Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust is a Top Employer Award Winner and works in partnership to provide responsive and dependable primary care, mental health, intellectual disability and substance misuse services to the diverse and culturally rich communities we serve.

In our quest to deliver patient-focused, quality care we are looking to recruit a highly motivated, innovative and enthusiastic Speech and Language Therapist to join our forward thinking, friendly and expanding Health & Justice teams across our Surrey Prisons. This will include HMP Send, HMP/YOI Bronzefield, HMP Coldingley, HMP Downview and HMP High Down. There are two posts available split across these prisons, with flexibility around how this is implemented. There is also a Psychologically Informed Planned Environment (PIPE) for men with Personality disorder and intellectual disabilities at HMP High Down. One of the posts will include input into this service.

By joining our Prisons Health Care Teams, you will have a real impact on promoting health and well-being of those in custody. Speech and Language Therapy is an important part of the Multidiscipline approach and we look forward to developing this offer with the successful candidates.

Main duties of the job

• The Speech and Language Therapist will oversee the development and implementation of assessment and intervention within the Surrey Prisons. They will receive profession specific and local service supervision and support.
• They will manage a caseload of people in each prison with complex, severe and enduring mental health needs, providing interventions which support and promote improved health. The caseload will be discipline specific work, utilising an effective referral process. They will also provide input into the Neurodiverse pathway of care.
• The post holder will work in conjunction with the multi-disciplined team to promote the understanding of Speech and Language Therapy and its application to working with this client group.
• The post holder will work along side senior staff in the MDT to support the development of services. They will also support directorate wide development of Speech and Language Therapy Provision as and development.
• The post holder will provide specialist input to professional meetings such as CPA, multi-agency case reviews, risk management meetings, and any other meetings related to the care and treatment of the prisoners in our care.

About us

Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust offers its staff ongoing career progression through:

• Monthly supervision
• Annual personal development plans/appraisals
• Access to exciting internal and external training opportunities.

Excellent progression through various career pathway opportunities such as but not limited to:

• Preceptorship Programme
• Support and guidance with Revalidation
• Hidden Gem and annual award ceremonies

Excellent staff benefits, our benefit packages are amongst the best in London and include:

• Health and wellbeing services
• Season ticket loans
• Cycle to work scheme
• Relocation package

The trust alsovalues its staff and you are entitled to become a member of MyTrustBenefits. MyTrustBenefits is an online portal for all CNWL staff, as well as their family and friends. It offers over 1400 discounts at hundreds of retailers nationwide. Save money on your weekly food shops, toiletries, cosmetics, cinema, meals out, holidays, travel and entertainment. You can also access free online courses on a variety of topics, professional and personal, ranging from business management, languages, law and teaching.

All of our sites in Surrey offer free use of the onsite leisure facilities and free parking for staff.

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.

Job description

Job responsibilities

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• To provide qualified speech and language therapy input on a day-to-day basis for service users within your designated prison establishments, and within specialist services.
• To provide assessment and intervention as well as consultation and advice in relation to speech, language and communication needs.
• To facilitate accessible communication as an environmental enabler.
• To work with the highly specialist speech and language therapist to provide an effective and responsive service.
• The post holder will have knowledge and experience of working with a range of communication disorders and will be able to apply this knowledge within a secure forensic setting working with adults with a variety of needs including mental health, learning disability, neurological presentations and autistic spectrum condition.
• The post will involve providing training, liaison and joint-working with other clinical, educational, and criminal justice professionals within the prison and other external agencies when appropriate.

Working Culture

• The post holder will be skilled at working with ethnically diverse adults who may have psychiatric or neurodevelopmental needs.
• The post holder will be working in a locked environment and so specialist skills and forensic awareness is required. This includes vigilance at all times regarding issues of safety and security for staff and young people, the capacity to de-escalate risk of violence, and the ability and capacity to deliver clinical input in locked, sometimes volatile, and sometimes distressing circumstances. Support will be provided and training available to support working within our secure environment.
• The post holder will work with the multi-disciplinary team to facilitate a therapeutic culture including contributing to Formulations and, where appropriate, providing consultation to prison staff.

Our motto is Caring not Judging. By working in partnership with the criminal justice system and other agencies, we provide effective and responsive care for those who may have a history of offending and may be at risk of reoffending in the future. The opportunity of engagement in custody means we can enable people to improve their wellbeing, supporting better outcomes in the future.

Person Specification

Education and Qualification

Essential

• Recognised degree or equivalent qualification in Speech and Language Therapy.
• Health and Care Professions Council registration.
• Registered member of the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists
• Clear evidence of work-based learning to demonstrate specialist clinical skills.
• Good IT skills and experience of using computer based communication programmes

Desirable

• Post-qualifying education in areas relevant to the post including learning disabilities, autism spectrum conditions, and mental health in forensic settings.
• Membership of relevant Clinical Excellence Network(s).

Experience

Essential

• Experience of speech and language assessment and treatment of young people/adults across a range of care settings.
• Knowledge of a range of assessment tools relevant to young people/adults.
• Knowledge of a range of therapeutic interventions/management strategies relevant to the young people/adults and an ability to compare and contrast relative benefits of each.
• Experience of compiling and using accessible information and appropriate range of IT skills to support this.
• Clinical experience of the assessment, treatment or support of people who have Autism, ADHD and or Intellectual or Developmental Disabilities in health or social care settings

Desirable

• Experience of application in different cultural contexts.
• Experience in a specialist setting such as a prison, mental health, learning disability and/ or forensic service.
• Experience of delivering group interventions
• Experience of using a trauma informed approach

Attitudes, aptitudes personal characteristics

Essential

• Excellent written and spoken communication skills and ability to communicate sensitive and complex information.
• Collaborative and consultative skills within multidisciplinary working.
• Experience of working successfully within a multidisciplinary team.

Skills & Knowledge

Essential

• Skills in the assessment, intervention and management of communication difficulties
• Well-developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, complex, highly technical and/or clinically sensitive information to service users, their families, carers and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS.
• Understanding of clinical risk management and the ability to manage this.
• Skills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups
• Evidence of continuing professional development as recommended by the RCSLT.
• Ability to draw on a range of models and approaches to holistically address multiple / complex needs (e.g. learning disability, autism, neurology and mental health)

Desirable

• Knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised interventions in specific difficult to treat groups (e.g. personality disorder, dual diagnoses, people with additional disabilities etc).
• Knowledge of legislation in relation to the young people/adults and mental health.

Other

Essential

• Ability to promote anti-discriminatory and anti-racist practices.
• Ability to promote and work in line with the working model of a 7 day a week service.
• Ability to recognise and manage challenging situations in a calm and professional manner.
• Ability to work in a secure environment, in line with HMPS policy and procedures and obtain and maintain enhanced security clearance
• Ability to travel across sites

Employer details

Employer name

Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust

Address

HMP High Down

Sutton Lane

Sutton, Surrey

SM2 5PJ

Any attachments will be accessible after you click to apply.

333-D-HJ-1362-B