Band 7 Speech and Language Therapist - Early Supported Discharge

As a Band 7 Speech and Language Therapist, you will join our Early Supported Discharge (ESD) Stroke Team based at Gravesham Community Hospital in Gravesend.

This is an exciting opportunity to play a leading role within a specialist community stroke service, supporting patients with communication and swallowing difficulties as they transition from hospital to home.

You will manage a specialist caseload of patients following stroke, delivering expert assessment, diagnosis and rehabilitation within a multidisciplinary team. This is a highly rewarding role where you will see the direct impact of your interventions, helping patients regain independence, improve quality of life and achieve meaningful goals in their own environment.

Alongside your clinical responsibilities, you will contribute to service development, support the growth of colleagues and rehabilitation assistants, and help shape the future of stroke rehabilitation services across North Kent.

Package Description

You will be joining a supportive and forward-thinking community stroke service, working alongside an experienced multidisciplinary team dedicated to delivering high quality rehabilitation and outstanding patient outcomes. The team embraces innovation, collaborative working and continuous improvement, creating an environment where your expertise and ideas are valued.

As part of HCRG Care Group, you will receive:

• NHS Agenda for Change Band 7 salary with an NHS pension
• 5% High-Cost Area Supplement
• Membership of My Reward Hub, giving you discounts on everyday purchases, plus cashback and voucher offers for treats and essentials
• Access to your wages as you earn them, helping cover life's emergencies and avoid overdraft fees or high interest borrowing
• Online and in-person wellbeing support, including mental health services, activity challenges, financial wellbeing tools, coaching and counselling
• Access to e-learning, bespoke career pathways and professional development opportunities through our ‘Outstanding’ Learning Enterprise team
• An open, just culture where you're encouraged to contribute ideas, backed by ringfenced innovation funding each year
• The pride of working for an organisation where the majority of our rated services hold ‘Good’ or ‘Outstanding’ ratings from the Care Quality Commission
• Free tea, coffee and milk at your base location

Main Responsibilities

In this role, you will lead the Speech and Language Therapy provision within the Early Supported Discharge pathway for patients following stroke. You will provide specialist assessment, diagnosis and treatment for adults with complex communication and swallowing disorders, using evidence-based practice to deliver high quality rehabilitation in community settings and community rehabilitation wards.

Working autonomously and as part of a wider multidisciplinary team, you will develop personalised care plans, support discharge planning and work closely with patients, carers and partner organisations to deliver coordinated care. You will be responsible for managing and prioritising your own caseload, whilst also contributing to referral triage and service planning.

You will act as a source of specialist expertise within the stroke pathway, providing clinical leadership, mentoring junior therapists and rehabilitation assistants, supporting student placements and delivering training to colleagues and external professionals. You will also contribute to service development initiatives, quality improvement projects and clinical audits to help continuously improve patient care.

Key responsibilities include:

• Delivering specialist assessment, diagnosis and rehabilitation for patients with communication and swallowing difficulties following stroke
• Managing a complex caseload within the Early Supported Discharge service
• Developing patient-centred treatment plans and rehabilitation goals
• Supporting patients, families and carers with education, advice and ongoing support
• Providing specialist dysphagia assessment and management
• Contributing to multidisciplinary care planning and discharge processes
• Supervising, mentoring and developing junior staff, students and rehabilitation assistants
• Leading and supporting service development, audit and quality improvement initiatives
• Delivering training and education to colleagues and partner organisations

As this is a community-based role, a full UK driving licence and access to a vehicle is essential.

Person Specification

Essential

• Degree or recognised qualification in Speech and Language Therapy
• Registration with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC)
• Membership of the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (RCSLT)
• Dysphagia trained and competent to independently manage patients with swallowing difficulties
• Significant post-registration experience working with adults following stroke
• Experience working within community, rehabilitation or stroke services
• Experience supervising junior staff, students or rehabilitation assistants
• Excellent knowledge of assessments and interventions for acquired communication and swallowing disorders
• Strong understanding of current stroke rehabilitation guidelines and evidence-based practice
• Excellent communication, clinical reasoning and problem-solving skills
• Ability to work autonomously and manage a complex caseload
• Confidence using IT systems and electronic patient records
• Full UK driving licence and access to a vehicle for work purposes

Desirable

• Experience within an Early Supported Discharge or community stroke service
• Experience leading service development, audit or quality improvement initiatives
• Experience delivering training to healthcare professionals and external organisations
• Additional postgraduate training relevant to stroke rehabilitation, communication disorders or dysphagia

About the Company

We change lives by transforming health and care. Established in 2006, we are one of the UK's leading independent providers of community health and care services, working with health and care commissioners and communities to transform services with a focus on experience, efficiency, and improved outcomes. We deliver and transform adult and children community health services, primary care services including urgent care, sexual health, dermatology and MSK services as well as adult social care and wellbeing services. Across England, we support communities of many millions and directly help more than half a million people each year, guided by our simple values: we care, we think, we do. We're committed to equal opportunities and welcome applications from a broad, diverse range of people who want to join our team. We're a Disability Confident Committed company, so we work to provide facilities, work environment adjustments and technical solutions to be as inclusive of everyone. While it doesn't happen often, sometimes a role is very popular and we'll need to close it earlier than the date we've shown here. If you're keen to join our team, we'd love to hear from you so please apply as soon as you can. As you'd expect, safeguarding and protecting the children, young people and vulnerable adults that we work with is of the utmost importance so we have policies and procedures in place to promote safeguarding and safer working practices and everyone who joins the team is subject to a safer recruitment process, including the disclosure of criminal records and vetting checks.