Highly Specialist Speech & Language Therapist - Autism Team Lead

Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust; Erith; On-site; GBP 51,000 - 59,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading healthcare provider in the UK is seeking a Highly Specialist Speech & Language Therapist to lead the Autism team. The role involves providing expert assessments, interventions, and leadership to improve communication support for children and young people with Autism. The successful candidate will work collaboratively within a multidisciplinary team, ensuring the delivery of high-quality care while fostering an inclusive environment. This position offers a competitive salary and the opportunity to make a significant impact in the community.

Qualifications

• Experience working as a highly specialist Speech & Language Therapist in relevant clinical specialism in last 18 months.
• Post graduate experience minimum of 5 years within Speech and Language.

Responsibilities

• Provide highly specialist assessment, diagnosis and intervention to children and young people with Autism.
• Plan and organise outreach support to therapists working in early years and school age.
• Lead on developments in Autism provision across the service.

Skills

Leadership

Communication

Education

Speech and Language Therapy Degree Qualification

Job description

Highly Specialist Speech & Language Therapist - Autism Team Lead

Band 7

Main area Children & Young People Grade Band 7 Contract Permanent Hours Full time - 37.5 hours per week Job ref 277-7041967-CYP-B

Site Erith Hospital Town Erith Salary £51,883 - £58,544 pa inc Salary period Yearly Closing 25/05/2025 23:59

Job overview

At Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust, we offer a wide range of NHS healthcare services to people living in South-East London and to people in prison across England. Our wide array of services includes community health care, such as district nursing and speech and language therapy, care for people with learning disabilities and mental health such as psychiatry, nursing and therapies. Oxleas is a great place to work. It has been recognised as one of the Top 10 Best Places to Work 2023 by the Sunday Times amongst very big employers. Our staff survey results show that we are in the Top 5 in England and the highest in London for staff experience amongst similar trusts.

“We are always delighted to welcome new colleagues to the Oxleas family. We care about making Oxleas a great place to work - it’s a big priority in our strategy. Come and join us - it’s a place where our values, teamwork, equity, and wellbeing matter and where you can really help to improve people’s lives.”

Chief Executive

We have distinctive values at Oxleas - We're Kind, We're Fair, We Listen, We Care. The post holder will be responsible for supervising the team of therapists and assistants providing communication support within the Autism service. They will lead on developments in Autism provision across the service including policies and procedures relating to clinical care, evidence-based practice, care pathways and outcome development.

Main duties of the job

They will provide highly specialist second opinions to other speech and language therapists. They will plan and organise outreach support to therapists working in early years and school age to support children’s transition. To provide leadership to the Speech and Language Therapy service for Autism in Bexley ensuring continued clinical service development. To demonstrate highly specialist knowledge in clinical specialism underpinned by current evidence-based practice. To manage a complex and highly specialist caseload independently and plan the workload of others. To make highly specialist clinical decisions in assessment of complex cases. To work effectively within a multidisciplinary team for assessment, care and provision, planning and implementation. To be available to support with the Autism Assessment Service. To work in partnership with parents /carers and education staff, to support them to develop their knowledge, skills, and confidence with regard to developing independence and management of the child’s communication skill development. To meet with parents, children and young people, taking and responding to feedback to develop care pathways and the quality of child and parent information. To take a clinical specialist role in the development of local clinical guidelines informed by evidence for children and young people with Autism and Speech, Language, and communication needs (SLCN).

Working for our organisation

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 Listen
• We Care

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• Provide highly specialist assessment, diagnosis and intervention to children and young people with Autism and other types of speech language and communication needs.
• To demonstrate and update knowledge of the Early Years and school age curriculum to enable effective goal setting. To attend relevant training and development in order to maintain and develop skills and knowledge required of a highly specialist therapist and maintain up to date HCPC and RCSLT registration.
• To provide mentoring, advice and support to other Speech and Language Therapists, and assistants to ensure consistency of management for clients.
• Provide student placements, including assessment of the placements as appropriate.
• To provide second opinions and specialist advice to other Speech and Language Therapists/other professionals to ensure consistency of management for children and young people with Autism.
• To explain the role of Speech and Language Therapists to visitors, students and volunteers.
• To co-ordinate support of students from other professional groups as appropriate within the team.
• To raise training needs within the team and plan and implement opportunities to meet those needs.
• To ensure dissemination of information related to up-to-date research within specialist area to relevant team members.
• To contribute to/manage the recruitment of new staff.
• To advise other colleagues on a range of clinical issues and facilitate their own problem-solving skills, both within the service and with external professionals and groups.
• To employ presentation skills to promote interagency liaison and collaborative practice to a broad range of audiences, including Head Teachers, SEN Officers and other Specialist Teams and other professionals.
• To contribute to the management of complaints and incidents, embedding learning where appropriate.
• To attend Autism working groups and service development forums, undertaking delegated projects. Leading internal meetings within clinical field.
• To monitor and evaluate own specialist service delivery and the service delivery or others working within the specialist field, and provide progress reports to co-ordinator, manager, and commissioners as appropriate.
• To be accountable for own professional action and recognise own professional boundaries, seeking advice as appropriate.
• To work independently accessing appraisal within an Individual Performance Framework at pre-determined intervals.

Clinical

• To assess, develop and implement Highly Specialist Speech and Language Therapy provision for children with social communication differences, Autism.
• To write reports reflecting highly specialist knowledge including Education, Health and Social Care plans and Tribunal reports.
• To provide appropriate highly specialist intervention and evaluate outcomes.
• To provide advice/second opinions to others regarding the management and care of children and young people with autism.
• To provide specialist clinical technical skills for interpretive techniques and interventions.
• To adapt practice to meet individual client circumstances.
• To use highly specialist knowledge to inform sound clinical judgements/decision making for case management.
• To reflect on auditory, visual and kinaesthetic aspects of client’s communication and to identify appropriate strategies to facilitate and enhance communicative effectiveness.
• To make a differential diagnosis on the basis of evidence from assessment seeking advice as appropriate.
• To develop clear highly specialist management plans together with child/parent/education staff based on best practice.
• To demonstrate the ability to reflect on practice with peers, mentors and Line Manager and identify own strengths and development needs.
• To attend specialist short courses and advanced training in the areas of Autism, SLCN and mental health.

Person specification

Education

• Recognised Speech and Language Therapy Degree Qualification or equivalent

Registrations

• HCPC Registration
• RCSLT Registration

Experience -Leadership

• Experience carrying out supervision and PDRs
• Evidence of leadership skills and people management

Training

• Evidence of specialist courses attended in relation to Autism specialism
• Evidence of leadership courses attended

Experience

• Experience working as a highly specialist Speech & Language Therapist in relevant clinical specialism in last 18 months.
• Post graduate experience minimum of 5 years within Speech and Language
• Experience of multi-disciplinary and inter agency working
• In-depth experience within specialist area/area of service deliver: Autism Spectrum Disorder and associated Speech and Language Communication needs.
• Experience of writing policies

We are committed to creating an inclusive workplace that welcomes and supports individuals of all abilities. Remember, if you meet the minimum criteria for this role and you have a disability, you can be guaranteed an interview under the Disability Confident Scheme - Please ensure you select this on your application form. We would encourage you to be open about your needs so we can work with you to design a comfortable and accessible interview experience. Any information you provide regarding a disability or a need for adjustments will be treated in confidence and will only be shared with colleagues who are supporting this request.

If you require any adjustments to participate fully in the interview process, please let us know by adding the relevant details when scheduling your preferred interview date and time. Please feel free to contact the appointing manager to discuss your needs.

We encourage applicants to contact the hiring manager before their interview, if they have any questions about the role or the process. This is a great way to get clarity and prepare effectively for the interview.

Please note that the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is prohibited during the interview process. We also discourage overuse of AI during the application process because this can negatively impact the quality of your application and may hinder your chances of being shortlisted. Thank you.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

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 Dennis Mlambo Job title Head-Bexley Children's Speech and Language Therapy Email address [e-mail] Telephone number 07949414508