Senior Speech and Language Therapis

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About Us

EPUT provides community health, mental health and learning disability services to support more than 3.2 million people living across Bedfordshire, Essex and Suffolk. Also:

• We are among the largest employers in the in the East of England region, with more than 10,000 staff working across more than 200 sites.
• We run the COVID-19 vaccination programme across mid and south Essex and Suffolk and north east Essex.

EPUT was formed on 1 April 2017 following the merger of North Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (NEP) and South Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (SEPT). A new leadership team was established at the Trust in 2020.
Our vision and values

Our Vision

"To be the leading health and wellbeing service in the provision of mental health and community care".

Our Purpose

"We care for people every day. What we do together, matters".

Our Values

• We Care
• We Learn
• We Empower

Our strategic objectives

• We will deliver safe, high quality integrated care services.
• We will enable each other to be the best that we can.
• We will work together with our partners to make our services better.
• We will help our communities to thrive.

Our services

• Mental Health Services
• Community Health Services
• Learning Disabilities Services
• Social Care

Find out more about the services we offer in our service directory.

Job overview

If you have an interest in Stroke and would like to support and enable stroke survivors to reach their full potential, both in their own homes and care settings then this is the job for you. We are looking for a speech and language therapist to work in our Stroke Early Supported Discharge Service. This job will allow you to broaden your knowledge base.

Stroke survivors often feel isolated and vulnerable after they are discharged from hospital. Our team is there to allay these fears and support stroke survivors at this difficult time, whilst also providing them with therapy and nursing support should they need it.

On a day to day basis you will deliver speech and language therapy alongside our other speech and language therapists for people with communication and swallowing disorders following a stroke who have been discharged from hospital into the care of the ESD service for South East Essex

We offer a highly motivated and supportive team, regular supervision, excellent training and development opportunities and flexible working arrangements

For further information or an informal discussion contact Ailsa Miller (Team Leader) on 07908 177962.

Main duties of the job

• To work within the local Early Supported Discharge for Stroke (ESD) Team to provide a 7 day a week rehabilitation programme for up to six weeks following discharge from hospital into the community. This is likely to include some weekend working.
• To liaise closely with the Speech and Language Therapy team on the Stroke Unit at Southend Hospital to ensure a smooth handover from the hospital into ESD.
• To work with the Community Adult Speech and Language Therapy Service to ensure a smooth handover of those with longer term therapy needs at the end of their time with ESD.
• To undertake all aspects of clinical duties as an autonomous practitioner.
• To use specialist skills in the management of patients with communication disorders and dysphagia following a stroke.
• To hold responsibility for own case load.
• To participate in clinical audit, protocol development, objective-setting etc as required by the SLT and ESD teams.
• To receive regular clinical and management supervision. Access to advice and support from a more senior SLT is available if required between supervision meetings.
• To undertake evidence-based audit and research projects to further own and teams' clinical practice.
• ng stroke in the local area.

Working for our organisation

EPUT are looking for motivated staff who shares our Trust values of Care, Learn and Empower. In return, EPUT can offer you a range of benefits and development including;

• Season Ticket Loans
• NHS discounts for staff
• Excellent Training facilities and opportunities
• Buying and Selling annual leave scheme
• The opportunity to work bank shifts and expand knowledge and experience in other areas
• Salary Sacrifice schemes including lease cars and Cycle to Work
• Day One Flexible Employer

The Trust supports and actively encourages flexible working for all employees. We offer many options and you are encouraged to ask the recruiting manager what is possible for this role. If appointed, you will have the opportunity to apply for a flexible working request from the first day of your employment

Join our Staff bank

What is Staff Bank?

Our EPUT NHS staff bank is an entity managed by the trust that hires clinical and non-clinical healthcare professionals to take on shifts at our trust hospitals and community settings. Here at EPUT we maintain our own bank of specialist staff to ensure that we are able offer safe and effective care at all times.

All our permanent staff are automatically enrolled onto the staff bank however this does not mean you have to work any additional shifts, but the option is there for you if you wish.

If you are joining our Trust in a fixed term role, please indicate on your New Starter Paperwork that you wish to join our staff bank.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Delivering a compassionate, dignified and respectful service to patients at all times.
• Ensuring that the values outlined in the NHS Constitution are adhered to daily and any matters of concern are raised with the relevant Line Manager or through the necessary processes within the Trust.
• The responsibilities and duties of the post can be divided into the following three areas:

Clinical

• Be professionally and legally accountable for all aspects of own work.
• Undertake a comprehensive assessment of patients including those with diverse or complex presentations and multiple pathologies; using acquired clinical reasoning skills and assessment techniques to provide an accurate diagnosis of their condition and skills deficit.
• Formulate and deliver an individual speech and language therapy treatment plan based on a sound knowledge of evidence-based practice and treatment options using clinical assessment, reasoning skills and knowledge of treatment skills.
• Supervise student speech and language therapists and rehabilitation assistants.
• Assess patient understanding of treatment proposals, gain valid informed consent and have the capacity to work within a legal framework with patients who lack capacity to consent to treatment.
• Use a range of verbal and non-verbal communication tools to communicate effectively with patients to progress rehabilitation and treatment programmes.
• Evaluate patient progress, reassess and alter treatment programmes if required.
• Manage clinical risk within own patient caseload.
• Work within Trust, HCPC and RCSLT guidelines and have a good working knowledge of national and local standards to enable monitoring own and others' quality of practice as appropriate.
• Be responsible for maintaining accurate and comprehensive patient treatment records in line with HCPC and RCSLT standards of practice.
• Liaise with health and social care professionals and other related statutory, private and voluntary organisations as and when appropriate, providing written reports, recommendations and referrals.
• Provide help and advice to patients and their families, teaching and demonstrating use of equipment or other techniques to optimise the patients' functional ability and independence.
• Ensure equipment/adaptations are safe and have been issued in line with departmental policy.

Professional

• Be responsible for maintaining own competency to practice through CPD activities, and maintain a portfolio which reflects personal development.
• Maintain and develop current knowledge of evidence-based practice, developing specialist knowledge of particular conditions and patient types.
• Participate in the staff appraisal scheme and be responsible for complying with your agreed personal development programmes to meet set knowledge and competencies.
• Undertake the measurement and evaluation of your work and current practices through the use of evidence-based practice projects, audit and outcome measures, in conjunction with more senior speech and language therapists and develop improvement to service delivery and clinical practice.
• Be an active member of the in-service training programme by attendance at and participation in, in-service training programmes, self directed learning, individual training sessions and external courses.
• Undertake as directed the collection of data for use in service audit and research projects.
• Become actively involved in professional clinical groups, such as RCSLT Clinical Excellence Networks and other professional development activities.
• Provide clinical education and training to speech and language therapy students to graduate level. Provide support, guidance and training to junior speech and language therapists and assistants, assessing and evaluating competence.
• Be aware of the requirement of the Health and Safety at Work act as it relates to the department and safety of the patients and staff.
• Report all accidents/incidents promptly to a Senior Member of staff using the appropriate incident form.
• Comply with Health Professions Council (HCPC) Standards of proficiency for speech and language therapists, and Standards of conduct, performance and ethics
• Comply with HCPC and Royal College of Speech and Language Therapy Code of Ethics, Professional Conduct and CPD requirements.

Organisational

• Ensure that your own practice and that of staff under your supervision meet the required professional standards of speech and language therapy practice.
• Ensure that you work in a manner which helps to further long-term and short-term SLT Team goals.
• Be responsible for the safe and competent use of communication equipment by patients and by junior and student speech and language therapists, through teaching, training and supervision of practice.
• Be aware of EPUT/local policies and procedures.
• Maintain accurate statistics as required by the Team.
• Comply with the Trust Manual Handling Policy and local therapeutic handling guidance at all times.
• Deal sensitively with patients who have high levels of anxiety and aggression caused by pain, dementia or limited mobility.
• Attend mandatory trust and organisational courses.

Staff Management

• To ensure that those to whom tasks are delegated, e.g. rehabilitation assistants, have acquired the appropriate level of competence.
• To supervise the work of less experienced SLTs, students and assistants as appropriate and to participate in Speech and language Therapy student clinical placements as appropriate.
• To offer some observation experience to those applying for training as SLTs. To assist in the support of students from other professional groups as agreed with line managers.

Communication and Working Relationships

• To utilize all available methods of communication to ensure that health and social service professionals, patients, families and carers can appreciate the complex concepts behind communication, voice and swallowing difficulties, in order that they can recognise and understand the nature of these problems and manage them more appropriately.
• To ensure smooth and appropriate handover of care from hospital to ESD and from ESD to Community SLT;
• To provide reports, reflecting specialist knowledge and interpretation of specialist assessments, to other health professionals, including GPs and Hospital consultants as requested
• To make and/or recommend onward referrals to other professionals or agencies, as appropriate.
• To contribute to the multi-disciplinary rehabilitation teams working with people following stroke in the local area.

ADDITIONAL DUTIES

In addition to the above duties you will also be expected to perform the below key activities in line with your job role;

• Complete mandatory training in line with Trust policy and procedures
• To participate in the staff appraisal process and to undertake for any staff you manage
• To keep yourself updated on all matters relating to Trust policy
• To provide management supervision where appropriate
• You will be expected to work collaboratively with key partner organisations, service users, carers, clinicians and other practitioners within the multi-disciplinary team in delivering services; providing a 7-day a week, 24-hours a day service for 365 days a year working shifts, where appropriate and operationally required.

Person specification

Education

Essential criteria

• HCPC Registered Speech and Language Therapist
• Recognised Speech and Language Qualification -Degree or equivalen
• Strong evidence of CPD (portfolio) to reflect specialist skill development

Desirable criteria

• Post Graduate Dysphagia Qualification or equivalent in-house training and log of supervised practice
• Evidence of Completion of relevant dysphagia specialist short courses or equivalent in-house training
• Member of Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists

Experience

Essential criteria

• Experience of supervising/ supporting junior staff, students or assistants.
• Experience of independently managing a complex and busy caseload with support and supervision from colleagues
• Experience of working within multidisciplinary teams

Desirable criteria

• Experience of working with a wide range of acquired communication and swallowing disorders within an acute setting.

Personal Qulaities

Essential criteria

• Shares the Trust's Beliefs and models this in their attitude and behaviour:
• Ensures that the organisational values of open, compassionate and empowering are demonstrated by self and others every day and that any matters of concern are addressed in a timely way,

Additional Requirements

Essential criteria

• Fitness Analysis as appropriate
• Current driving licence
• Ability to travel across sites and across Trust boundaries to attend meetings, etc.

!Important Professional References

Make sure that as a part of your application you have professional references with business contract information covering your last three year employment history. We are unable to accept personal or character references.

As a newly appointed employee you are responsible for incurring the cost of your initial DBS check relevant to your post, the amount will be deducted from your first salary with the Trust.

Applications for Job Share are positively welcomed.

Equal Opportunities Employer

Our Trust is an Equal Opportunities Employer. We particularly welcome applications from people with experience of using mental health services. We also hold the Disability two tick symbol and have made the pledge to commit to employing more people with learning disabilities, we encourage people with a disability to apply. If you require this application form in another format i.e. Braille or audio tape etc, please contact the Recruitment Department on 01375 364513 or email epunft.recruitment.adverts@nhs.net and we can arrange for this to be dispatched to you.

The Trust has the right to expire vacancies prior to the closing date if they so wish. The Trust makes every attempt to contact all applicants and we strongly advise that you check the email account which is registered with NHS Jobs regularly, we would advise however due to the high number of applications we receive that if you have not heard from us within three weeks of the closing date your application has been unsuccessful on this occasion.

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults, and expect all staff to undertake this commitment. Applicants will be subject to robust safer recruitment processes.

Covid Vaccination

Although Covid vaccinations are no longer a mandatory requirement within the NHS we continue to encourage and support the vaccination uptake as this remains the best line of defence against Covid19. The safety of our staff and patients is a top priority for us at EPUT.

If you would like to book a Covid vaccination or would like more information please contact us by emailing epunft.cv19hr@nhs.net.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

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

• Band 6 SLT (PDF, 728.5KB)
• Band 6 SLT (PDF, 304.6KB)
• EPUT Pledge - Step into Health (PDF, 211.0KB)
• Candidate Privacy Policy (PDF, 173.9KB)
• Right to Work Information (PDF, 293.6KB)
• Employer Recognition Scheme - Gold Award (PDF, 27.7KB)
• Trust Vision and Values (PDF, 168.9KB)
• Values of the NHS Pension (PDF, 151.3KB)