Clinical Specialist Speech and Language Therapist

Job overview

We are seeking a skilled and compassionate individual to join the NHS Children and Young People’s Gender Service (London) in the role of Clinical Specialist Speech and Language Therapist.

The post holder will provide leadership to manage and plan the delivery of a highly specialist speech and language service to the NHS Children and Young People’s Gender Service (London), and personally provide expert clinical input.

The post holder will be responsible to the Clinical Lead, and receive supervision and professional oversight from the head of paediatric Speech and Language Therapy.

The post offers opportunities to develop leadership skills by enabling you to take a key role in a number of exciting service development and research initiatives.

Unlock your potential and elevate your career by joining the NHS Children and Young People’s Gender Service (London). You will work in a dynamic, multi-disciplinary team with strong leadership. We are dedicated to fostering a supportive work environment and professional growth.

This role will be based in central London (Zone 1) close to transport links. The service is committed to supporting wellbeing through hybrid working, but there is an expectation to work onsite for a minimum of 60% of the working week.

Main duties of the job

The post holder will lead the clinical delivery of Speech and Language Therapy in the Children and Young People’s Gender Service (CYPGS). They will independently manage and have responsibility for a caseload of children and young people (CYP) who experience gender incongruence or who are gender questioning. The post holder will assess and manage CYP where there are concerns or needs related to communicative or vocal identity, social communication skills and/ or speech and language in collaboration with the CYPs locally based service. They will lead the Speech and Language Therapy team in the service and will be an integral member of the multi-disciplinary team. They will need knowledge and expertise in gender development and diversity, neurodevelopmental presentations, voice and mental health conditions. The post holder will act as a specialist adviser to speech and language therapists and other professionals. They will deliver education to CYP and their families, Speech and Language Therapists and other professionals. They will be responsible for line managing and supervising staff and educating students on placement.

This is a new and evolving service and there will be an expectation that the post holder will take an active role in continuous audit, research and service improvement projects.

The post holder will need to have sound awareness of their role boundary, professional limitations, ensuring they have regular supervision and access to training. They will need to identify transferable learning opportunities from allied fields of practice.

The post holder will be based in the Children and Young People’s Gender Service but will attend the Speech and Language Therapy Department at Evelina London Children’s Hospital/ Great Ormond Street Hospital for supervision, mentoring and support.

Working for our organisation

We are committed to recruiting the best person for the job through a fair, open and consistent process that is free from bias and discrimination.

We are working towards becoming an anti-racist organisation. This means creating a workplace where every colleague feels seen, heard and valued, and where racism in any form has no place. Our anti-racism commitment is backed by action through our Anti-Racism Statement and action plan, developed in collaboration with our REACH staff network.

We actively challenge discrimination, dismantle barriers and embed equity across all aspects of our workforce, including recruitment, progression and development. All applicants will receive equal consideration regardless of race, ethnicity, nationality, religion or belief, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, disability, health condition or employment history.

We particularly welcome applications from ethnically diverse communities, people with disabilities or long-term health conditions, and LGBTQ+ community members. We are proud to be a Disability Confident Employer, a member of the Business Disability Forum, and a Stonewall Diversity Champion.

Our staff networks, including REACH, PRIDE, ENABLED and Women’s Networks, are active and executive supported. These employee-led networks play a vital role in shaping an inclusive culture at GOSH and are open to all colleagues.

Together, we are building a culture where inclusion is not optional - it is essential.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The full job description provides an overview of the key tasks and responsibilities of the role, and the person specification outlines the qualifications, skills, experience, and knowledge required.

Person specification

Academic/Professional qualification/Training

Essential criteria

• Recognised Speech and Language Therapy Degree or equivalent
• Registered Member of the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists
• Health Professions Council Licence to practice
• Relevant Clinical Masters Degree or equivalent post graduate training
• Continued Professional Development Portfolio including evidence of reflective practice, in service training, courses attended and experienced gained
• The following post graduate training is relevant to the post: • Gender related healthcare management • Autism/ neurodevelopmental presentations

Desirable criteria

• Participation in publications

Culture and Values

Essential criteria

• Our Always Values
• Knowledge and understanding of diverse backgrounds and perspectives
• Understanding of Diversity and Inclusion challenges in the workplace.
• Demonstrable contribution to advancing Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in the Workplace

Experience/Knowledge

Essential criteria

• Knowledge of current approaches to working with Children and Young People in a Gender Service
• Assessment and management of children and young people who have concerns about their communicative/ vocal identity in the context of gender incongruence or being gender questioning.
• Assessment and management of children and young people where there are concerns about their social communication, receptive and expressive language, speech
• Assessment and management of children and young people with neurodevelopmental presentations autism
• Advocacy for children and young people who have difficulties communicating effectively to enable them to be involved in decisions about their care
• Multi-disciplinary supervision of students and line management of staff
• Team working goal planning, development of policies and clinical guidelines
• Compiling and delivering teaching/ training to other professions using an evidenced based approach
• Participation in quality improvement projects, audit, production of clinical guidelines, patient information and research
• The principles of ethical decision making in working with children and young people who may be vulnerable
• Process, policy and legislation related working in the field
• The roles of other professionals and the principles of partnership working with professionals across organisations and agencies
• The impact of cultural, linguistic and demographic facts on service delivery
• The principles of clinical governance including reflective practice, audit, outcome measures and research methodologies
• The methods that involve service users to co-produce and improve care

Desirable criteria

• Assessment and management of voice disorders
• Professional relevant psychological approaches counselling, CBT, mindfulness
• Voice experience auditory perceptual voice assessment, acoustic analysis, voice modification

Skills/Abilities

Essential criteria

• Excellent communication skills
• Use of knowledge to inform sound clinical judgements and decision-making for complex cases
• A range of informal and formal assessment tools appropriate to use to assess children and young people’s social communication skills and communicative identity
• A range of therapy techniques and approaches to support the children and young people’s social communication, communicative identity and functional communication.
• Expertise in neurodevelopmental conditions, specifically Autism
• Communicating complex sensitive information from assessment and management plans to service users, professionals and parent/carers.
• Engage and negotiate compassionately with service users, parents/carers and others
• Communicate relevant local policies, procedures and guidelines relevant to a range of audiences
• Recognise potential breakdown and conflict and generate solutions change management, conflict resolution
• Manage the emotional consequences of working in this service
• Reflect on own practice and identify strengths and development needs
• Interpersonal skills and leadership negotiation, team working, conflict management
• Recognise potential breakdown and conflict when it occurs and manage using recognised models and strategies
• Excellent written and verbal presentation skills to a range of audiences
• Manage the emotional consequences of working with service users in this service
• Manage and achieve change/ service improvement
• Highly developed negotiation, analytic and problem-solving skills
• Demonstrable self- organisational skills including prioritisation of the caseload
• Motivating services users to engage in the therapeutic process
• Sound knowledge of IT packages, including the use of Microsoft Office software
• Demonstrates ethical reasoning and critical reflection
• Committed to improve the experience of children, families and carers, appreciating complexity of context, culture of diversity
• Proven experience in the training, teaching and supervision of others
• Proven experience in developing and providing education and teaching programmes to other professionals and students
• Ability to apply Clinical Governance principles to practice
• Implementation of national initiatives and legislation relating to Health and Social Care in relation to Speech and Language Therapy
• Ability to work to deadlines and under pressure
• Ability to manage and recognise differences of opinion in both patient related and inter professional settings, coping positively with inter-professional tensions/ barriers
• Able to positively manage exposure to patients and environments which may be highly distressing, antagonistic, open to aggression and unpleasant
• Demonstrate ability to motivate and manage teams through change positively
• Experience of working within or across a clinical network
• Experience of using neurological and developmental outcome measures
• Knowledge of developmental care