Specialist Speech and Language Therapist

This post offers you the opportunity to further develop your skills with in-patients on the Stroke Unit , in a service with a wide range of experiences as part of a supportive SaLT team based at Salisbury District Hospital. This fixed term post is to cover an Employment/Career Break until August 2025, although opportunities to extend the contract may arise. This post is suitable for a current Band 6 Specialist SaLTs , or for an experienced Band 5 SaLT with suitable experience., Your work would be on the 30 bed acute & rehab stroke unit, and there may be opportunities for work on general medical, surgical, & elderly wards if requested. You would have responsibility to manage patient assessment & treatment decisions, and ensure excellent liaison with SaLT and MDT colleagues.

If experienced, you would contribute to the development of the SaLT team, including student supervision, NQP supervision, and in house CPD. You could also be involved in wider hospital initiatives such as improving MDT working in specific areas, and in training a wide range of hospital staff in communication and swallowing.

The SaLT team embraces new ways of working and has worked hard to be at the forefront of helpful and emerging technology. Therefore our patients have good access to a range of instrumental dysphagia investigations for swallow assessments and instrumental devices for treatment. For patients with communication disorders, we have a broad range of computer based therapy available, and quick access to a wide range of AAC.

We feel strongly that it is important to provide our SaLT team members with as much training and development as needed, and as a small team we meet often. We thrive on an ethos of sharing our learning, being supportive to each other, and being helpful and flexible at work.

Qualifications required include a degree in Speech & Language Therapy, and ideally postgraduate training (qualification or completion of RCSLT competencies) in adult dysphagia. Registration with the Health & Care Professions Council is essential. Membership of the Royal College of Speech & Language Therapists is desirable.

Postgraduate experience required includes autonomous assessment, diagnosis and treatment of adults with swallowing and communication impairments from stroke and other acquired neurological conditions, ideally in an in-patient NHS setting. It would be desirable for the candidate to have had experience of instrumental dysphagia assessments and treatments, planning and delivering training courses to other professionals, and undertaking clinical audit. The applicants must flexible, be able to use initiative well, have effective caseload management and good clinical decision-making skills.

Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust (SFT) is an innovative hospital with a proud heritage and over 250 years of experience behind us. Here we're driven to deliver an outstanding experience for everyone and have been well regarded for the quality of care and treatment we continue to provide for our patients and also our staff.

We are an acute Trust, rated "Good" by the CQC, with a track record of high performance providing regional and super regional specialist services such as: Burns, Plastics & Reconstructive Surgery, Wessex Regional Genetics Laboratory, Wessex Rehabilitation, Spires Cleft Centre and the Duke of Cornwall Spinal Treatment Centre. We have about 470 beds and employ over 4000 staff., Salisbury is an attractive place to live and work and really gives you the best of everything. With easy access to London and local airports, the city of Southampton is only a short train or car journey away or if you prefer the sea, Bournemouth is also accessible. Don't just take our word for it, why not explore what Salisbury has to offer by visiting www.experiencesalisbury.co.uk

We support flexible working and will consider requests taking into account the needs of the service. We think working here is pretty rewarding. You can access a range of NHS discounts, receive a minimum of 35 days paid holiday (pro rata), and we offer a generous pension scheme. On-site benefits include car parking (fee applies), leisure centre, day nursery and holiday play scheme.