Job Introduction
Package Description
As a Band 7 Specialist Dysphagia Speech & Language Therapist, you will be part of our valued team in Essex, receiving access to exclusive rewards and benefits including:
- Band 7 AfC Salary with NHS Pension
- Free tea, coffee and milk at your base location
- Membership of My Reward Hub, giving you access to discounts on every day purchases like grocery shopping as well as cashback and voucher offers for treats for you and those special to you
- Access to your wages as you earn them to help cover life’s emergencies and avoid overdraft fees or high interest rates
- Online and face to face help with your mental and physical wellbeing – from healthy recipes and activity challenges through to post trauma support, legal, debt and life management help, as well career coaching and counselling
- Access to eLearning, bespoke career pathways and opportunities for continuing professional development through our ‘Outstanding’ learning and development team, The Learning Enterprise
- An open, just culture where you’re encouraged to have and implement ideas which can help us deliver our purpose: changing lives through transforming health and care – backed up by at least £100,000 of ringfenced innovation funding each year
- The pride of working for an organisation committed to the highest clinical and quality standards: with the majority of our rated services holding “good” or “outstanding” ratings from the Care Quality Commission
Job Introduction
We are delighted to invite applications for a part time (30 hours/week) Band 7 Specialist Dysphagia and Complex Needs Speech & Language Therapist to join the West Essex Speech & Language Therapy Service. This is an exciting opportunity for a paediatric dysphagia-trained speech and language therapist to join the existing B7 dysphagia therapist.
This role is offering a £2000 Welcome Bonus!*
*T&C's apply
We recognise that no two clinicians are the same and offer flexibility in caseload allocation, taking into account experience, professional development goals and proximity to home wherever possible. Staff wellbeing is a clear priority within our service, alongside ongoing skills development, reflective practice, and access to high-quality CPD.
Our Service
The dysphagia service supports a diverse population of infants, children and young people 0 -18 with dysphagia associated with complex medical needs, congenital and neurodevelopmental differences. The role offers the opportunity to apply advanced dysphagia skills within a holistic framework, working closely with families and carers to support safe, functional, and meaningful eating and drinking in everyday environments.
We serve children and families across the West Essex area (Uttlesford, Harlow and Epping Forest), working in partnership with local communities, schools, and services to deliver responsive and accessible care.
As part of an integrated service, we work closely with a wide multidisciplinary team. We routinely liaise with consultant paediatricians, community nurses, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, health visitors. The role also involves liaison with external services.
We are a supportive and collaborative team who value clinical excellence, curiosity, and reflective practice. We strive to create an environment where clinicians feel supported, valued, and able to develop their specialist skills while maintaining a healthy work–life balance.
Job Responsibilities
This is a community-based post, with the majority of clinical work taking place in service users’ homes and across mainstream and specialist educational settings. It is essential that you hold a valid UK driving licence and have access to a car for work purposes.
The post holder will be responsible for:
- Providing highly specialist assessment, management, and intervention tailored to each child and family’s needs, supporting parents/carers, service users and all other professionals in all issues related to client management. Liaison with the MDT is an essential part of the role;
- writing reports, including initial/progress/discharge reports, mealtime mats, EHCNAs;
- supporting in the training and development of junior dysphagia therapists in the team;
- delivering training/courses to other teams within the integrated service (e.g. Health visitors, family support workers);
- contributing to developments within the dysphagia team/pathway and the wider service, and attending team meetings.
For a full list of responsibilities, please see attached job description.
If you are a dysphagia-trained Speech & Language Therapist looking for a community-based specialist role where your expertise will make a real difference to children and families, we would love to hear from you.
Ideal Candidate
- Have a degree qualification or equivalent in Speech and Language Therapy
- Have post qualification training and experience in dysphagia.
- Be registered with the Health and Care Professionals Council and Royal College of Speech and Language Therapy.
- Have access to regular clinical supervision and ongoing continued professional development including through access to external clinical networks.
- Recognise and celebrate clinical excellence steered by evidence-based practice.
- Training/experience with infant dysphagia is desirable
As this is a community role, it is essential that you hold a valid UK driving licence and have access to a car for work purposes.
For a full list of criteria, please see the attached job description.
This role is flexible in terms of location, with the opportunity to work in the Uttlesford, Harlow or Epping Forest area.
About the Company
We change lives by transforming health and care.
Established in 2006, we are one of the UK's leading independent providers of community health and care services, working with health and care commissioners and communities to transform services with a focus on experience, efficiency and improved outcomes. We deliver and transform adult and children community health services, primary care services including urgent care, sexual health, dermatology and MSK services as well as adult social care and wellbeing services. Across England, we support communities of many millions and directly help more than half a million people each year - guided by our simple values: we care, we think, we do.
We're committed to equal opportunities and welcome applications from a broad, diverse range of people who want to join our team. We’re a Disability Confident Committed company, so we work to provide facilities, work environment adjustments and technical solutions to be as inclusive of everyone.
While it doesn’t happen often, sometimes a role is very popular, and we’ll need to close it earlier than the date we’ve shown here. If you’re keen to join our team, we’d love to hear from you so please apply as soon as you can.
As you’d expect, safeguarding and protecting the children, young people and vulnerable adults that we work with is of the utmost importance so we have policies and procedures in place to promote safeguarding and safer working practices and everyone who joins the team is subject to a safer recruitment process, including the disclosure of criminal records and vetting checks.
Finally, we need to let you know that the company you’ll work for is part of HCRG Care Group Holdings Limited and by applying for this job we’ll need to process and hold information about you. If you would like to know a little more about how we use your information, please see our website's privacy policy.
