Job overview

Are you a Specialist Speech and Language Therapist who shares our vision to work within our acute care pathway, specifically in our inpatient CAMHS service?

The Inpatient CAMHS service comprises of Pebble Lodge- a 10-bed that provides inpatient care for young people whose care needs are best met in a hospital setting, and a purpose build CAMHS High Intensity Environment, which is due to open early 2026. 

In Dorset, we are transforming our child and adolescent mental health service into a Family Mental Health model that embraces and adopts the Thrive framework. The inpatient service falls within the Getting More Help and Getting Risk Support quadrants of Thrive.

You will be responsible for planning, developing and co-ordinating a speech and language therapy service to children including those who have Speech, Language and Communication needs. 

We aspire to offer families a service that is built on compassion, social connection, and participation with our peers and parent peers, and a service that is understanding of the need to work in partnership with the wider network of education, social care and 3rd sector services in order to deliver support for families based on their needs.

This is a part time post of 18.75 hours, you will be based within the inpatient CAMHS team, providing a Speech and Language Therapy service to the young people on the wards and to their families, the staff and the partner agencies.

Main duties of the job

As a Specialist Speech and Language Therapist it involves identification at highly specialist level of the type of communication disorder found in this client group and the provision of a menu of appropriate interventions, including individual and group programmes to the young people and their staff.

You will work closely with staff to facilitate their communication skills with this client group.

As part of this work you will undertake the training of staff and staff in partner agencies to raise awareness of the types of communication difficulties faced by young people and strategies to facilitate their communication.

You will provide information to the service lead and relevant management and strategic groups.

Working for our organisation

At Dorset HealthCare we’re on a mission to empower people to make the most of their lives through our outstanding, joined-up healthcare services. We’re a dynamic, forward-looking Trust, running 12 community hospitals, specialist inpatient facilities and a wide range of integrated community and mental health services for a population of almost 800,000 people.

We do things differently here – it’s one of the reasons the CQC rated us ‘outstanding’ in 2019. It’s also why 95% of patients across our services say they have a good or very good experience of our services and 89% of staff feel they can really make a difference. Whether you’re looking to work with us in one of our bustling market towns, vibrant urban locations, thriving seaside spots, or among the rolling hills of Dorset, there are lots of ways you can make a difference in our communities.

Our 7,000-strong workforce is at the heart of what we do and our success is a testament to our brilliant people. We're all about building a workplace for the future, we believe in equal opportunities and we celebrate diversity. We’re an inclusive workplace, where everyone is welcome, everyone can be authentic, and we are all encouraged to be the best version of ourselves.

Working with us you’ll be part of a strong team, challenge yourself, build a career, and teach us what we don’t know. And you’ll be working towards our vision to be better every day through excellence, compassion and expertise in all we do.