Job summary
- Main area
- Specialist Speech and Language Therapist
- Grade
- Band 6
- Contract
- Permanent
- Hours
- Full time - 37.5 hours per week
- Job ref
- 327-25-699
- Employer
- Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- Montpellier Unit - Wotton Lawn
- Town
- Gloucester
- Salary
- £38,682 - £46,580 per annum
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- Today at 23:59
Employer heading

Specialist Speech and Language Therapist - Criminal Justice
Band 6
We love what we do and we think you will, too!
At Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust (GHC), we provide joined-up mental health, physical health and learning disability services to people of all ages across Gloucestershire. We run community hospitals and provide care and support in people’s own homes and in a range of other locations across the county.
We are on a mission to enable people to live the best life they can and we have a vision to work together to provide outstanding care. We put people at the heart of our services, focusing on personalised care by asking ‘what matters to you’.
We’re passionate about making sure that everyone can contribute to achieving our mission and we are continually working to support healthy and happy high-quality teams in all areas of the Trust.
Our application process aims to understand each candidates knowledge, skills and experience. We have found that candidates that use AI to generate their answers can lack specificity and fail to address key criteria outlined in the job description.
It is really important to personalise your application to convey your individual skills, knowledge, and experiences effectively and for us to understand why you are applying for this role with GHC. We discourage over reliance on AI-generated applications as it will lessen your chances of success in securing an interview with us .
Job overview
· Are you looking for a challenging and rewarding job opportunity in supporting individuals who are being processed within the Criminal Justice System?
· Do you want to help individuals with the hidden disability of speech, language and communication needs who are within the Criminal Justice System?
· Do you want to support colleagues in helping individuals who have difficulties with poor understanding and use of expressive language?
· Do you want fair outcomes for individuals who come into contact with the Criminal Justice System?
If you can answer yes to the above questions, then we have a job that may pique your interest!
Gloucestershire Health & Care NHS Foundation Trust have been successful in their bid to provide INCS and are seeking a registered Speech and Language Therapist to join an established team in providing, Liaison & Diversion, Mental Health Treatment Requirements & Reconnect to those persons coming into contact with Criminal Justice Agencies from the age of 10 upwards.
Enthusiasm and a passion to supporting people make their way through police custody, court and release from Prison is a must. Previous experience of working in a criminal justice environment is desirable but not essential.
Main duties of the job
- To attend police stations, custody suites, community settings and magistrates' courts and provide specialist speech and language assessments, advice and identify robust care pathways, for individuals of all ages, where a potential vulnerability has been identified.
- To work closely and build links with all referring agencies within the custody suite, court and probation.
- To deliver specialist speech, language and communication training to criminal justice staff.
- To work autonomously, with an ability to organise and manage your own time with a delegated caseload.
Working for our organisation
We have a skilled and dedicated workforce of over 5000 colleagues working in a diverse range of services over 55 sites and within people’s homes. We strive to enable a welcoming workplace culture that builds and celebrates civility, inclusivity and diversity, while providing a sense of belonging and trust.
Annual staff surveys, regular Pulse surveys and other engagement opportunities provide our people with lots of opportunity to tell us about their experiences of working with us. In the latest staff survey, 61% of colleagues gave us their views. It was great to hear that:
- 72% of colleagues would recommend the Trust as a place to work, ranking us 1st for Provider Trusts in the South West region on this question.
- 76% would recommend the standard of care provided in our services if a friend or relative needed treatment, also ranking us 1st in the South West region.
- 81% said that care of patients and service users is the Trust’s priority, compared with an average in comparable NHS Trusts in England of 64%.
This high-level overview shows we are in a healthy position, with higher scores than average for comparable organisations, alongside a great response rate, indicating good staff engagement. However, we also know we have plenty of room for improvement in many areas. To that end, we continue to prioritise and invest in our commitment to genuinely becoming a Great Place to Work with consistent top-quartile performance in the annual staff survey and Pulse surveys.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
- To provide a timely, highly specialist assessment of a person’s communication needs. Referrals are accepted where a communication need is identified by screening, or where a person has a known (or queried) diagnoses where the associated clinical characteristics will impact their understanding and ability to participate e.g. autism, learning disability, head injury.
- To provide consultation for partner agencies through advice giving on how to communicate most effectively, or how to modify verbally delivered offender treatment programmes.
- To provide specialist advice and reasonable adjustment recommendations to police/court that describe strategies that will make understanding of/engagement with justice processes easier as well as to ensure that the communication process is as complete, coherent and accurate as possible.
- To help adapt the content and/or wording of existing verbal and written material, including (but not exclusive to):
- Police Caution
- Interview Questioning framework
- Court Orders
- Bail conditions
- Develop specialist programmes of treatment for individuals.
- To regularly review the delivery of the service, working with service managers to look at changes and new initiatives, both national and local, to ensure that the service remains needs led.
- Apply specialist knowledge and skills to meet the needs of those with speech, language and communication needs.
- Advise line managers on issues of service delivery including shortfalls, service pressures, clinical evidence base, guidelines etc.
- Ability to formulate a risk assessment and risk management plan.
The Trust is required to work in line with the Government’s UK Visa and Immigration Rules and Regulations. For more information about sponsorship for certain roles, please visit - https://www.gov.uk/browse/visas-immigration/work-visas
Person specification
Qualifications
Essential criteria
- A professional qualification at diploma, post graduate and degree level or equivalent in Speech and Language Therapy.
- HCPC registration
- Member of Royal College of speech and Language Therapists
Desirable criteria
- European Computer Driving Licence (ECDL)
Experience
Essential criteria
- Extensive experience of working with a specialist caseload with adults who have communication disorders.
- Ability to work autonomously, with the ability to organise and manage own time according to delegated workload.
- Knowledge and experience of modern mental health services; social inclusion, recovery, service user involvement and carer support.
Desirable criteria
- Experience of working in a variety of settings.
- Experience of participating in and developing innovations in areas of risk management, quality standards setting and clinical effectiveness
- Experience of writing detailed reports including court reports.
- Experience of operating across criminal justice and health and reconciling both systems when planning onward support for vulnerable individuals.
Applicant requirements
You must have appropriate UK professional registration.
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.
Documents to download
Further details / informal visits contact
- Name
- Andy Webb
- Job title
- Team Manager
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Telephone number
- 0300 421 4812
- Additional information
Lowri Jones
Team Manager
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