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Job summary

Main area
Speech and Language Therapist
Grade
NHS AfC: Band 5
Contract
Permanent
Hours
Full time - 37.5 hours per week
Job ref
285-9797-LD
Employer
Black Country Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
Employer type
NHS
Site
Ridge Hill Centre
Town
Stourbridge
Salary
£29,970 - £36,483 pro rata
Salary period
Yearly
Closing
09/07/2025 23:59

Employer heading

Black Country Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust logo

Speech and Language Therapist

NHS AfC: Band 5

Black Country Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust provides specialist mental health, learning disability, and community healthcare services for the population of the Black Country.

Across the whole of the region we provide:

  • Adult and older adult mental health services
  • Specialist learning disability services
  • Mental health services for children and young people
  • Community healthcare services for children, young people and families in Dudley

Black Country Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust was formed on 1 April 2020, with the merger of Black Country Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and Dudley and Walsall Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust. Combining resources, strategies and talented workforce enables us to deliver a wider variety of outstanding services that are based on best practice and are continually improving.

We currently employ over 4,000 people and just like the population we serve, we are made up of diverse cultures and backgrounds. Whatever your role, working in a NHS Foundation Trust, like ours, is a demanding and extremely rewarding experience. Knowing that every day you can help to make a positive difference to someone’s life is a very powerful feeling. We know that our Trust runs on this desire to help and support people, and our Trust vision expresses this. Our vision is to improve health and wellbeing for everyone, especially our colleagues to achieve the best possible work/life balance.

We proudly offer supportive, inclusive and family friendly employment and flexible working policies. We have a wide range of professional services and employee networks to help our colleagues be at their best - and find support if they need it. To find more about our staff benefits, please visit our website: blackcountryhealthcare.nhs.uk. 

Don’t meet every single requirement? Studies have shown that women and ethnic minority candidates are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single qualification. At Black Country Healthcare we recognise and value all forms of knowledge and expertise, so if you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification or criteria in the job description/person specification, we encourage you to apply anyway. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles.

For further supporting information to help you apply for this role please see documents attached under ‘Additional documents’.

Job overview

Would you like to be part of community Speech and Language Therapy for adults with Learning Disabilities and to develop your skills and career in this area?

The post holder will be working within a Learning Disability specialist community team across the Black Country area. This is an innovative team of different disciplines and specialties who will give a supportive start to your career.

You would be working with our teams of therapists and assistants, providing a communication service for this varied population. There would also be opportunity to build on dysphagia competencies in this role.

Main duties of the job

Assess, diagnose and manage the communication and/or swallowing needs of patients receiving clinical assessment and intervention in community settings. Responsible for initial patient diagnosis and assessment under the supervision of a senior SLT clinician:

·       Collection of detailed case history information

 

·       Informal assessment and observation

 

·       Undertakes clinical work with individuals and groups of clients

 

·       Uses formal standardised assessment and informal assessment procedures

 

·       Reads and abides by risk assessments relating to patients of the service

 

·       Communicates assessment and therapeutic findings within the multi-disciplinary team

 

·       Completes contemporaneous case notes and written clinical information completion according to Trust procedures

 

·       Undertakes clinical work with individuals and groups of clients with guidance from senior SLT

 

·       Develops coordinated multidisciplinary programmes of care / care packages

 

·       Makes decisions leading to SLT review or discharge of clients and/or referral to other services, as appropriate

 

·       Is responsible for managing own community clinical caseload under guidance of a more senior clinician

Working for our organisation

We are a forward-thinking, friendly and supportive Trust with dedicated therapy services. We have therapy staff working across the service within the community, enhanced inpatient settings and pathway teams reducing hospital admissions across the Black Country.

Continuing professional development is actively supported via annual appraisals, opportunities to attend webinars/courses, regular clinical supervision opportunities and through networking and skill sharing with therapy colleagues from across the service.

The Trust has friendly and down-to-earth 'bostin' staff teams, a comprehensive wellbeing offer for staff and an embedded set of values and behaviours. Our community Learning Disability services are a particular strength of multi-disciplinary working and support for a vulnerable client group.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

  •   Contributes to audit, research and developments in the clinical field and service as directed by service leads.
  •   Provides advice in relation to care of clients with specific communication and swallowing needs to the multi-disciplinary team.
  •  Provides both direct and indirect  intervention, consultation, advice and support; working within a multi-disciplinary model to a complex caseload in order to ensure that the inter-agency needs of clients are met, seeking highly specialist support and second opinions from senior clinical leads for the most complex patients.
  • Promotes, supports and integrates the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapist’s guidance and standards into all clinical work.
  • Actively participates and supports MDT intervention by regularly attending patient MDT meetings and clinical reviews.
  • Liaises both orally and in writing with any significant others involved in the management of the client, within and outside the NHS, to ensure the client’s needs are met effectively and efficiently. 
  •  Functions as a fully integrated multi-disciplinary team member supporting and facilitating communication within the therapeutic process including MDT clinical formulation and reflective practice
  •  Provides specific communication and/or dysphagia training alongside more senior colleagues to the MDT, the patient and their environment as part of clinical intervention.

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential criteria
  • SLT degree and HCPC registration (or pending within 2 months)
  • Undergraduate, postgraduate work or placement experience in the assessment/management of communication and/or swallowing difficulties.
  • Knowledge of Learning Disability and associated national drivers
Desirable criteria
  • Undergraduate, postgraduate work or placement experience with adults with LD
  • Evidence of Learning Disability-relevant training – e.g Talking Mats, Makaton, Intensive Interaction, PECS etc

Employer certification / accreditation badges

Apprenticeships logoNo smoking policyAge positiveDisability confident leaderCare quality commission - GoodArmed Forces Covenant Bronze Award

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

Apply online now

Further details / informal visits contact

Name
Charlotte Whitehead
Job title
Principal SLT
Email address
[email protected]
Telephone number
01384 314131
Additional information

Alternative Contact: Charlotte Whitehead, Principal SLT. 

 Tel: 07979286756

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