Employer Alder Hey Children's NHS Foundation Trust Employer type NHS Site Alder Hey Hospital/ Liverpool Women's Hospital Town Liverpool Salary £53,755 - £60,504 per annum Salary period Yearly Closing 11/07/2025 23:59
Clinical Lead Neonatal Speech and Language Therapist
NHS AfC: Band 8a
Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust is a provider of specialist health care and has a presence in community outreach sites and, in collaboration with other providers, our clinicians help deliver care closer to patients’ homes by holding local clinics at locations from Cumbria to Shropshire, in Wales and the Isle of Man. The Trust also provides inpatient care for children with complex mental health needs at our Sunflower House building newly relocated, and opened on the hospital site.
We currently have more than 4,000 staff working across our community and hospital sites. We’re also a teaching and training hospital providing education and training to around 540 medical and over 500 nursing and allied health professional students each year.
As black and minority ethnic (BME) employees are currently under-represented in this area, we particularly welcome applications from members of our BME communities. All appointments will be made on merit.
You can expect a warm welcome at Alder Hey Children's NHS Foundation Trust, our staff are friendly and welcoming. We listen to each other and work together to embed our Trusts values and behaviours. At Alder Hey we appreciate our staff and reward them with an outstanding benefits package including:
* Great flexible working opportunities
* Lease car scheme and Home Electronics Scheme
* Generous annual leave and pension scheme
* Extensive staff health and well-being programmes
Job overview
This is an exciting opportunity for a highly skilled speech and language therapist to develop a high quality, evidence based speech and language therapy service to the Liverpool Neonatal Partnership.
Working across Alder Hey Children's and Liverpool Women's NHS Foundation Trusts you will be responsible for leading the speech and language therapy service in this highly complex clinical field.
By Spring 2026, the Liverpool Neonatal Partnership will comprise 68 cots across the 2 sites. 17 ITU 25 HDU 18 low dependency and 8 Transitional Care.
You should have a highly advanced level of knowledge, skills and experience in neonatal care and will work as an autonomous practitioner within a multi-disciplinary team.
Consideration will be given to candidates with an interest in expanding neonatal SLT skills at a band 7 with appropriate support and development provided.
Main duties of the job
* Leading, co-ordinating and delivering a high quality, evidence-based Speech and Language service to the highly specialised and complex clinical area of neonates requiring a highly advanced level of knowledge, skills and experience.
* Providing clinical supervision, training and support to less experienced delegated highly specialist paediatric speech therapists working in neonates.
Working for our organisation
Alder Hey Children's NHS Foundation Trust is a provider of specialist health care to over 275,000 children and young people each year. In addition to the hospital site located in the West Derby area of Liverpool, Alder Hey has a presence in community outreach sites and, in collaboration with other providers, our clinicians help deliver care closer to patients' homes by holding local clinics at locations from Cumbria to Shropshire, in Wales and the Isle of Man. The Trust also provides inpatient care for children with complex mental health needs at our Alder Park building in the nearby borough of Sefton.
We currently have more than 4,000 staff working across our community and hospital sites. We're also a teaching and training hospital providing education and training to around 540 medical and over 500 nursing and allied health professional students each year.
As black and minority ethnic (BME) employees are currently under-represented in this area, we particularly welcome applications from members of our BME communities. All appointments will be made on merit.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Job Summary:
The post holder will be responsible for:
* Leading, co-ordinating and delivering a high quality, evidence-based Speech and Language service to the highly specialised and complex clinical area of neonates requiring a highly advanced level of knowledge, skills and experience.
* Providing clinical supervision, training and support to less experienced delegated highly specialist paediatric speech therapists working in neonates.
Key result areas:
* To work as a highly experienced autonomous practitioner within a multi-disciplinary team providing expert advice to consultant and junior medical and/or nursing staff, other health professionals and professional agencies e.g. education, social services on the management of neonates
* To assess, treat and monitor a specialist caseload of neonatal patients with highly complex needs and maintain accurate records.
* To contribute to / lead SLT policy development within neonates
* To act as a national source of expertise within the specialist area for all healthcare professionals and other professional agencies.
* To be professionally and legally accountable for all aspects of professional and clinical work, working to agreed local, national and professional standards.
Person specification
BSc. or MSc. in Speech and language therapy
* BSc. or MSc. in Speech and language therapy
* Registration via Healthcare Professions Council
* Validated /nationally recognised post graduate advanced competencies in the management of neonatal dysphagia –
* Substantial postgraduate clinical experience with several years working as a band 7 SLT including experience within L3 neonatal unit
* Substantial postgraduate clinical experience with several years working as a band 7 SLT including experience within L3 neonatal unit
We reserve the right to close vacancies without notice when we have received a sufficient number of applications from which to make a shortlist. Please ensure you apply without delay if you wish to be considered for this role.
Please ensure you check the email account from which you apply regularly as we will contact you using this regarding your application. All candidates will be notified via email whether or not they have been shortlisted.
Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. We are committed to creating a well-managed, flexible working environment that supports staff and promotes their welfare and development. We actively promote equality and diversity and operate a Zero Tolerance policy to aggression, violence, bullying and harassment.
Should you require any assistance during the application stages please contact recruiting manager of vacancy or the recruitment team at recruitment@alderhey.nhs.uk or call 0151 282 4599
Please declare within the supporting information if artificial intelligence (AI) has been used in your application.
Please note, the selection processes at Alder Hey Children's Hospital NHS Foundation Trust are in place to ensure we recruit candidates with the right skills and values, please be advised that the use of AI in applications are monitored. We remain vigilant against candidates who misuse these tools to generate an application that doesn’t accurately reflect their skills.
Employer certification / accreditation badges
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.
Name Wendy Blumenow Job title Head of Department - Speech and Language Therapist Email address wendy.blumenow@alderhey.nhs.uk Telephone number 0151 252 5404 Additional information
Susan O'Neill
Head of Neonatal Service
Liverpool Neonatal Partnership
susan.o'neill@alderhey.nhs.uk
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