Children's Specialist Speech and Language TherapistNHS

Job summary

The Children's Therapies Team is an integrated therapies team providing Speech and Language Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Physiotherapy, supported by Specialist Nurse Advisors and Care Co-ordinators to children 0 - 19 years within KCHFT. We have an exciting opportunity for a full time Band 6 post on a permanent basis working across our early years and School Years teams.

We are looking for a therapist who has experience/an interest in supporting AAC and dysphagia in a range ofenvironments and is keen to develop their specialist skills. We would consider this as a developing specialist post. We have clinics across a range of venues in Canterbury / Thanet. We provide support to preschool children primarily through our Talking Walk-in model and primary, secondary and special schools across the East locality. KCHFT works within a Balanced System framework including the link therapist model.

Youwill provide advice, coaching, assessment and intervention to children and young people with a range of language and communication needs including AAC, social communication, language, speech, fluency, selective mutism and dysphagia. You will be supported by clinical specialists with access to regular supervision and learning opportunities to develop and consolidate your skills.

We currently offer a hybrid work pattern forstaff with face to face sessions offered from clinics and within the community and also sessions worked remotely from home.

Main duties of the job

• To assess, plan and implement SLT interventions that support children with a range of speech language and communication needs with a focuson AAC and dysphagia.* To deliver evidence-based SLT interventions for children that support them achieving their identified health outcomes.* To develop integrated care plans in partnership with the child, young person and / or family recommending and supporting interventions thatare appropriate at a universal, targeted and specialist level.* To participate in clinical supervision and to work as part of an integrated team with Therapy Assistants, OTs, PTs, SLTs, Care Co-ordinators andSpecialist Nurse Advisors offering support to colleagues as appropriate to knowledge and skills.* To actively work as a member of a multi disciplinary and multi-agency teams to provide high quality care to children and young people in linewith our care pathways.* To manage a caseload of children that on a daily basis that includes children and young people with complex needs.

Job description

As a community Trust, many of our roles require individuals to be able to drive to perform their duties. Where driving is a requirement of the role, you will be asked to confirm that you hold a full UK driving licence or a full driving licence issued by an EU country (not exchanged from a non-EU country) to proceed with your application. We are committed to supporting candidates with disabilities into employment. If you are unable to drive due to a disability, please contact the Recruitment Team [email protected], quoting the vacancy reference number, so we can support you further.

The job description and person specification gives you all the information you need about this role. Please look carefully at the criteria in the person specification and tell us what you have done that shows you meet this in your application. If you need an application form in an alternative format please let our recruitment team know. All information you supply on your application should, to the best of your knowledge, be true and accurate.

Still have questions? The recruiting manager would love to hear from you, their contact details can be found in the job advert.

We can get a lot of applications for some roles so to be in with the best chance of being shortlisted please make sure you apply as soon as possible. A vacancy may close early if there is a lot of interest in the job.

At KCHFT we strongly encourage colleagues in clinical and non-clinical roles who have direct or social contact with patients to be fully vaccinated. In this way we will be doing all we can to ensure your safety and that of your colleagues and the patients we serve.

Find out more about the community differencehere.

Good luck! We cant wait to meet you and welcome you to #teamKCHFT, #cometocommunity.

About us

Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust is due to integrate with Medway Community Healthcare on 1 October 2026. Following integration and to align our community services to the new Neighbourhood Model of care delivery, there will be a period of consultation which may result in changes affecting some services, teams or roles. Depending on the area you are applying to work in, this could include potential changes to your role, work base, reporting arrangements, or terms and conditions of employment. Any changes would be subject to consultation and managed sensitively and in line with relevant employment processes. Please do contact the recruiting manager if you have any concerns about this so they can answer any questions you might have.

Rated 'Outstanding' by CQC, we deliver high-quality care that improves the health of our communities. We are looking for people who share our values:Compassionate, Aspirational, Responsive and Excellent.

We are proud to be an inclusive, welcoming organisation and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds. We use protected characteristic information for monitoring only and it is not seen by recruiting managers, except where applicants choose to be considered under our disability guaranteed interview scheme.

We know life outside work matters. As a flexible working-friendly organisation, we welcome conversations about arrangements that help you thrive while supporting excellent care for our patients.

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