Job overview

We have an exciting opportunity for a senior speech and language therapist to join our friendly, innovative speech and language therapy service, based in our community team in East Suffolk.

This is a varied role and responsibilities will include assessment, therapy and management for a mixed caseload of people with a range of acquired swallowing and communication difficulties. You will be a dysphagia competent clinician, with experience in working with adults with a range of communication and swallowing disorders, who is willing to work flexibly with colleagues to meet service need. 

Community SLT is part of a wider, integrated SLT service in East Suffolk which covers a broad range of clinical specialisms, including aphasia, dysphagia, stroke, progressive neurological conditions, dementia, dysfluency, learning disability and ENT. In Ipswich Hospital, we provide inpatient services across all adult wards, including stroke. We also run videofluoroscopy and FEES clinics for both inpatients and community patients, with opportunities to gain competencies in these assessment techniques.  Our outpatient therapists operate as core members of the Head and Neck MDT and ENT services. In the community, we work closely with our MDT colleagues, particularly in relation to the stroke ESD service, and services for people with MND and progressive neurological conditions. We also host a countywide service for adults with learning disability. 

Main duties of the job

We are currently enhancing our MDT working with our Integrated Neighbourhood Team colleagues. The community team also provides LSVT intervention and maintenance packages, dysphagia rehabilitation including EMST, and group interventions, according to patient need. All teams are supported by our skilled SLT apprentices and assistants.

Your main duties include:

• To independently manage a caseload of adults with acquired communication and swallowing difficulties.
•  To provide assessment, therapy and management of patients referred to the community SLT service for East Suffolk.
•  To provide assessment and intervention face to face, over the telephone and by virtual clinics.
• The post holder will be based in the community, working in people’s own homes, care homes, community hospitals, as well as the clinic base.
• To work collaboratively with wider community services/Alliance partners to support care pathway for people with communication and swallowing difficulties.
• To prioritise referrals into the community service, in line with Departmental policies and procedures.
•  To contribute to the provision and assessment of students on clinical placement including SLT students and wider MDT professions. 
•  To support student learning, and provide support to junior staff

Working for our organisation

We are ESNEFT and we provide hospital and community health services to almost one million people across east Suffolk and north Essex. Our dedicated staff deliver care from acute hospitals in Colchester and Ipswich, community hospitals, surgeries, community clinics and in patients’ own homes. 

We are one of the largest NHS organisations in England, employing more than 12,000 staff. 

We pride ourselves on supporting our staff. We offer a wide range of training and development opportunities, as well as flexible working options. 

Along with supporting you to achieve your career goals we offer a generous pension scheme, unsocial hours payments (where applicable), 27 days annual leave on commencement (pro rata) and access to a range of NHS discounts. Our Staff Health and Wellbeing programme offer a variety of services. 

Our philosophy is that Time Matters to everyone. Across the Trust, we concentrate on improving the things we do and removing those which cause time delays for our staff and patients.   

We are investing in our commitment to Time Matters with a partnership with leading electronic patient record (EPR) supplier Epic. This digital transformation will bring what’s widely regarded as the world’s best EPR system to ESNEFT, transforming life in hospital for staff and patients. 

If you are passionate about patient care and want to develop your skills and knowledge, then we want to hear from you.   

Find out about living and working here - www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkPu7HphU8A