Job summary
- Main area
- Highly Specialist Speech and Language Therapist
- Grade
- Band 7
- Contract
- 12 months (Fixed term: 12 months)
- Hours
- Full time
- Flexible working
- Compressed hours
- Job ref
- 350-CC8031314
- Employer
- Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- Bickerstaffe House
- Town
- Ormskirk
- Salary
- £49,387 - £56,515 per annum
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 22/06/2026 23:59
- Interview date
- 06/07/2026
Employer heading
Highly Specialist Speech and Language Therapist
Band 7
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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.
Using AI to support your application
Artificial Intelligence (AI) can be a helpful tool when preparing your application, supporting you to organise and structure your application and present your experiences clearly. However, we want to hear about your experiences and achievements. Please ensure everything you submit is truthful, accurate, and reflects your own work and experience. Your authentic story is the best way to help us understand who you are and what you can bring to the role. If content appears to be copied or misrepresented, it may impact the outcome of your application. We encourage you to use AI responsibly as a support tool, not a substitute for your own voice.
For tips and guidance, please refer to our applicant guidance.
Your experiences matter, let them shine.
Applications that appear mostly or fully generated by AI, without clear personal examples linked to the person specification, may be rejected.
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Job overview
We are looking for an experienced and motivated HCPC registered Highly Specialist Speech and Language Therapist to join our Community Speech and Language Therapy Service as a Band 7, covering the West Lancashire patch on a 12-month fixed-term basis. This is an exciting opportunity for someone who is passionate about leading high-quality community Speech and Language Therapy services and supporting teams to deliver safe, effective and person-centred care across a range of community settings.
The post holder will have responsibility for the delivery of the clinical service within the defined area, providing visible leadership and day-to-day management to the team. You will play a key role in ensuring services are efficient, effective, well-co-ordinated and responsive, with quality and patient experience at the centre of everything you do.
You will provide leadership, management and communication for the team, supporting staff performance, service development and continuous improvement. The role includes ensuring delivery of the quality strategy within the designated area through the development of effective systems, processes, governance and assurance arrangements that support high standards of care.
Main duties of the job
The post holder will provide clinical leadership and day-to-day management to the clinical team and will be responsible for the delivery of the service within the defined area. You will work in partnership with other services and key stakeholders to help ensure patients and clients are treated in the most appropriate setting, supporting a co-ordinated and responsive approach to care. The role includes providing caseload oversight and clinical supervision to maintain high standards of practice, alongside full line management responsibility for the team, ensuring effective delegation, staff support and the safe delivery of patient care. You will also contribute to service development, quality improvement and the consistent delivery of high-quality, person-centred care across the West Lancashire service.
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
Provide clinical leadership and management to the clinical team.
Be responsible for the delivery of the service within the area.
Work in partnership with other services/stakeholders etc., to enable patients/clients to be treated in the appropriate setting.
Ensure that the team provides a high quality service to its clients by providing caseload and clinical supervision.
Have full line management responsibility for the team ensuring appropriate delegation and delivery of patients/client care.
Ensure that teams work proactively in order to deliver anticipatory and maintenance care, providing a responsive service to patients/clients with both planned and unplanned care needs.
Maintain clinical credibility by providing clinical care and supporting members of the team within the clinical environment.
Participate in the development of caseload management across the local health economy.
Provide leadership and mentoring to those staff developing into a caseload management role.
Acts as an advocate and champion for patients/clients in a variety of forums and professional groups and challenge attitudes and behaviour.
Implement plans for the team including rotas and schedules/working patterns to ensure business continuity.
Practice autonomously and demonstrate evidence based clinical decision making.
Provide clinical expertise and knowledge to the team when managing complex and highly complex situations.
Assess patient/client conditions and consider a range of options when delivering complex and highly complex clinical care.
Work in collaboration with other stakeholders to deliver services to patients/clients.
Following holistic assessment of health needs, develop individualised care plans to fulfil those needs, with the involvement of patients/clients and carers.
Implement and evaluate care delivery for patients/clients with identified needs.
Ensure that all clinical activity provided by the team directly reflects the core objectives of health promotion, supported self care, disease specific management, management of long term conditions and end of life/palliative care.
Set objectives by which performance will be monitored.
Work with the service lead to deliver local based services, by participating in meetings and communicating the outcomes to staff.
Provide reports to the service lead on staff and patient activity as requested.
Work in collaboration with others to support practice development and service modernisation.
Contribute to the development of role and service redesign.
Actively participate in policy and service development authoring protocols as required.
Provide induction to the local working environment, and policies for new team members and students.
Be an authorised signatory, ensuring probity in the authorisation of timecards and mileage claims.
Monitor budgets reporting over/under spending to the budget holder
Undertake personal development plans (PDP) and ensure all team members
Contribute to the development of policy and services to reflect local needs
Have up to date PDPs, monitor Knowledge and Skills Framework (KSF) and reviews
Ensure that all staff attend mandatory training
Ensure that administration and clerical duties are appropriately delegated to clerical support officers
Provide data that supports the monitoring of team contract and objectives
Participate in audits and research, as required
Participate in individual and group supervision.
Implement mentorship and clinical supervision with the team.
Ensure that record keeping within the team is consistent with professional standards.
Initiate training and development of team members. Monitor and maintain standards of patient care delivery. Including maintaining and monitoring of clinical competency and standards of record keeping
In conjunction with the service lead, ensure systems are in place for the ongoing review and assessment of care provision and delivery.
Work within guidelines to identify and manage risk, reporting identified risks to the service lead.
Report any incidents as per Trust policies and support or undertake any investigations as delegated by the service lead.
Monitor and ensure that the quality of the patient care delivered by the team is evidenced based and supported by best practice, through the use of audit, caseload and clinical supervision.
Participate in patient satisfaction reporting to improve patient care.
Maintain registration in line with professional bodies.
Provide support to team members holding responsibility for mentoring students.
Identify skills deficits within the team identify methods of addressing these to support service delivery, improvement and development
Person specification
Qualifications
Essential criteria
- 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 management training
- Evidence of leadership training
- Membership of relevant special interest groups
Desirable criteria
- Post graduate certificate in specialty
- Postgraduate Dysphagia qualification / competencies
- Member of the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (RCSLT)
Values
Essential criteria
- Continuous improvement – committed to making improvements to our services for the benefit of all.
- Accountability – taking ownership to anticipate, develop and deliver high quality care.
- Respect – how we treat others in an inclusive and supportive way.
- Enthusiasm – demonstrate our passion and pride for what we do and how we do it.
- Support – actively supporting others with compassion and courage.
Experience/Knowledge
Essential criteria
- Relevant experience at undergraduate/post graduate level
- Experience of carrying out specialist assessments and interventions
- 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 assessment tools relevant to the client group
- In depth knowledge of national policies and procedures relevant to the client group
- 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
Desirable criteria
- Student training
- Experience of delivering/developing training to staff/carers
- Experience of using iPads and other forms of technology
- Experience of facilitating groups
- Experience of providing supervision to staff members
- Experience of being a Clinical Educator
Skills
Essential criteria
- Excellent interpersonal skills –including, listening and empathy skills
- Highly developed negotiation and problem- solving skills
- Excellent analytical and reflection skills
- Well-developed concentration 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
Desirable criteria
- Knowledge of the NHS strategies and initiatives
Employer certification / accreditation badges
Applicant requirements
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.
Documents to download
Further details / informal visits contact
- Name
- Emma Lightowler
- Job title
- Operational Services Manager
- Email address
- [email protected]
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