Head of Children's Community Speech and Language Therapy Service

Head of Children's Community Speech and Language Therapy Service

Band 8b -Head of Children's Community Speech and Language Therapy Service

Paediatric Community Services- Newham, East London Foundation Trust

We have an exciting opportunity for a Paediatric Speech and Language Therapist with proven clinical leadership experience and clinical expertise to join us in a new Head of Children's Speech and Language Therapy Service Leadership role. Following successful investment into the SLT service, we are looking for a Head of Service to lead and oversee our growing team of speech and language therapists, and develop the service further.

The Community Children's Speech and Language therapy service offers specialist assessment and intervention for babies; children and young people aged 0-19. The service currently has 3 key clinical teams: early years SLT, Complex needs communication & dysphagia, and the school age service. The service is also involved in delivering a number of externally funded projects such as the 'SAFE project'.

The post holder will be responsible for the strategic and operational delivery of the SLT service and for 62 wte staff. The post holder will clinically lead the implementation of the new jointly commissioned schools service to mainstream schools resource provisions and special schools in Newham. They will be involved in the further development of the joint commissioning project for early years and post 16 settings.

Main duties of the job

• Strategic, Operational and professional leadership of the Speech and Language therapy service to children and young people 0-19 years of age.
• Operational leadership of the jointly commissioned SLT schools service and the traded services
• Ensure effective governance of the Speech and language therapy services
• Ensure that service delivery is coordinated and relevant to needs of children and settings within Newham.

Provide a culturally sensitive and appropriate service

About us

Our mission is to make a positive difference to people's lives by improving the quality of life for all we serve. Our values are: We Care, We Respect, We are Inclusive - so we are looking for people who live and breathe these qualities when supporting service users and carers, and in their relationships with colleagues in the Trust and our partner organisations.

Job responsibilities

The Head of Childrens Community Speech and Language therapy service is responsible and accountable for the strategic, operational and professional management and leadership of the Speech and Language Therapy service to children and young people in Newham aged 0-19 years. This will include supervision and line management of the team, co-ordinating the delivery and development of the service, ensuring that the service is equitable and effective and that local and national standards of practice are maintained.

• The Speech and Language Therapy (SLT) service consists of 3 key clinical teams; early years, complex needs and the integrated schools team.
• The Head of Service will have clinical responsibility for the service delivery of the jointly commissioned schools service, the traded service to schools and overall responsibility for the integrated SLT service, overseeing the SLT clinical teams of early years, complex needs and schools services.
• The post holder will ensure coordinated and effective provision of all aspects of the service, through the creation of policies and procedures that reflect national and local priorities. The post holder will lead on the analysis and audit of the services to develop a culture that is responsive to changing need.
• The post holder will demonstrate by example excellent clinical practice exhibiting advanced clinical skills including assessment, differential diagnosis and provision of second opinion.
• The post holder is responsible for recruitment, performance appraisal, performance management and instigating disciplinary procedures and mentoring process within the integrated SLT service.
• The post holder will resolve informal complaints and draft initial responses to formal complaints about the service: following local policies and procedures, and to ensure that all staff within the team understand and comply with the complaints policy.
• The post holder will ensure effective resource management within the department and hold a delegated budget for department procurement.
• The post holder will support and develop new services through negotiation with other agencies, working with the business contracts department to form appropriate Service Level Agreements. This involves the development of comprehensive financial and clinical proposals, monitoring and evaluating the new services
• The post holder may be asked to attend meetings on the behalf of the Childrens Therapy Manager and to deputise for the Head of Therapies
• To be responsible for supporting the development of care pathways in conjunction with other teams, managers and clinicians within Community Services and with partner agencies as part of care pathways across organisational boundaries e.g. Autistic Spectrum Disorders
• To provide quality assurance across service areas ensuring that services are safe, effective, efficient and responsive to changing patterns of need and enabled to deliver sustainable, high quality services underpinned by evidence informed best practice
• To lead, develop and support staff within the service, leading on service improvements and relevant initiatives, prioritising and facilitating professional development and research including outcome measurement. Contribute to advancing the profile of the department within the Trust, locally, and nationally.

Person Specification Education

• oRecognised Speech and Language Therapy Degree Qualification or equivalent (Post-Graduate Diploma or MSc in Speech and Language therapy leading to registration with HPC)
• oHealth Professions Council - Licence to Practice
• oEvidence of ongoing professional development
• oStudent and staff Clinical Supervision Course
• oMembership of relevant Clinical Excellence Networks
• oRegistered Member of Royal College of Speech and Language Therapist
• oEvidence of leadership training

Experience

• oExtensive post-graduation experience at an advanced/clinical specialist level, working within the relevant client group and experience of managing highly complex patients
• oExtensive experience of managing staff
• oExperience of advising/providing second opinions.
• oExperience of undertaking appraisal and planning CPD for less experienced staff
• oExperience of developing and delivering core and specialist training
• oExperience of presenting to a range of audiences, including service users, professionals and at conferences
• oEvidence of in -depth experience in specialist area including active networking with other specialists regionally and nationally
• oExperience of evidence based practice and research methodology, including research methodology

knowledge and skills

• oIn depth and expert knowledge of a range of appropriate therapeutic interventions and an ability to compare and contrast relative benefits
• oIn -depth knowledge of assessment tools
• oUnderstanding of the principles of clinical governance /audit
• oUnderstanding of multi-agency working and the roles of other professionals
• oKnowledge of a wide range of conditions relevant to client group and how they impact on clients' everyday functional independence and abilities, and the skill to apply this knowledge

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.