Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust is a Top Employer Award Winner. We have a Health and Justice Services Directorate, within which sits the ‘Children and Young People’ Service line working in partnership with ‘Youth Custody Service’ colleagues to provide responsive, trauma-informed primary care, mental health, neuro-developmental and substance misuse services to the young people and young adults within our care.

Detailed Job Description And Main Responsibilities

Please see attached JD&PS for full details of duties and responsibilities.

• To develop care pathways for an identified cohort of children who present with significant SLCN.
• To deliver highly specialist clinical decision-making – including induction screening, detailed assessment, differential diagnosis, treatment, evaluation, discharge and general management of a diverse and complex caseload.
• To provide a broad range of treatments to a highly specialist standard – including those for phonological awareness delay, speech sound disorder, auditory attention and processing difficulties, language disorder, social communication delay and disorder, stammering and voice problems.
• To maintain an up-to-date, advanced level of theoretical knowledge and therapeutic evidence-based practice.
• To provide highly specialist advice and support for other professionals on communication and related issues in order to build an effective communication environment for the children in their care. This may include advising on how documentation provided for the children can be more easily understood.
• To provide highly specialist advice to parents, carers and relevant professionals on the impact of communication impairment on a child’s educational, social and emotional development/status – including impairments related to offending history.
• To involve children in the development of their care plan and targets where possible.
• To provide verbal and typed reports, therapy programmes and other types of complex information to an excellent standard for the child, families, carers and relevant professionals and to adapt the content to the communication styles and diverse backgrounds of the recipients. This may include the need to overcome barriers to understanding or motivation – which may include English as an additional language (EAL), mental health difficulties and environmental issues.
• To share appropriate clinical information with those professionals supporting the child’s progress through the Criminal Justice System (CJS), including Intermediaries, and agencies involved with integration back into the community.

Person Specification

Education and Criteria

Essential Criteria

• Degree level or equivalent in relevant clinical profession.
• Evidence of broad post qualification educational background.
• Holds current professional registration.
• Evidence of successful completion of specialist short courses post qualification.

Desirable Criteria

• Additional training / qualifications in relevant CAMHS assessment and treatment approaches.
• CBT training.
• Learning Disability training.

Previous Experience

Essential Criteria

• Relevant highly specialised post-qualification experience of autonomous working with children in groups and individually.
• Experience of working with children with complex needs and associated challenging behaviour.
• Minimum experience of at least two clinical specialisms.

Desirable Criteria

• Experience of working in a large multidisciplinary health team.
• Experience of supervising others in a clinical and performance management context including appraisal.
• Experience of working in an education setting.

Skills and Knowledge

Essential Criteria

• Knowledge of a broad range of assessment tools and therapeutic interventions relevant to children.
• Knowledge of and skills in assessing young patients for SALCNs balancing risk with patient needs and service priorities.
• Knowledge of legislation and its implications for both clinical practice and professional management in relation to relevant field and the full range of patient conditions.
• High standard of SLCT care and commitment to maintaining skills.
• Knowledge of evidence-based practice, clinical governance and related knowledge for research and audit.
• Evidence of continuing professional development as required by the Speech and Language professional body.
• Ability to work with non-verbal clients or clients for whom using English is a major difficulty which could be for cultural reasons, or due to their mental state.
• Computer literacy and high standard of typed communication skills including the ability to produce clear reports detailing progress of therapy, selecting relevant information from sessions and expressing analytical detail without bias.
• Understanding of the roles of other members of a multidisciplinary mental health team.

Desirable Criteria

• Understands the importance of assessment that explores and considers individual cultural identity and associated support needs.
• Good knowledge of national and strategic developments in child and adolescent mental health.
• Trained to use SystmOne (healthcare IT program).