Job summary
- Main area
- Speech and Language Therapist
- Grade
- NHS AfC: Band 8a
- Contract
- Fixed term: 5 years (.)
- Hours
- Full time - 37.5 hours per week
- Job ref
- 196-LIS10425M
- Employer
- Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- Cross site role Royal Brompton and Harefield hospitals
- Town
- London
- Salary
- £66,274 - £73,496 PA incl HCA
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 04/05/2026 23:59
Employer heading
Adult Clinical Lead Speech and Language Therapist
NHS AfC: Band 8a
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
Due to current post holder gaining NIHR funding for 5 years we have an opportunity to join our adult acute SLT service at Royal Brompton Hospital and Harefield Hospital. Grow your skills in leading the communication, swallowing and airway service to people with complex heart and lung conditions. We have significantly expanded the SLT service over the last few years and in addition to our core clinical work, we are focused on driving service and quality improvements that demonstrate impact and improve functional outcomes. We are ‘research aware’, translating and aligning our practice with the best currently available evidence, and on a journey to becoming ‘research active’.
Main duties of the job
The post holder will clinically and professionally lead the SLT service, supporting and supervising the teams across both sites. They will have expert skills in the multidisciplinary management of adults with acute communication and swallowing problems related to complex cardiothoracic surgery, respiratory disease, and heart and lung transplantation, including patients in the intensive care unit with tracheostomy and ventilator dependence. They will provide highly specialist assessment, differential diagnosis, treatment and management of speech, voice, language, cognitive-communication, airway and swallowing disorders, as well as education and advice to patients and those caring for them. They will be involved in discharge planning to ensure a seamless transfer of care to other hospital, outpatient and community services. The post holder will be responsible for the governance, safety and quality of dysphagia care at the sites, including the delivery of responsive VFSS and FEES services. Alongside clinical work, they will also be an active member of the Senior Leadership Team within Rehab & Therapies contributing to governance, strategy and operational decision-making. The ability to drive and deliver service improvement initiatives through audit, service evaluation, research and quality improvement is essential
Working for our organisation
The post is embedded within the multi-professional therapy team which is made up of a dynamic group of physiotherapists, occupational therapists, dietitians, psychologists and therapy assistants. You will work collaboratively with your colleagues to deliver a responsive, patient-centred, high-quality and effective service to inpatients. Continuous professional development will be provided through line management/121s, appraisal, inservice training and access to study leave funding for external learning opportunities.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Patient/customer care (both direct and indirect)
Policy development
Service development
People management
Communication
Resource management
Information management
Please see job description for full details.
Person specification
KNOWLEDGE/QUALIFICATIONS
Essential criteria
- Degree accredited by the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists
- Registration with RCSLT and HCPC
- Advanced qualification and/or evidence of CPD in adult acquired communication disorders
- Advanced qualification and/or evidence of CPD in dysphagia
Desirable criteria
- Post-graduate qualification or completion of short courses in clinical, management or leadership skills equivalent to MSc, PgDip or PgCert level
EXPERIENCE
Essential criteria
- Significant experience working at a highly specialist level with adults in critical care and/or with cardio-respiratory conditions who have communication and swallowing disorders
- Clinical experience to include: Adult dysphagia, Tracheostomy and ventilator-dependency, Videofluoroscopy - performing, analysing, interpreting and reporting independently, • FEES - competent in nasendoscopy and Level 2b assessor, • Adults with neuromuscular, respiratory and cardiac disorders
- Significant experience in a team, service or professional leadership position
Desirable criteria
- Working at or towards Level D – consultant of the RCSLT Eating, Drinking and Swallowing Competency Framework
- MBSImP certification
- Level 3 FEES assessor
- Evidence of completion of training in research and/or QI methodologies
SKILLS & ABILITIES
Essential criteria
- Ability to analyse data and make appropriate clinical decisions following specialist assessment
- Demonstrates skills in dealing with complex issues and able to generate appropriate strategies for caseload management
- Evidence of teaching at external courses/conferences
- Demonstrates skills in dealing with complex issues and able to generate appropriate strategies for caseload management
Desirable criteria
- Evidence of facilitating learning and teaching at undergraduate or postgraduate levels
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
- Charlotte Pereira
- Job title
- Therapy Lead
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Additional information
For SLT specific: Dr Claire Mills , Adult Clinical Lead Speech and Language Therapist [email protected]
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