Job summary
- Main area
- Speech and Language Therapist
- Grade
- NHS AfC: Band 7
- Contract
- Fixed term: 6 months (Winter pressures)
- Hours
- Full time - 37.5 hours per week (6 months fixed term)
- Job ref
- 196-LIS9755
- 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 pro per rata incl. HCA
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 10/08/2025 23:59
Employer heading

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
We are looking for a temporary full time Band 7 Speech & Language Therapist with children’s hospital experience to work for 6 months over the Winter period due to an expected increase in referrals. Evelina London & Royal Brompton Hospital Acute Paediatric Speech & Language Therapy Services are now integrated. We are one service across two sites, most services based at Evelina London. Both hospitals sit within Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Trust
The hospital provides an extensive range of specialist services for children with rare and complex conditions across the region. The Acute Speech and Language Therapy service supports patients across the age range from neonates 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.
The role requires specialist knowledge and skills to work autonomously in paediatric and infant dysphagia 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. The focus of your work will be supporting families on the wards. We are looking for someone with brilliant team working skills who takes initiative/ is used to adapting quickly to working in a new role.
Main duties of the job
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/ disability who may present with a wide range of co-existing aetiologies including neurological, cardiac and airway and, who may require a tracheostomy +/- ventilation. The role may include cross-site working at The Royal Brompton Hospital.
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 afield. The 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
Qualifications
Essential criteria
- Recognised Speech and Language Therapy Degree Qualification or equivalent
- Intermediate dysphagia course or equivalent
- Health Care Professions Council- license to practice
Experience
Essential criteria
- Working as a Speech and Language Therapist in an acute setting with a paediatric caseload
- Management of communication disorders arising from a wide range of aetiologies e.g. neurological disease
- Participation in videofluoroscopy swallow study in dysphagia management
- Caseload management and prioritisation in an acute inpatient setting
- Ethical issues in paediatric dysphagia e.g. palliative care, parent-professional conflict
- The roles of other professionals and the principles of partnership working with key professionals in health, education, voluntary and social services
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)
- Use knowledge to inform sound clinical judgements and decision-making for complex cases
- Communicate complex sensitive condition related information from assessment to patients, parents/ carers and colleagues.
- Recognise own professional boundaries through interpretation of clinical/ professional policies
- Ability to reflect on own practice and identify strengths and development needs
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
- Maya Asir
- Job title
- Clinical Specialist Speech and Language Therapist
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Additional information
For further details /informal visits contact: Laura Baird, Clinical Specialist and Team Lead [email protected] / 0207 188 3992
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