Highly Specialist Speech and Language Therapist
Band 7
Main area Speech and Language Therapy - Secure Division Grade Band 7 Contract Permanent Hours Full time - 37.5 hours per week (Monday - Friday - office hours) Job ref 350-SC7193816
Site Ashworth Hospital Town Maghull Salary £46,148 - £52,809 per annum Salary period Yearly Closing 29/06/2025 23:59
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Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust celebrates diversity and promotes equal opportunities; we are committed to challenging and eliminating racism and other forms of discrimination and advancing and promoting equality of opportunity in the provision of services and creating an inclusive environment for all employees. We believe that everyone has the right to be treated with dignity and respect.
We take positive action to support disadvantaged groups and also particularly encourage applications from ethnically diverse, disabled and LGBTQIA+ people that are under-represented in our workforce. Furthermore we welcome applications from reservists and ex-armed forces personnel as we recognise the benefits of the values, skills, training and experience that they bring to their work with us. We encourage all applicants to share their equality information with us.
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Job overview
Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust is the health provider for the delivery of care to people with mental health conditions who require specialist health interventions. The Ashworth High Secure Speech and Language Therapy Team is designed to support the holistic care for people with a primary mental illness and/or personality disorder diagnosis who currently reside in the high secure forensic hospital.
The role of the highly specialist speech and language therapist consists of leading the High Secure Speech and Language Therapy team and providing specialist assessment and intervention for individuals who have complex communication needs and dysphagia. The role includes ongoing service development of this relatively new area of clinical practice, management of referrals and waiting lists to the service, and working as an MDT to provide person centred holistic care.
Main duties of the job
We are now recruiting a full-time Highly Specialist Speech and Language Therapist (SaLT) to work within the Ashworth High Secure service. The main duties of the role consist of:
1. Full management responsibility for managing and prioritising caseload.
2. Supervise other speech and language therapists and support workers in the team.
4. To provide clinical leadership and training to the wider staff team with regards to speech, language and communication.
5. To provide in depth specialist speech and language therapy assessments for the more complex service users referred to the team.
6. To formulate and implement support plans as part of the MDT.
7. Advising team manager about capacity / gaps in service delivery / operational issues.
8. To facilitate the education of service users, relatives and other agencies concerned with provision of learning disability services in the community.
11. To ensure Safeguarding requirements are upheld.
12. Promote health and reduce inequalities for all patients accessing the speech and language therapy service.
13. Use highly developed skills to convey complex and sensitive clinical information, using a high level of persuasive and motivational skill to enable others to follow swallowing/therapy plans.
Working for our organisation
Mersey Care is one of the largest trusts providing physical health and mental health services in the North West, serving more than 1.4 million people across our region and are also commissioned for services that cover the North West, North Wales and the Midlands.
We offer specialist inpatient and community services that support physical and mental health and specialist inpatient mental health, learning disability, addiction and brain injury services. Mersey Care is one of only three trusts in the UK that offer high secure mental health facilities.
At the heart of all we do is our commitment to ‘perfect care’ – care that is safe, effective, positively experienced, timely, equitable and efficient. We support our staff to do the best job they can and work alongside service users, their families, and carers to design and develop future services together. We’re currently delivering a programme of organisational and service transformation to significantly improve the quality of the services we provide and safely reduce cost as we do so.
Flexible working requests will be considered for all roles.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
To provide high quality consultation, specialist assessment and intervention of speech, language and communication needs.
To support the development of the Speech and Language Therapy service and strive for continuous improvement.
To take a lead on and provide evidence-based Speech and Language
Therapy assessment, treatment and intervention to service users who have complex needs.
This role will be integrated in the therapy team and will work with the team to develop person centred care.
Supervision will be provided within the trust as applicable.
Person specification
Qualifications
* Completion of a recognised training course awarding relevant degree/diploma approved by the RCSLT and HPC
* Registered with the HPC – License to practice
* Evidence of successful completion of specialist short courses up to Master’s level or equivalent
* Experiential training which demonstrates highly specialist skills in specialist area
* Evidence of leadership / management training
* Membership of relevant special interest groups
* Post graduate certificate in speciality
* Member of the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (RCSLT)
Knowledge and Experience
* Relevant experience at undergraduate/post graduate level
* Experience of carrying out specialist assessments and intervention
* Proven ability to work independently, prioritise and manage own complex caseload.
* Experience of working with highly complex cases, such as progressive illness and rare conditions
* Evidence of experience of: Multi disciplinary team working
* Leading in service projects
* Developing and leading training of others and Language Therapists
* Advanced knowledge of a range of appropriate therapeutic interventions relevant to the client group and an ability to compare and contrast relative benefits
* In depth knowledge of the principles of clinical governance/audit
* Understands the roles of other professionals relevant to the client group
* Understands the standards of record keeping
* Understands confidentiality as relating to the NHS
* Student training
* Experience of delivering/developing training to staff/carers
* Experience of facilitating groups
* Experience of providing supervision to staff members
* Experience of being a Clinical Educator
* Experience of using iPads and other forms of technology
Values
* Accountability
* Support
* High professional standards
* Responsive to service users
* Engaging leadership style
* Transparency and honesty
* Discreet
* Change oriented
Skills
* Excellent interpersonal skills – including, listening and empathy skills
* Highly developed negotiation and problem solving skills
* Excellent analytical and reflection skills
* Excellent presentation skills written and verbal
* Excellent organizational skills
* Prioritisation and time management Skills
* Good Auditory discrimination skills and ability to transcribe phonetically
* Able to be a good team member and assume leadership responsibilities
* Able to work independently recognising own limits
* Flexible and able to cope with change
* Learns from experience and willing to adapt accordingly, including learning new skills
* Able to critically appraise research Articles
* Ability to communicate highly complex or sensitive advice and information to others
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Please ensure you check the email account from which you apply for all correspondence. All information regarding your application will come from apps.trac.jobs not NHS Jobs.
Only those applicants who demonstrate clearly how they meet our person specification will be shortlisted for interview.
As a Disability Confident Employer, we offer a guaranteed interview scheme for applicants who consider themselves to be disabled who meet the minimum (essential) criteria for the role in the person specification. If you would like your application to be considered under the Trust’s guaranteed interview scheme you can indicate this in the personal information section of your online application form.
Should you require a reasonable adjustment to our recruitment process please email recruitment@merseycare.nhs.uk to ensure that measures can be put in place to support you.
We reserve the right to close any vacancies from further applications when we have received a minimum number of applications from which to make a shortlist. Please ensure you apply without delay if you wish to be considered for this role.
The Trust expects all post holders who require an enhanced DBS for their role subscribe to the DBS Update Service. You will be required to enrol for this service for a fee of £16 per year and maintain registration. Trans applicants who require a DBS check and do not want to reveal details of their previous identity can contact the DBS Sensitive Applications Team (01516761452 or email sensitive@dbs.gsi.gov.uk ) with their application number once they have completed their DBS application form. The team can prevent any previous identity showing on the DBS Certificate, unless the applicant has a conviction under their previous details in which case this will need to be disclosed.
Applicants requiring sponsorship may wish to determine the likelihood of obtaining sponsorship for this position by assessing themselves against the criteria on the gov.uk website - https://www.gov.uk/check-uk-visa.
Flexible working requests will be considered for all roles.
Please be advised that the use of Artificial Intelligence on applications is monitored and if you choose to use this, you must declare this on your application form.
Please note: new entrants to the NHS will commence on the first pay point of the relevant band.
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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.
FULFIL YOUR POTENTIAL AND SPREAD YOUR WINGS WITH MERSEY CARE
At Mersey Care, our commitment to ‘perfect care’ lies at the heart of everything we do, a person centred care that starts with you. It’s a pledge to create an environment and staff support that will enable you to do the best job you can possibly do, to be the best you can possibly be.
You’ll be joining one of the most innovative and progressive NHS trusts in the country. One that offers specialist inpatient and community services to support physical and mental health and specialist inpatient mental health, learning disability, addiction and brain injury services. We are the founding member of the Zero Suicide Alliance, and one of only three Trusts in the country which delivers high secure mental health care.
You’ll be made to feel at home, joining an 11,000 strong Mersey Care family comprising doctors and nurses, as well as countless other roles from dieticians to dentists, from data analysts to physiotherapists. You'll find a full list of our roles in our A-Z list.
You’ll have a home in the North West of England where your work/life balance is respected and working from sites easily commutable from Liverpool, Manchester, North Wales and Cheshire with many roles operating a hybrid working system.
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