Highly Specialist Speech & Language Therapist (Autism & Mental Health)

NHS; Sidcup; On-site; GBP 36,000 - 45,000; Full time

Job summary

Join a leading service provider within the NHS as a Highly Specialist Speech & Language Therapist, focusing on support for autistic adults facing mental health challenges. Working alongside a multidisciplinary team, you will lead assessments and interventions, contributing significantly to tailored care strategies. Ideal for practitioners eager to advance their skills in a compassionate, community-oriented environment.

Qualifications

• Minimum of 2 years experience at band 6 level.
• Experience working with adults with mental health difficulties and Autism.
• Experience of professional supervision of other Speech & Language Therapists.

Responsibilities

• Provide Speech & Language Therapy input to clients admitted or at risk of admission to acute care.
• Conduct specialist assessments for a diverse range of service users with autism and comorbid psychiatric conditions.
• Collaborate with multidisciplinary teams including OTs and Psychologists.

Skills

Knowledge of Autism Spectrum Disorder

Education

Recognised Speech and Language Therapy Degree Qualification or equivalent

Completion of further post-qualification specialist training in Autism

Job description

Highly Specialist Speech & Language Therapist (Autism & Mental Health)

Information:

This job is now closed

Job summary

We are pleased to announce an exciting opportunity within the Oxleas Adult Autism Service for a Highly Specialist Speech & Language Therapist. The successful candidate will join our multidisciplinary team dedicated to working with autistic adults without a learning disability. This service offers clinical specialist support to community mental health teams, acute care/psychiatric wards, and other local teams assisting autistic individuals with comorbid psychiatric disorders, ensuring their inpatient and community care is tailored to meet their unique needs.

The position requires the post holder to provide SaLT leadership within the service, conducting specialist assessments and offering support to a diverse range of service users with autism and comorbid psychiatric conditions, in collaboration with other autism specialists on our MDT.

This role involves close collaboration with social care professionals, community mental health teams, acute care teams, and other colleagues from partner agencies through consultation, participation in multi-professional meetings, and contributing to training initiatives. This position provides an excellent opportunity for the successful candidate to pursue specialist interests and develop highly specialized skills in discipline-specific assessments and multi-disciplinary support of autistic adults.

Main duties of the job

To provide clinically effective, person centred, evidence based Speech & Language Therapy assessment and intervention to :

• To provide Speech & Language Therapy input to clients admitted or at risk of admission to acute care.
• To provide Speech & Language Therapy support to and work alongside CMHTs, psychiatric wards and community stakeholders working with the above cohort of service users in the community and in acute care settings.
• To provide SaLT leadership withing the MDT and work under the wider directives of the directorate SaLT professional lead
• To practice within the multidisciplinary team and in close partnership with OTs, Psychologists and support workers, ensuring the highest possible standards of practice.

About us

Oxleas offers a wide range of NHS healthcare services to people in community and secure environment settings. Our services include community health care such as district nursing and speech and language therapy, care for people with learning disabilities and mental health care such as psychiatry, nursing and therapies. Our multidisciplinary teams look after people of all ages and we work in close partnership with other parts of the NHS, local councils and the voluntary sector and through our new provider collaboratives. Our 4,300 members of staff work in many different settings including hospitals, clinics, prisons, secure hospitals, children's centres, schools and people's homes.We have over 125 sites in a variety of locations in the South of England. In London we operate within the Boroughs of Bexley, Bromley Greenwich and into Kent. We manage hospital sites including Queen Mary's Hospital, Sidcup and Memorial Hospital, Woolwich, as well as the Bracton Centre, our medium secure unit for people with mental health needs. We are the largest NHS provider of prison health services providing healthcare to prisons within Devon, Dorset, Bristol, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire, Kent and South London. We are proud of the care we provide and our people.

Our purpose is to improve lives by providing the best possible care to our patients and their families. This is strengthened by our new values:

• We're Kind
• We Listen
• We Care

Job responsibilities

See Job Description and Person Specification attached for details relevant to the role and main responsibilities

Person Specification

Qualifications

• Recognised Speech and Language Therapy Degree Qualification or equivalent & HCPC registration
• Completion of further post-qualification specialist training in Autism

Experience

• Minimum of 2 years experience at band 6 level work
• Experience of professional supervision of other Speech & Language Therapists
• Experience of working with adults with mental health difficulties and Autism
• Experience of specialist assessment and treatment of clients across the full range of care settings, including outpatient, community, primary care and in patient settings
• Experience of working within a multi-disciplinary team

Knowledge

• Evidence of knowledge of Autism Spectrum Disorder

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.

Specialist Speech & Language Therapist Lead