Specialist Speech and Language Therapist

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 as it will lessen your chances of success in securing an interview with us ., This is an exciting opportunity for motivated Speech and Language Therapists to join our Children's Speech and Language Therapy team, providing specialist Speech & Language Therapy services to children & young people in Gloucestershire.
We have hours available to support community clinics across the county, specialist schools and developing cleft, lip and palate specialism. Our community clinics support children with speech, preschool language, voice, fluency and social communication needs.
Due to the number of hours we have available, please specify in your application which areas of the role you are interested in and the number of hours you would like to apply for.
This post is to support community clinics across the county. This can include central hubs in Gloucester and Cheltenham as well as outlying clinics in the Cotswolds, the Forest of Dean and Stroud. This is determined by current service need and the base may change in response to this.
The post holder will be responsible for assessing, differentially diagnosing, treating and managing a designated caseload of children.
They will provide advice to parents and other professionals in order to support the needs of children in line with the Care Aims approach, including agreeing outcomes with key adults supporting the children on the caseload., The post holder will:
+ Independently assess, diagnose, plan and deliver an appropriate therapeutic service to children with a range of speech, language and communication needs.
+ Analyse complex cases in order to inform decision making for case management, working within the care aims framework to design appropriate evidence based intervention.
+ Provide advice, information, demonstration and training where necessary concerning specific strategies of intervention for the management of the child's communication difficulties.
+ Provide timely reports to parents / carers and other professionals to ensure that the child's needs are appropriately identified.
+ Contribute to graduated pathway plans, write EHC Plans to SEND Casework Officers in line with the SEND graduated pathway.
+ Be an active member of our innovative supervision structure.
+ Contribute to service development projects., To use negotiation skills to manage any potential areas of conflict in a proactive manner, especially in relation to satisfying the competing demands of an unpredictable and varied workload, working co-operatively and flexibly with all stakeholders.
To form productive relationships with carers /parents who may be under stress, in particular when imparting potentially distressing information regarding the nature of their child's difficulties and implications of this.
To communicate complex condition related information from assessments in such a manner as to inform and positively motivate clients, carers, families and multi-disciplinary team members / other professionals.
To demonstrate appropriate skills and techniques to parents and to Learning Support staff in schools and pre-school settings to maximise the effectiveness of speech and language therapy intervention within all settings.
To develop collaborative and co-operative working relationships with SLT
colleagues in in-house client/working groups, SLT colleagues who offer similar provision at other locations across the County, and colleagues in relevant Special Interest Groups within the profession to ensure that the service reflects best practice and makes best use of shared resources.
To communicate complex condition-related information from assessment to clients, carers families and multi-disciplinary team members/other professionals, and to develop and maintain working relationships with a wide range of other Professionals including Health Visitors, Community Paediatricians, Pre-school CYPD Special Educational Needs Co-ordinators, Advisory Teaching Staff, Educational Psychologists, Social Services colleagues, Head Teachers, teaching and support staff in mainstream schools.

We have in excess of 5000 staff working over 50 sites, providing a diverse range of services. We strive to support an organisational culture that is welcoming, builds and celebrates inclusivity and diversity and provides a sense of belonging and trust.
The annual NHS Staff Survey gives our people the opportunity to tell us about their experience working at the Trust. For the 2023 survey just over 2800 colleagues gave us their views (58.5%). It was great to see from the results that colleagues are saying that:
+ 89.7% believe they are making a positive difference to patients/service users;
+ 73.3% would recommend the organisation as a place to work;
+ 82.4% agree that care of patients and service users is the organisations priority;
+ 76.7% would be happy with the standard of care for a friend or relative
Our results put us as 5th nationally as a Community, Mental Health and Learning Disabilities NHS Employer of Choice and 1st equal amongst all NHS Provider Trusts in the South West. However, we know we have more to do and will continue to drive forward our commitment to making GHC a Great Place to Work.

When joining us, as well as becoming part of a team that makes a difference, we also offer:
+ Free car parking at many of our sites
+ 27 days leave plus bank holidays, increasing up to 33 days with long service
+ A broad range of training and development opportunities, including apprenticeships up to Level 7 qualification.
+ A multi-professional preceptorship programme for all Newly Qualified; Nurses, Nursing Associates, Internationally Educated Practitioners, Allied Health Professionals and Return to Practice Practitioners.
+ Generous NHS pension and enhanced pay when if you work unsocial hours
+ Flexible, family friendly and agile working opportunities
+ Recognition and long service awards
+ Fast Track physiotherapy
+ Our Wellbeing line
+ Access to discounts and salary sacrifice schemes; including Cycle to Work, Car scheme and discounts on travel, leisure and retailers.
Applicants are advised to apply early as if a large number of applications are received for this post, we reserve the right to close the vacancy prior to the advertised date. Good luck with your application.
For more information please see the attached 'Additional Information for Applicants' document.