and education plans are in place for the children under their care. You will be expected to work collaboratively children/young people (CYP), parents/carers and with colleagues in health, education and social care in planning and delivery of services.

The successful applicant may have contact with patients or service users. As an NHS Trust we strongly encourage and support vaccination as this remains the best way to protect yourself, your family, your colleagues and of course patients and service users when working on our healthcare settings.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• To communicate complex patient-related information effectively to ensure collaborative  working with multidisciplinary team members across health, education and social services and the voluntary sector. In particular to work with parents, early years and  teaching staff to ensure the delivery of a well-coordinated care/support plan.
• To share information with others, observing confidentiality and data protection guidelines and having due regard for local guidance on sharing information with colleagues in education, social care and voluntary sector.
• To communicate complex condition-related information (both verbally and in the written form) from assessment to CYP, parents/carers, and members of the multi-disciplinary team/other professions. This includes child specific information as well as training packages to parents, teachers and other professionals around the management of  speech, language, communication and eating/drinking difficulties.
• To have due regard for the cultural and linguistic differences of children/families  concerned.
• To work closely with CYP, carers and families, involving them in decision making, demonstrating and ensuring that effective communication is achieved, particularly where barriers to understanding exist (i.e. hearing loss, communication difficulties, EAL and learning difficulties).
• To employ excellent communication skills such as persuasion, motivation and explanations to encourage/ reassure clients and carers to undertake treatment programmes.
• To develop negotiation skills in the management of conflict across a range of situations
• To deal with initial complaints sensitively, avoiding escalation where possible and report to senior staff.
• To form productive relationships with others in particular parents/carers who may be under stress and/or have challenging communication difficulties.
• To provide clinical reports as per departmental standards.
• To provide written advice for statutory assessment of special educational needs.