Highly Specialist/Advanced Speech and Language Therapist (ASD) (NHS AfC: Band 7) - Autism Spect[...]

Alder Hey Children's NHS Foundation Trust; Liverpool City Region; On-site; GBP 46,000 - 53,000; Full time

Job summary

Alder Hey Children's NHS Foundation Trust is seeking a Highly Specialist/Advanced Speech and Language Therapist to join their dedicated multidisciplinary team. This role focuses on providing exceptional assessments and support for children and young people with Autism Spectrum Disorder. With a commitment to quality care and professional development, the position offers a rich environment for collaboration and innovation. Ideal candidates will have a recognized therapy qualification with substantial experience, as well as a passion for making a difference in the community.

Benefits

Flexible working opportunities

Lease car scheme

Generous annual leave

Extensive staff health and well-being programmes

Qualifications

• Substantial relevant experience post qualification, demonstrating experience as a Specialist Speech and Language Therapist.
• In-depth experience within specialist area, particularly ASD.
• Well established knowledge of assessment tools relevant to the specialist client group.

Responsibilities

• Provide high quality speech, language and social communication assessments for ASD.
• Work with professionals to deliver multidisciplinary assessments for diagnosis.
• Plan care and assessment needs of new referrals into the service.

Skills

Communication

Empathy

Problem-Solving

Education

Recognised Speech and Language Therapy degree qualification or equivalent

Health Professional Council - License to Practice

Registered Member of Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists

Evidence of successful completion of specialist short courses up to Master's degree equivalent

Job description

Main area Autism Spectrum Disorder Grade NHS AfC: Band 7 Contract 12 months (12 months fixed term position) Hours Full time - 37.5 hours per week Job ref 411-COM-25-7230217

Employer Alder Hey Children's NHS Foundation Trust Employer type NHS Site Alder Hey Children's NHS Foundation Trust Town Liverpool Salary £46,148 - £52,809 Per annum Salary period Yearly Closing 18/06/2025 23:59

Highly Specialist/Advanced Speech and Language Therapist (ASD)

NHS AfC: Band 7

Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust is a provider of specialist health care and has a presence in community outreach sites and, in collaboration with other providers, our clinicians help deliver care closer to patients’ homes by holding local clinics at locations from Cumbria to Shropshire, in Wales and the Isle of Man. The Trust also provides inpatient care for children with complex mental health needs at our Sunflower House building newly relocated, and opened on the hospital site.

We currently have more than 4,000 staff working across our community and hospital sites. We’re also a teaching and training hospital providing education and training to around 540 medical and over 500 nursing and allied health professional students each year.

As black and minority ethnic (BME) employees are currently under-represented in this area, we particularly welcome applications from members of our BME communities. All appointments will be made on merit.

You can expect a warm welcome at Alder Hey Children's NHS Foundation Trust, our staff are friendly and welcoming. We listen to each other and work together to embed our Trusts values and behaviours. At Alder Hey we appreciate our staff and reward them with an outstanding benefits package including:

• Great flexible working opportunities
• Lease car scheme and Home Electronics Scheme
• Generous annual leave and pension scheme
• Extensive staff health and well-being programmes

Job overview

This is an exciting opportunity for an experienced and dynamic speech and language therapist to work in the area of ASD assessment and post diagnostic support.

• 1 fixed term for 12 months

Working as part of a diverse and expert multidisciplinary team you will contribute to the assessment, diagnosis and post diagnostic support of children and young people with ASD / Neurodiversity. The team is supportive, warm and friendly with good opportunities for interdisciplinary working and professional development. The team is expanding in remit and numbers and the successful candidates will part of this expansion of service. For further information please contact Jenny Corsie, Principal Speech and Language Therapist ([e-mail])

Main duties of the job

• To provide high quality speech, language and social communication assessments to inform a multidisciplinary assessment of ASD.
• To work with other professionals to plan and deliver multidisciplinary assessments to support the ASD diagnostic process
• To deliver a range of ASD specific assessments to support diagnosis
• To participate in multidisciplinary outcome meetings
• To carry out clinical triage on new referrals into the service
• To plan care and assessment needs of new referrals into the service
• To support and deliver aspects of the post diagnostic offer
• To support service development of assessment process and practice
• To provide advice and signposting to parents and professional at any stage of the assessment process
• To be available for advice, support and teaching of other therapists

Working for our organisation

As one of Europe’s biggest and busiest children’s hospitals, at Alder Hey Children's NHS Foundation Trust, we treat everything from common illnesses to highly complex and specialist conditions.In addition to our main hospital site, we offer paediatric services at a number of community sites and hold local clinics across Merseyside, Cumbria, Shropshire, Wales and the Isle of Man. We also provide specialist inpatient care for children with complex mental health needs in our recently relocated and newly opened state of the art facility.

Alder Hey has a thriving research portfolio and leads research into children’s medicines, infection, inflammation and oncology. We are becoming recognised as one of the world’s leaders in children’s healthcare and research. We contribute to public health, lead cutting-edge research and teach the next generation of children’s specialists. Alongside this is ourInnovation Hub, a dedicated space where clinicians and industries can come together to create new products and technologies.

We know that a children’s hospital is different and that our job is more than just treating an illness. To us, every child is an individual. As well as giving them the very best care, we set out to make them feel happy, safe and confident as they play, learn and grow. At Alder Hey we are here to look after a child and their family and that includes mums, dads, brothers and sisters.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Job responsibilities

• Managerial and Leadership
• Clinical
• Caseload Management
• Other Requirements
• Working Condition
• Professional Responsibility

See Job Description for further info.

Person Specification

Qualifications

• Recognised Speech and Language Therapy degree qualification or equivalent.
• Health Professional Council - License to Practice
• Registered Member of Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists
• Evidence of successful completion of specialist short courses up to Master's degree equivalent.
• Membership of relevant Special Interest Groups.

Experience

• Relevant experience and undergraduate/post-graduate level
• Substantial relevant experience post qualification, including demonstrable experience working as a Specialist Speech and Language Therapist
• In-depth experience within specialist area

Knowledge/Skills/Abilities

• Well established knowledge of a broad range of assessment tools relevant to the specialist client group
• In-depth knowledge of national policies and procedures (relevant to the specialist client group)
• In-depth 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.
• Understanding of the roles of other professionals (relevant to the client group)
• Knowledge of standards of record keeping.
• Excellent interpersonal skills - including observation, listening, and empathy skills.
• Demonstrates excellent analytical and reflection skills.
• Excellent organisational skills and ability to prioritise
• Demonstrates ability to be a good team member and develop leadership responsibilities.
• Excellent presentation skills, both verbal and written.

Person specification

Qualifications

• Recognised Speech and Language Therapy degree qualification or equivalent.
• Health Professional Council – License to Practice
• Registered Member of Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists
• Evidence of successful completion of specialist short courses up to Master’s degree equivalent.
• Membership of relevant Special Interest Groups.

Experience

• Substantial relevant experience post qualification, including demonstrable experience working as a Specialist Speech and Language Therapist.
• In-depth experience within specialist area.

Knowledge/Skills/Abilities

• Well established knowledge of a broad range of assessment tools relevant to the specialist client group.
• In depth knowledge of national policies and procedures (relevant to the specialist client group)
• In depth 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.
• Understanding of the roles of other professionals (relevant to the client group)
• Knowledge of standards of record keeping.
• Excellent interpersonal skills – including observation, listening, and empathy skills
• Demonstrates excellent analytical and reflection skills.
• Excellent organisational skills and ability to prioritise.
• Demonstrates ability to be a good team member and develop leadership responsibilities.
• Excellent presentation skills, both verbal and written.

Mental Effort

• Highly developed negotiation and problem-solving skills
• Good auditory discriminations skills and ability to transcribe speech phonetically.

Physical Effort

• Ability to travel across the geographical area to be covered.

We reserve the right to close vacancies without notice when we have received a sufficient number of applications from which to make a shortlist. Please ensure you apply without delay if you wish to be considered for this role.

Please ensure you check the email account from which you apply regularly as we will contact you using this regarding your application. All candidates will be notified via email whether or not they have been shortlisted.

Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. We are committed to creating a well-managed, flexible working environment that supports staff and promotes their welfare and development. We actively promote equality and diversity and operate a Zero Tolerance policy to aggression, violence, bullying and harassment.

Should you require any assistance during the application stages please contact recruiting manager of vacancy or the recruitment team at [e-mail] or call 0151 282 4599

Please declare within the supporting information if artificial intelligence (AI) has been used in your application.

Please note, the selection processes at Alder Hey Children's Hospital NHS Foundation Trust are in place to ensure we recruit candidates with the right skills and values, please be advised that the use of AI in applications are monitored. We remain vigilant against candidates who misuse these tools to generate an application that doesn’t accurately reflect their skills.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

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.