Professional & Operational Lead for Speech and Language Therapy
Band 8a
Main area: Allied Health Professional
Grade: Band 8a
Contract: Permanent
Hours: Full time - 37.5 hours per week
Job ref: 350-SC7045727
Site: Ashworth HSS
Town: Liverpool
Salary: £53,755 - £60,504 per annum
Salary period: Yearly
Closing: 23/03/2025 23:59
Interview date: 04/04/2025
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 take positive action to support disadvantaged groups and also particularly encourage applications from ethnic minorities, disabled and LGBTQIA+ people that are under-represented in our workforce.
Job overview
We are currently looking to recruit a highly motivated and enthusiastic Band 8a Professional and operational lead for Speech and Language Therapy within our service. This post will be a full-time opportunity on a permanent basis. The base of the post is Ashworth High Secure Service, Maghull in Merseyside. This is an exciting opportunity to make a real difference in the ongoing development of Speech & Language Therapy provision within new models of care across our services.
Main duties of the job
The Division provides specialist services to adults who have a learning disability or mental health diagnosis across inpatient high secure services, medium secure services, low secure services and community forensic and non-forensic settings. We are developing new services and support for people within inpatient and community settings and the successful candidate will be motivated to develop innovative ways of working ensuring evidence based and outcome focused service delivery to improve people’s quality of life.
The post holder will provide operational management for the secure areas and professional leadership to Speech & Language Therapists across our LD community services in Lancashire, Greater Manchester and Merseyside and will hold a caseload agreed on clinical need. It is essential that you have an interest in working with individuals with mental health and learning disabilities within secure and non-secure inpatient and community services and have skills and experience in dysphagia and communication.
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.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
We are looking for people who share our core values of Continuous Improvement, Accountability, Respect, Enthusiasm and Support to work within our Secure and Specialist Learning Disability Division. The role covers a range of settings including:
* Ashworth High Secure Hospital
* HMP Liverpool
* Community Learning Disability Services
* Specialist Support Teams
As the Principal Speech and Language Therapist, you will be responsible for managing a clinical caseload as the needs of the service dictate; along with providing support and supervision for the wider services within the division. The role will include strategically leading the divisions Speech and Language Therapy workforce and supporting the implementation of AHP clinical strategies.
The post-holder will provide clinical leadership and management for the Speech and Language Therapy Resource for people aged 18+ including assessing, developing and implementing Expert Speech and Language Therapy treatment and evaluating outcomes in relation to dysphagia and communication.
The post-holder will be accountable for the delivery of the service, ensuring that the service is effective and well coordinated. They will manage and prioritise a highly complex and specialist caseload and workload independently and use expert knowledge to inform sound clinical judgement/decision making in the absence of a precedent. They will provide expert advice/second opinions to Speech and Language Therapists and other Professionals in areas of expertise.
The post-holder will ensure the delivery of the quality strategy within the designated area incorporating establishment of systems and processes.
They will be flexible to the demands of the environment including unpredictable work patterns, deadlines and frequent interruptions.
Person specification
QUALIFICATIONS
* Recognised Speech and Language Therapy Degree Qualification or equivalent
* Health Care Professions Council licence to practice
* Registered member of Royal College of Speech and Language Therapy
* Evidence of successful completion of specialist short courses up to Master’s degree equivalent.
* Member of Special interest group
* Advanced Certificate in Dysphagia
KNOWLEDGE /EXPERIENCE:
* Relevant advanced experience post qualification in specialist field
* Demonstrated extensive community working experience in highly specialist clinical role
* Experience of supervising less experienced staff
* Well-established knowledge of a broad range of assessment tools relevant to the specialist client group
* In-depth knowledge of clinical governance/audit
* Understanding of the roles of other professionals working in the field
* Knowledge of standards of record keeping
* Advanced knowledge of trends/best practice with the clinical specialism
* Knowledge of strategic direction of local organisation
* Experience of advising/providing second opinions
* Experience of developing case management skills in less experienced staff
* Experience of undertaking appraisal and planning CPD for less experienced staff
VALUES
* Accountability
* Supports
* Responsive to service users
* Engaging leadership style
* Transparency and honesty
SKILLS
* Excellent interpersonal skills – including observation, listening and empathy skills
* Demonstrates ability to be a good team player and assume leadership responsibilities
* The ability to lead on projects
* Excellent presentation skills, written and verbal
* The post-holder must be able to transport themselves around the community
* This post involves light physical effort, as a frequent requirement, several short periods during a shift
* The post-holder will maintain highly intense concentration in all aspects of patient management for prolonged periods. There may be unpredictable work patterns, deadlines and frequent interruptions
* Excellent organisational skills
* The ability to translate policy into practice
* Advanced negotiation and problem solving skills
* Demonstrates excellent analytical and reflection skills
* Understanding the impact of local culture, linguistic and demographic factors which influence service delivery in own clinical area of specialism
* Frequent exposure to highly distressing circumstances
Please ensure you check the email account from which you apply for all correspondence. All information regarding your application will come from apps.trac.jobs not NHS Jobs.
Only those applicants who demonstrate clearly how they meet our person specification will be shortlisted for interview.
As a Disability Confident Employer, we offer a guaranteed interview scheme for applicants who consider themselves to be disabled who meet the minimum (essential) criteria for the role in the person specification. If you would like your application to be considered under the Trust’s guaranteed interview scheme you can indicate this in the personal information section of your online application form.
Should you require a reasonable adjustment to our recruitment process please email recruitment@merseycare.nhs.uk to ensure that measures can be put in place to support you.
We reserve the right to close any vacancy earlier than advertised in exceptional circumstances once we have received a high volume of applications.
The Trust expects all post holders who require an enhanced DBS for their role to subscribe to the DBS Update Service. You will be required to enrol for this service for a fee of £16 per year and maintain registration.
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.
Name: Stephen Carragher
Job title: Operational Manager - AHPS
Email address: stephen.carragher@merseycare.nhs.uk
or alternatively contact Danielle Welsh (Head of AHP - Secure Division)
FULFIL YOUR POTENTIAL AND SPREAD YOUR WINGS WITH MERSEY CARE
At Mersey Care, our commitment to ‘perfect care’ lies at the heart of everything we do, a person centred care that starts with you.
#J-18808-Ljbffr