24 hours per week.

Come and join our friendly, supportive team in sunny Devon!

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a band 5 Speech and Language Therapist (SLT) to become part of our community team. We are looking for an enthusiastic SLT who would like to gain experience in supporting patients with a range of conditions. This part time (24 hours per week) post offers the opportunity to work with a mixed caseload of adults with acquired conditions, both in domiciliary and outpatient settings.

The post will involve working within a team, ensuring that patients receive excellent SLT support. You will be supported by more senior therapists and have the opportunity to develop your skills in a range of areas, including dysphagia, aphasia, apraxia and dysarthria.

The post holder should be keen to working collaboratively within a team, possess excellent communication skills and a desire to learn and develop.

The SLT service is committed to CPD, research, audit and practice supervision. We have a close working relationship with Marjons University and University Hospitals Plymouth. If you like the sound of this post but would like more information, please feel free to call the team to discuss further.

Main duties of the job

The post is based within the community SLT team, and will involve supporting patients with a range of conditions, including stroke, dementia, Parkinson's, MS, Huntington's, and other conditions. You will visit patients in their own homes, care homes or see them in clinic. The post involves supporting patients to maximise their potential for communication and swallowing safely. You will also have the opportunity to support our dysphagia training and quality improvement projects within the service. You will have access to specialist SLTs for support, shadowing and CPD opportunities.

This role may not be eligible for sponsorship under the Skilled Worker route, please refer to the Direct Gov website for more information with regards to eligibility.

Please note that Livewell may close the job advertisement earlier than the specified deadline if a high number of applications are submitted. Therefore, we recommend you submit your application at the earliest opportunity.

All Livewell staff are expected to be able and willing to work across a 7 day service.

About us

Livewell Southwest is an independent, award-winning social enterprise providing integrated health & social care services for people across Plymouth, South Hams & West Devon, as well as some specialist services for people living in parts of Devon & Cornwall. With teams in community hospitals, GP practices, sports centres, health & wellbeing hubs.

As an organisation with a strong social conscience, we always value being kind, respectful, inclusive, ambitious, responsible and collaborative. Transforming services to make them sustainable, ensuring that we value, support & empower each other.

We are committed to involving the people we care for, families & carers in everything that we do, working towards co-production where we can. Helping us to deliver the right care for people, in the right place & at the right time. By putting people at the centre of what we do, we ensure to support people to lead, healthy independent lives & be the very best at helping people to live well.

Valuing our employees making an investment in their development a priority. We offer:

Protected CPD time for registered staff

Various development pathways and ongoing regular training packages for all staff

Leadership & mentoring programmes

Access & funding for training including Care Certificate, Assistant Practitioners Course & Scholarship Into Nurse Training

A Robust Preceptorship

A bespoke induction programme

Existing members of the NHS Pension Scheme can continue their membership when they join the organisation.

Job description

Job responsibilities

MAIN DUTIES/RESPONSIBILITIES (Please see full Job Description in attachments section)

Responsibility for People Management

• To provide advice, training and support to less experienced speech and language therapists, assistants and volunteers.
• To provide support and training in a variety of clinical areas through contributing to CPD sessions, supervision and other types of formal and informal training
• To contribute to and participate in Practice Supervision sessions.
• To promote the SLT role within the wider MDT and Livewell framework
• To be able to recognise breakdown/conflict when it occurs and seek to reach resolution with support from Team Leader SLT if required.
• To reflect on practice both individually and with peers/mentors and to identify personal strengths and development needs in order to raise clinical competence.

Responsibility for financial and/or physical resources

• To be responsible for notifying senior staff of need to update equipment to meet caseload demands (according to service guidelines)
• To be responsible for maintaining equipment records and the safe use and security of clinical equipment.
• To provide clinical activity data and routine recording of CPD, travel, and other related activity, observing data protection guidelines
• To ensure any day to day financial matters (eg dealing with petty cash/ expenses etc) are documented and processed correctly according to departmental policy.
• To ensure clinical equipment is used correctly in accordance with Livewell's safety and GDPR policies.
• To identify where high -tech electronic communication systems are required to meet patient needs including assessment. With support from more experienced colleagues, provide onward referral to AAC West or investigate identification and selection of appropriate aid, including potential funding sources. With support, provide training for patients, carers, and other members of MDT in the effective use of communication equipment.
• Responsibility for administration
• To ensure that all clinical records comply with professional registration and Livewell Southwest policies.
• To ensure that all adaptations to communication and media comply with Accessible Information Standards.
• To support general day to day admin and running of the department including taking telephone calls, and dealing with clinical and non clinical administration as required by the service.

Responsibility for people who use our services

• To independently manage personal caseload with reference to theory, published research and evidence and agreed best practice.
• To identify, collect, analyse, and interpret case related information and data from patients, carers and other relevant sources.
• To undertake a range of formal and informal assessments as indicated by the presenting SLCD and/or dysphagia.
• To reach differential diagnoses on the basis of evidence gathered from assessments and other sources and with reference to theory.
• To assess, manage and advise patients with dysphagia and their families with support from more experienced Speech and Language Therapists when required.
• To attend meetings, including MDT and patient meetings, to update the MDT on individual SLT patient goals and specialised care plans.
• To develop patient-centred treatment/management plans ensuring patient/carers are fully involved in the decision making process.
• To be responsible for the writing and dissemination of clinical reports based on assessment and treatment findings to appropriate professionals and relevant others.
• To be responsible for triage, management and discharge of patients in relation to personal caseload without direct supervision.
• To communicate complex information to patients whose ability to understand and co-operate is the primary difficulty and where a range of means and levels of communication are required.
• To appropriately explain complex and sensitive case related information to patients and their carers.
• To demonstrate empathy and reassurance when providing patients and carers with unwelcome information that has long-term implications e.g. where the communication difficulties are not likely to resolve.
• To monitor, recognise and evaluate changes in the patients condition and adapt the assessment and treatment programme accordingly.
• To identify and communicate risk factors for impaired swallow and communication difficulties.
• To recognise the need for onward referral for more specialist SLT intervention, further assessment or multidisciplinary advice.
• To negotiate with carers/patients and professionals around individual case diagnosis and management where others have less specialist knowledge and/or experience in relation to speech, language, communication, and dysphagia and where differences of professional judgement can occur.
• To pass on skills to inform and enable other professionals and carers to agree and carry out individualised treatment programmes and advice e.g. clarifying individual patients levels of understanding thereby helping them give informed consent for complex procedures/life choices.
• To be responsible for training and advising patients, carers, professionals, and non-professionals how to support speech, language, communication and dysphagia.
• To contribute to clinical teams, both multi and uni-disciplinary, by discussing and negotiating own and others input around patients needs, ensuring a well-co-ordinated care plan based on best practice, evidence and care pathways.

Responsibility for implementation of policy and/or service developments

• To maintain registration with the Health and Care Professions Council and the Royal College of Speech & Language Therapists
• To be professionally accountable for independent clinical judgements for prioritisation, assessment, diagnosis, treatment, onward referral and discharge criteria in line with HCPC and RCSLT standards.
• To progress and develop professional and clinical skills across a range of acquired speech, language, communication and dysphagia difficulties by working with more experienced staff, undertaking self-directed and more formal CPD activities and maintaining personal portfolio.
• To recognise own professional and clinical boundaries and competencies and seek advice, support and training when necessary with in an individual performance review framework.
• To comply with all Organisational policies, Clinical Governance, Health and Safety and Risk Management procedures and undertake all required mandatory training. Also to adhere to national recognised standards and rules of professional conduct.
• To comply with the Data Protection Act and Caldicott recommendations.
• To follow and implement local and national policies with elements of independent professional judgement and make recommendations for change for own specialism through the clinical governance process.
• To participate in Livewell's Annual Appraisal Process
• With the Team Leader SLT and more experienced therapists, to take part in research and clinical audit, and contribute to others research by providing data.
• With the Team Leader and more experienced therapists, to support continuous and quality improvements of the service.

Other Responsibilities

• Monitor satisfaction of people using the service and support change in response to this, in collaboration with the multi-disciplinary team.
• With support from more senior staff, ability to cope with emotionally complex and demanding scenarios involving patients and families who are dealing with challenging diagnoses.
• The post will include flexible working patterns over 37.5 hours working week, including bank holidays.

COMMUNICATIONS AND RELATIONSHIPS

• Communicate sensitive and complex information with a range of staff internally and externally across the organisation.
• Communicate highly sensitive information with patients or carers which requires tact and where there are barriers to understanding.
• To adapt own communication styles to support patients with significant communication impairments.

PHYSICAL DEMANDS OF THE JOB

• Working in awkward spaces or positions, including during home visits. Supporting physically unwell patients, which may also include exposure to unpleasant smells and bodily fluids.
• Working with distressed and anxious/aggressive people with communication and neurological impairment, their families & carers.
• Ability to discuss difficult topics relating to the communication and swallowing, with people with complex conditions (eg MS, PD), and with their families and carers.
• Able to use good physical manipulation skills for example, to thicken fluids, or to position therapy tools with a high level of accuracy.
• Able to work with people with severe physical disability, cognitive impairment and communication problems. This will require good levels of auditory and listening skills and an ability to minimize any barriers to communication.
• Frequent requirement for prolonged concentration for long periods of time but deal with repeated interruptions and the unpredictability of clinical work.
• To Operate a VDU every day.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

• Degree or equivalent in speech and language therapy
• HPC Registration
• RCSLT Registration
• RCSLT Level C dysphagia competencies (completed)
• Evidence of on-going education and professional development
• Computer literate
• Recognised qualification in written and spoken English if this is not first language

Desirable

• Membership of relevant Clinical Excellence Network
• RCSLT accredited post-graduate dysphagia training or a willingness to undertake.

Knowledge & Skills

Essential

• Demonstrate excellent knowledge of SLCD differential diagnosis in adult neuro client group.
• Demonstrate an understanding of multi-disciplinary team working and individual roles
• Knowledge of outcome measures within adult neuro client group.
• Knowledge and understanding of Clinical Governance
• Good skills in clinical assessment, intervention and evaluation
• Ex
  Any attachments will be accessible after you click to apply.
  
  B9832-2024-PTA-1457