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Job summary

Main area
Speech and Language Therapist
Grade
NHS AfC: Band 7
Contract
Permanent
Hours
Full time - 37.5 hours per week
Job ref
196-LIS9716
Employer
Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust
Employer type
NHS
Site
Evelina London Children's Hospital
Town
London
Salary
£56,276 - £63,176 p.a. inc HCA
Salary period
Yearly
Closing
10/08/2025 23:59

Employer heading

Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust logo

Highly Specialist Speech and Language Therapist

NHS AfC: Band 7

Guy’s and St Thomas’ is among the UK’s busiest and most successful NHS foundation trusts. We provide a full range of hospital and community services for people in south London and as well as specialist care for patients from further afield including cancer, renal, orthopaedic, respiratory and cardiovascular services.

Guy’s is home to the largest dental school in Europe and a £160 million Cancer Centre opened in 2016. As part of our commitment to provide care closer to home, in 2017 we also opened a cancer centre and a kidney treatment centre at Queen Mary’s Hospital in Sidcup. St Thomas’ has one of the largest critical care units in the UK and one of the busiest emergency departments in London. It is also home to Evelina London Children’s Hospital.

Evelina London cares for local children in Lambeth and Southwark and provides specialist services across south east England including cardiac, renal and critical care services. We lead a number of specialist service networks aiming to ensure children are treated locally where possible, but have access to specialist expertise when they need it. Our community services include health visiting, school nursing and support for families of children with long-term conditions. 

Our adult community services teams deliver care at the heart of the local communities we serve, working in partnership with GPs, local authorities and other healthcare and voluntary sector organisations. Working with our partners in Lambeth and Southwark, we are focusing on new ways of working to improve care for local patients.

In February 2021 the Royal Brompton and Harefield joined Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, bringing together world-leading expertise in the care and research of heart and lung disease. Our merger provides a once in a generation opportunity to build a lasting, world-renowned heart and lung centre, providing the highest quality care for patients and conducting world-leading research.

We have a reputation for clinical excellence and high quality teaching and research. We are part of King’s Health Partners, one of eight accredited UK academic health sciences centres. In partnership with King’s College London we have dedicated clinical research facilities including an MHRA accredited Phase I clinical trials unit.

Patients are at the heart of everything we do and we pride ourselves on ensuring the best possible patient experience as well as safe, high quality care. We are proud to have one of the lowest mortality rates in the NHS. Following a comprehensive Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection in 2019 we maintained our overall rating of ‘good’. Our adult community services achieved a rating of ‘outstanding’.

The commitment of our 23,500 staff is key to our success. We are one of the largest local employers and we aim to develop and support all our staff so they are able to deliver high quality, safe and efficient care. The 2019 NHS staff survey results show that we have one of the most engaged and motivated workforces in the NHS. We know this has a positive impact on the care provided to our patients.

We have one of the most ambitious capital investment programmes anywhere in the NHS.



Job overview

The post holder will be responsible for the provision of a highly specialist speech and language therapy service, involving the assessment, diagnosis and management of communication and feeding problems in children with communication and feeding/ swallowing difficulties related to their illness/ condition who may present with a wide range of co-existing aetiologies including neurological, cardiac and airway and, who may require a tracheostomy +/- ventilation. This will be on a variety of inpatient wards and in tertiary clinics, including videofluoroscopic swallow study clinic as a core part of the service. Providing education and delivering training will be core to the role. Line management and supervision will be provided by the Team Lead/ Clinical Specialist Speech and Language Therapists

Main duties of the job

The role requires specialist knowledge and skills in paediatric dysphagia, infant feeding, tracheostomy, videofluoroscopy, acquired communication disorders, and alternative and augmentative communication. On the wards you will share the care of patients to ensure equity and therefore good interpersonal and team-working skills are essential. You will also be required to work in some specialist outpatient clinics, deliver training and be involved in quality improvement projects. Your job may include cross-site working at the Royal Brompton Hospital as our two hospitals have integrated.

You will liaise frequently and provide advice to community speech and language therapists and other professionals and are expected to contribute to research, development and audit activities. Providing support and clinical supervision to students, more junior speech and language therapists and volunteers is an important part of the post. You will be required to contribute to formal and informal undergraduate and post graduate teaching and training to speech and language therapists and other professionals.

Working for our organisation

Evelina London Children’s Hospital is part of Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust. The hospital provides an extensive range of specialist services for children with rare and complex conditions across south London, Kent, Surrey, Sussex and further afieldThe Acute Speech and Language Therapy service supports patients across the age range from newborns to adolescents, on the wards and in specialist tertiary outpatient clinics. Our aim is to assess and manage the dysphagia and communication needs of the patients we work with. We are a large, diverse and supportive team, passionate about what we do. We promote Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, everyone is welcomed. 

We can offer you:

·       Varied and interesting work across multiple specialties

·       A strategically lead service and a supportive team

·       Regular access to supervision, line management and a continuing professional development programme.

·       A laptop to ensure access to trust networks throughout your working day.

·       Access to health and wellbeing support e.g. sports and social club, Cycle to Work scheme, employee assistance, staff psychology

Links with other Speech and Language Therapy services within Evelina London and Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Trust including: The Royal Brompton Hospital, The South Thames Cleft Service, Hearing Implant Service and Children’s Community Service

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Please see attached Job description and Person Specification for more detailed information regarding this role                                                                            

Person specification

Experience

Essential criteria
  • Working as a Speech and Language Therapist in an acute setting with a paediatric caseload
  • Lead role in videofluoroscopy swallow study
  • Management of feeding and dysphagia in infants
  • Management of acute onset communication impairment in paediatrics
  • Caseload management and prioritisation in an acute inpatient setting
  • Working closely with team members and colleagues to ensure high quality care

Knowledge/Qualifications

Essential criteria
  • Relevant assessment and therapeutic interventions and an ability to compare relative benefits underpinned by evidence based practice i.e. dysphagia and acute onset communication impairment including videofluoroscopy
  • Dysphagia and communication in paediatric tracheostomy
  • Health Care Professions Council- license to practice
  • Evidence of Masters or equivalent level of specialist training
  • Intermediate dysphagia course

Skills

Essential criteria
  • Highly specialist assessment and management of paediatric feeding/swallowing and acute onset communication difficulties, seeking advice where appropriate (including use of videofluoroscopy swallow study)
  • Infant feeding and dysphagia management
  • Use knowledge to inform sound clinical judgements and decision-making for complex cases
  • Engage and negotiate with carers, parents and others around individual case management
  • Apply an evidenced based practice approach to clinical cases
  • Ability to reflect on own practice and identify strengths and development needs
  • Recognise potential breakdown and conflict when it occurs and generates potential solutions

Employer certification / accreditation badges

Timewise helps businesses to attract and develop the best talent through flexible working.Care quality commission - GoodDisability confident employer

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

Apply online now

Further details / informal visits contact

Name
Maya Asir
Job title
Clinical Specialist Speech and Language Therapist
Email address
[email protected]
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