Overview
This is an exciting opportunity for a Dysphagia Specialist Speech & Language Therapist to join the Children’s Therapies Team in South East Kent, based in Folkestone.
This role encompasses leadership and clinical work in the community with children & families aged 0-19 years. The Children’s Therapies Team is an integrated therapies team providing SLT, OT, Physiotherapy, Specialist Nurse Advisors & Care Coordinators to children & families within Kent.
You will be part of an innovative and cohesive team of dysphagia therapists. You will provide support to the families of children with dysphagia, as part of a wider MDT of integrated therapy services. You will access at least quarterly dysphagia group supervision and CPD sessions, whilst building links with external stakeholders. You will work with the Dysphagia leads to monitor, review and develop pathways to ensure the service is able to offer safe, efficient and effective assessment and intervention in a timely way.
You will be supported by two highly skilled Speech and Language Therapists, who can offer extensive training, supervision and support to upskill & enable you to develop and maintain your competencies.
Within your role, you will also have allocated time to support the team in the Folkestone and Hythe working with children with complex needs, in collaboration with band 7 colleagues.
Key Responsibilities
* Supporting the Dysphagia pathways across South East Kent
* Managing a complex/specialist clinical caseload across 0-19 years
* Participating effectively in supervision, training and support to enhance your CPD
* Participating in reflective practice and ongoing learning within these clinical fields
* Supporting colleagues with completing their dysphagia competencies and specialist training
* Supporting towards service policy and clinical care pathways across KCHFT for dysphagia
* Contributing to service evaluation and care pathway design to meet the needs of the caseload
* Maintaining dysphagia competencies via CENs and CPD to meet the needs of the South East Kent dysphagia caseload
The role will include both virtual and face to face working. Hybrid working is supported. We pride ourselves in the support and opportunities offered to staff at all stages in their career including regular meetings with your line manager, access to supervision and in‑house & external training.
We offer regular CPD opportunities for the team, where we come together to share knowledge, skills and experience. Our South East Kent locality covers the areas of Ashford, Folkestone and Dover.
Being a driver would be essential. We would strongly advise that you speak to one of our recruiting staff and arrange a visit.
Rated ‘outstanding’ by the CQC, we’ve got a passion for delivering high standards of patient care and excellent services to improve the health of our communities. To do this we need outstanding people who share our values: compassionate, aspirational, responsive, excellent.
We know a commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion leads to better patient care and a happier workforce. We pride ourselves in being diverse and welcome applications from people with varied backgrounds, perspectives and experiences.
Application Information
We ask for information about your protected characteristics on our application forms. This isn’t visible to anyone involved with shortlisting or interviewing you, except when you choose to be considered under the guaranteed interview scheme due to disability. Short‑listers will see two ticks alongside your application to ensure they apply the principles of the scheme to your submission.
The data we collect helps us to ensure we are attracting diversity in our applicants, that all our colleagues have equitable access to career opportunities and supports us on our journey to being a Great Place to Work.
As a flexible working friendly organisation, we want you to be able to work in a way that is best for us, for our patients and for you. Talk to us about a flexible working arrangement that won’t involve sacrificing time for personal interests or family commitments. We’ll support you to work flexibly in a way that will suit us both.
Please contact Sonia Sivyer (sonia.sivyer@nhs.net), Eleanor Conway (eleanor.conway@nhs.net) or Emily Hadaway (emily.hadaway1@nhs.net) for more information.
At this stage, the role is open only to colleagues currently employed within Kent and Medway NHS Trusts and the Kent and Medway Integrated Care Board (ICB). Nursing vacancies are also open to Student Nurses and Newly Qualified Nurses.
Important Details
As a community Trust, many of our roles require individuals to be able to drive to perform their duties. Where driving is a requirement of the role, you will be asked to confirm that you hold a full UK driving licence or a full driving licence issued by an EU country (not exchanged from a non‑EU country) to proceed with your application. We are committed to supporting candidates with disabilities into employment. If you are unable to drive due to a disability, please contact the Recruitment Team via kentchft.recruitment@nhs.net, quoting the vacancy reference number, so we can support you further.
When you apply, please review the job description and person specification carefully. Tell us what you have done that shows you meet the criteria in your application. If you need an application form in an alternative format please let our recruitment team know. All information you supply on your application should, to the best of your knowledge, be true and accurate.
We can get a lot of applications for some roles so to be in with the best chance of being shortlisted please make sure you apply as soon as possible. A vacancy may close early if there is a lot of interest in the job.
At KCHFT we strongly encourage colleagues in clinical and non‑clinical roles who have direct or social contact with patients to be fully vaccinated. In this way we will be doing all we can to ensure your safety and that of your colleagues and the patients we serve.
This advert closes on Sunday 18 Jan 2026.
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