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Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust; Surrey Heath; On-site; GBP 30,000 - 48,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Disability Confident employer

Job summary

Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust is seeking a Bank Specialist Neonatal & Acute Paediatric Speech & Lang Therapist with neonatal and acute paediatric experience. You will operate within a MDT, delivering a high standard of dysphagia care for neonatal unit patients and paediatric inpatients and outpatients.

You will develop expertise in neonatal care and be supported to lead on quality improvement projects, with supervision and development opportunities through clinical leads and

Qualifications

• Specialist skills in neonatal dysphagia management and early communication development.
• Experience with high-risk infants and neonatal care.
• Ability to develop feeding and swallowing therapies and documentation.

Responsibilities

• Manage specialist assessment and therapeutic management of infants with dysphagia on neonatal and paediatric units.
• Independently manage a designated neonatal/paediatric in-patient and outpatient caseload with high-quality notes and reports.
• Lead the Videofluoroscopy clinic for inpatient and community patients.
• Provide SLT consultation to MDT and other professionals in patient assessment and care.

Skills

Specialist neonatal dysphagia

High risk infants

Development of feeding and swallowing

Early communication

Job description

Bank Specialist Neonatal & Acute Paediatric Speech & Lang Therapist B7

Company:

Company: Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust

A Vacancy at Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust.

This exciting cover is an opportunity for a SLT with both neonatal and acute paediatric experience, with a special interest in neonatal care looking to further develop neonatal skills.

You will be working as part of an MDT providing a specialist neonatal SLT service to a local neonatal unit (level 2) with ad-hoc provision to a special care baby unit (level 1).

There will be potential opportunities to lead on a Quality Improvement project within neonates to help further develop the Neonatal SLT service.

Informal clinical support will be available via a local Clinical Lead Neonatal SLT and external clinical supervision can be arranged.

Your role will also require you to provide holistic and developmentally supportive care to babies, children and families. You will independently manage an acute in-patient neonatal and paediatric dysphagia caseload across the paediatric ward and outpatient clinic settings.

You will undertake comprehensive assessment and management of a specialist neonatal and paediatric Dysphagia caseload demonstrating sound clinical knowledge and reasoning skills.

Please see the attached supporting job description and person specification document which contains more information about the role and requirements.

Please ensure your application refers to the job description and person specification.

Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust provides a range of medical services to approximately 490,000 people living across southwest London and northeast Surrey. In addition, we provide more specialist services, in particular renal and neonatal intensive care, to a wider area, covering parts of Sussex and Hampshire.

We serve an area that is rich in diversity, with a mix of urban and rural areas, and differing levels of quality of life. We cover some of the most prosperous postcodes in the country, as well as some poorer areas. Together with our colleagues at NHS Surreyand NHS Sutton and Merton, we work to make sure that we deliver the best possible care to the communities we serve.

The Trust employs approximately 5,000 staff across its hospitals and is supported by over 500 volunteers.

Clinical

• Manage and provide highly specialist assessment, differential diagnosis and therapeutic management of infants with dysphagia or developmental feeding and communication difficulties on the neonatal unit and acute paediatric in-patients and out-patient settings.
• To independentlymanage a designated caseload of neonatal and acute paediatric inpatients and outpatientsproducing a high standard of case notes and reports reflecting specialist neonatal knowledge.

To have acquired specialist skills in the areas of:

• Complex neonatal dysphagia management
• High risk infants
• Development of feeding and swallowing
• Early communication and interaction
• To show an understanding of neonatal best practice models of care such as Family Integrated Care, Developmental careand the Baby Friendly Initiative.

• Identify potential physiological compromise and risk for aspiration and advise on appropriate precautions to minimise the risks.
• Lead the Videofluoroscopy clinic, identifying appropriate patients and co-ordinating the VFSS process for inpatient and community patients.
• To provide expertise and specialist speech and language therapy advice and consultation to other professionals in relation to patient assessment, diagnosis, treatment and care within your specialist area, including participation in the MDT feeding clinic.
• To be involved in the provision of support, guidance and information to parents and other professionals regarding your specialist area
• To work as part of the MDT in undertaking comprehensive assessment of this specialist caseload, explaining and discussing treatment options and developing an agreed individualised, outcome-focussed treatment plan with the child’s parent / carers using clinical knowledge and sound clinical reasoning skills

Communication

• To communicate information in accessible formats to parents / carers, and other professionals and agencies.
• To have an awareness of the systems and processes of other agencies in order to work collaboratively with these agencies.
• To refer infants, children and / or families to other appropriate agencies as required.
• To demonstrate excellent verbal, non-verbal and written communication skills.
• To communicate complex and / or sensitive information in understandable form to parents / carers, which may be unwelcome or difficult to accept.
• To communicate information effectively and work collaboratively with partner agencies and professionals in health, social services, education and the voluntary sector to ensure the protection of vulnerable children. This may include some sensitive information.
• To use IT to communicate via e-mail, to obtain info from the internet / intranet and to obtain / input data on information systems.

This advert closes on Tuesday 1 Dec 2026

Proud member of the Disability Confident employer scheme

About Disability Confident Disability Confident is a government scheme. It encourages employers to recruit and retain disabled people and those with long term health conditions.

Company: Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust

Salary: £29.74 - £47.58 pro rata

Hours: Full-time

Location: Surrey, SM5 1AA

Job type: Permanent

Posting date: 3 Jul 2026

Closing date: 1 Oct 2026