Job Introduction
The Adult Community Speech and Language Therapy Service provides inpatient and outpatient services to adults living within Bath and North East Somerset (BaNES) and aims to maximise long term independence, choice, and quality of life, by allowing patients to leave hospital earlier, prevent unnecessary hospital admissions and reduce or minimise the need for on-going support after the period of intervention, improving quality of life.
The Speech and Language Therapy team work across the BaNES region, going into people’s homes, community hospitals, working in an outpatient setting and within our rehabilitation unit (Sulis ward, St Martin’s Hospital). We provide training and education across the region in both swallowing and communication difficulties and have regular CPD opportunities to maintain our own skills and knowledge.
The Speech and Language Therapy Service are a supportive, friendly, dynamic and innovative team who like to keep on top of evidence-based practice and new techniques for intervention. We benefit from having a professional lead to ensure quality standards for our service are kept high, and we pride ourselves on keeping ‘ahead of the game’ wherever possible. We embrace change, are highly supportive and actively seek opportunities to improve our skills and expertise in order to provide the best possible service for our clients.
Our aim is to provide a time efficient, responsive, quality service to adults requiring speech, communication or swallowing assessment, advice and intervention. We have clear service acceptance criteria, clear prioritisation and response frameworks and excellent communication between teams to ensure smooth transition from one service into another. We form part of a wider SLT group within Banes, working with the Stroke service, Community Neuro and Parkinson’s services, the Learning Disability Service and the associated inpatient SLT service provided at the Royal United Hospital. We have an integrated videofluroscopy service which we access and jointly run, allowing service users from the community to access essential diagnostic objective assessment.
Main Responsibility
The role will involve:
- Independently managing a caseload and provide skilled and specialised evidence-based Speech and Language Therapy to adults with a wide range of communication and swallowing difficulties in a variety of settings
- Assessing and differentially diagnosing service users’ complex communication and swallowing difficulties, developing and implementing clear treatment plans, including comprehensive discharge plans from the service
- Provide evidence-based interventions, including intensive dysphagia and aphasia intervention
- Triage and prioritising new referrals, offering immediate support and guidance to referrers and make appropriate decisions regarding ongoing care and management
- Providing advice, training and education to others regarding the management and care of adults with communication and swallowing difficulties
- Demonstrating good levels of communication skills with service users, their families, carers and other members of the multi-disciplinary team
The SLT will receive regular supervision from the clinical specialist SLT and through being part of the wider Adult SLT Service, will have access to colleagues with a range of specialties for further support. The team is also supported by a SLT Assistant. There will be opportunities to be involved with the weekly VFS clinic at the RUH and in dysphagia awareness training for the wider community. Both services actively support CPD, with opportunities to attend courses and study days, Adult SLT team meetings and the relevant CENs.
The Ideal Candidate
We are looking for an experienced, enthusiastic and dynamic Speech and Language Therapist (SLT) to join our team.The post holder will work as part of the multi-disciplinary team (MDT) in Sulis ward and be part of the wider community SLT team.
The successful candidate must have adult experience to apply for this post and need to be able to practice independently in the field of dysphagia.
They must be able to demonstrate experience of working with a varied clinical caseload and of having worked with adults with communication and swallowing difficulties, namely with stroke, dementia and other neurological disorders. The SLT must be able to provide in depth assessment and holistic therapy programmes, with support as required.
They must be able to drive and have access to a car for work purposes.
They must be able to work as an effective member of a multi-disciplinary team and, as part of the interdisciplinary team, the SLT will be involved in implementing whole team goals and therapy.
They must have good verbal and written communication skills, and must be able to assist in prioritising a busy caseload. Experience of providing education to the wider MDT, patients and family members plus experience of being proactive in service development initiatives, would be desirable.
Please address the essential and desirable criteria in your application.
Package Description
As a Speech and Language Therapist in the Community service, you’ll be part of our valued team at St Martin's Hospital, Bath.
You will feel valued as a Speech and Language Therapist within HCRG Care Group, receiving access to exclusive rewards and benefits including:
- Salary of £37,338 (pro rata) with NHS Pension and full Agenda for Change terms and conditions
- Free tea and coffee 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 a majority of our rated services holding “good” or “outstanding” ratings from the Care Quality Commission
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.
