Job summary

We have an opportunity for a newly qualified or experienced band 5 therapist to join our well established Mainstream Therapies Team in Islington. This is a preceptorship post providing the development opportunity over 24 months to progress to Band 6 if all agreed competencies and preceptorship criteria are met. You will provide a service for children with spoken language and communication difficulties in schools. Therapists in their first year of working will be allocated additional time for both clinical and non clinical administrative duties. You will be able to access a Band 5 cross-borough support group in addition to clinical supervision. You will be provided with opportunities to develop your skills in delivering a range of interventions in either primary or secondary schools according to your interest as well as providing a universal service to schools. The Mainstream Therapies Team provides a multi-disciplinary service for children with additional needs and disabilities. You will be working alongside both Occupational Therapists and Physiotherapists. Find out what it is like to work in our friendly, supportive teams which span hospital and community settings across vibrant and diverse North Central London first hand, visit http://www.whittington.nhs.uk/CYPrecruitment (you may have to copy and paste this link into your browser) to hear from some of our current staff about why they chose to join and stay at Whittington Health.

Main duties of the job

The post holder will be responsible for delivering a comprehensive service to children and young people attending mainstream schools, including assessment, diagnosis and intervention for individual children and young people as well as providing a support service to schools themselves. The post holder is an autonomous practitioner and is responsible for organising and managing his/her own caseload in up to 5 mainstream schools (primary and secondary), working from a central base. S/he will work with children and young people with a wide range of speech, language and communication needs including Developmental Language Disorders, Selective Mutism, Speech difficulties and children with language disorders in association with conditions such as Autistic Spectrum Condition, Down's Syndrome and ADHD.

About us

Medical services have been delivered on the Whittington Hospital site for over 500 years. On 1st April 2011, Whittington Health was launched as a new Integrated Care Organisation (ICO) comprising The Whittington Hospital NHS Trust, NHS Islington and NHS Haringey. The Whittington and the community health services in Islington and Haringey are award winning organisations, delivering acute and community based health services to a population of 443,000 people. The organisation is the biggest employer in the area, with over 4,500 staff; delivering healthcare not only on the acute hospital site which has 420 beds, but also from a variety of other community based health centres and through visits to patients homes across the boroughs to address the health needs of the local population. Whittington Health also works with other health, social care and voluntary sector partners to support patients and service users from their initial appointment whether it be with a community health team or at the hospital, all the way through to treatment and tailored after care. We are one of the three main teaching campuses for the Royal Free and University College Medical School. Our ICARE (Innovation, Compassion, Accountability, Respect and Excellence) Values not only help us shape what we do, but also how we do it and why. They are fundamental to the way we do business and care for our patients. For more information, please access the following link: https://www.whittington.nhs.uk/

Job description

Job responsibilities

1.To demonstrate basic clinical expertise in the assessment, treatment and management of language and communication difficulties in school aged children providing appropriate intervention and evaluating outcomes 2. To demonstrate clinical effectiveness drawing on evidence based practice and outcome measures 3. To demonstrate highly developed auditory and perceptual skills in the assessment, diagnosis and treatment of patients/clients 4. To make basic differential diagnoses and clinical decisions based on evidence from assessment, seeking support and advice from a supervisor as appropriate 5. To develop knowledge and skills in a range of language and communication difficulties in school aged children with training, support and supervision from clinical supervisor as appropriate. 6. To develop clear care plans based on best practice 7. To provide advice to others regarding the management and care of children with language and communication difficulties 8. To communicate complex condition related information from assessment to clients, carers, families and members of the multi-disciplinary team/other professions, demonstrating empathy and ensuring that effective communication is achieved, particularly where barriers to understanding exist 9. To work closely with clients, carers and families in order to agree plans of management 10. To deal with initial complaints sensitively, avoiding escalation where possible 11. To form productive relationships with others who may be under stress and/or have challenging communication difficulties. 12. To employ excellent communication skills 13. To develop skills in motivating clients and /or carers to engage in the therapeutic process 14. To maintain sensitivity at all times to the emotional needs of clients and their carers in particular when imparting potentially distressing information regarding the nature of the clients difficulties and implications of the same 15. To develop the ability to manage children with challenging behaviours employing appropriate management strategies 16. To monitor and review the progress of clients against the targets set and agreed, seeking support from clinical supervisor as appropriate. 17. To demonstrate the ability to reflect on practice with peers/clinical supervisor based on research and evidence based practice. 18. To develop the ability to reflect on auditory, visual and kinaesthetic aspects of clients communication and to identify appropriate strategies to facilitate and enhance communicative effectiveness 19. To be aware of legal requirements relating to the provision of a specialist speech and language therapy service, seeking support and advice as appropriate. 20. To maintain up to date and accurate case notes and write reports that meet departmental standards and are in line with local trust policy, and RCSLT professional standards, with support as appropriate 21. To develop an awareness of current policies and practice in education 22. To manage and prioritise a defined caseload and workload independently 23. To contribute to multi-agency assessments, including the statutory educational assessment procedure, as required, seeking support and supervision as required 24. To negotiate with carers, clients and others around individual case management 25. To develop negotiation skills in the management of conflict across a range of situations, recognising potential breakdown and conflict when it occurs, seeking advice and support to resolve 26. To ensure that clients are referred to other services as appropriate, in consultation with manager or supervisor 27. To develop a working knowledge of the principles of Clinical Governance and their application to professional practice. This will include compliance with / adherence to service and team plans and policies, National and Local Guidelines and RCSLT Professional and Clinical guidelines. 28. To develop a working knowledge of relevant procedures including: Safeguarding Children, SEN procedures, Working with Vulnerable Adults and other legal frameworks. 29. To be accountable for own professional action, recognising professional boundaries and working within defined departmental and national protocols/policies and professional code of conduct, seeking advice as appropriate 30. To work independently accessing appraisal within an Individual Performance Framework at pre-determined intervals

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

• BSc. Speech Path or equivalent
• HPC licence to practise, and eligible for the full RCSLT register
• Successful completion of specialist short courses relevant to the field including Developmental Language Disorder (DLD), autistic spectrum condition (ASC) and education practice

Desirable

• Basic Counselling

Knowledge and experience

Essential

• knowledge and experience of a specialist range of assessment tools and procedures to evaluate a wide range of language and communication needs in mainstream schools for both primary and secondary aged pupils.
• knowledge and experience of the key characteristics leading to a specialist differential diagnosis of a wide range of language and communication difficulties
• knowledge and experience Of a specialist range of therapeutic interventions relevant to primary and secondary age children with a wide range of language and communication needs demonstrating the evidence base for these approaches
• knowledge and experience The application of specialist knowledge of local cultural, linguistic & demographic factors to the management of a school aged caseload
• knowledge of multi-disciplinary team approaches
• knowledge and experience of working with children with a wide range of language and communication needs in mainstream schools

Desirable

• knowledge and experience of delivering specialist training to a range of audiences

Personal qualities

Essential

• Excellent spoken and written communication skills

Other

Essential

• Completion of post qualification registration

Any attachments will be accessible after you click to apply.

220-WHT-800-C