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Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust
About
At Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust (GHC), we provide joined-up mental health, physical health and learning disability services to people of all ages across Gloucestershire. We run community hospitals and provide care and support in people’s own homes and in a range of other locations across the county.
Speech & Language Therapy Assistant Practitioner
Accepting applications until: 05-May-2025 23:59
Vacancy status: Open
Accepting applications until: 05-May-2025 23:59
Key details
Location
- Site
- Cheltenham General Hospital
- Address
- Sandford Road
- Town
- Cheltenham
- Postcode
- GL53 7AN
- Major / Minor Region
- Gloucestershire
Contract type & working pattern
- Contract
- Permanent
- Hours
- Full time - 37.5 hours per week
Salary
- Salary
- £26,530 - £29,114 per annum
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Grade
- (Band 4)
Specialty
- Main area
- Speech & Language Therapy
We love what we do and we think you will, too!
At Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust (GHC), we provide joined-up mental health, physical health and learning disability services to people of all ages across Gloucestershire. We run community hospitals and provide care and support in people’s own homes and in a range of other locations across the county.
We are on a mission to enable people to live the best life they can and we have a vision to work together to provide outstanding care. We put people at the heart of our services, focusing on personalised care by asking ‘what matters to you’.
We’re passionate about making sure that everyone can contribute to achieving our mission and we are continually working to support healthy and happy high-quality teams in all areas of the Trust.
Our application process aims to understand each candidates knowledge, skills and experience. We have found that candidates that use AI to generate their answers can lack specificity and fail to address key criteria outlined in the job description.
It is really important to personalise your application to convey your individual skills, knowledge, and experiences effectively and for us to understand why you are applying for this role with GHC. We discourage over reliance on AI-generated applications as it will lessen your chances of success in securing an interview with us .
Job overview
We have an exciting role in our team for an enthusiastic and proactive Speech & Language Therapy Assistant Practitioner. You should have prior experience working as a therapy support worker/rehabilitation assistant, ideally in the clinical area of Stroke.
The successful applicant will join our well-established Speech & Language Therapy team, working alongside experienced Speech & Language Therapists and the wider multidisciplinary team. You will be supported to develop relevant competencies and you will receive on the job training. We are looking for an individual who is motivated with their development, enthusiastic and flexible in their approach to work. The ability to work well with all members of the multi- disciplinary team is essential. You will need to have excellent communication, listening and IT skills, be able to work as part of a team and be able to motivate patients.
Advert
You will have the opportunity to work with patients throughout the acute Stroke pathway, working across both the hyper-acute unit and the acute stroke unit which are both based at Cheltenham General Hospital. This role involves working directly with patients with communication and/or swallowing difficulties. This may involve admin tasks, carrying out communication screens and therapy programmes directed by qualified therapists, making resources e.g. communication books or utilising technology to enable patients to communicate by alternative means and liaising with multi-disciplinary colleagues.
The qualification, training & experience requirements for the role are underlined in the Job Description/Person Specification.
Working for our organisation
We have in excess of 5000 staff working over 50 sites, providing a diverse range of services. We strive to support an organisational culture that is welcoming, builds and celebrates inclusivity and diversity and provides a sense of belonging and trust.
The annual NHS Staff Survey gives our people the opportunity to tell us about their experience working at the Trust. For the 2023 survey just over 2800 colleagues gave us their views (58.5%). It was great to see from the results that colleagues are saying that:
- 89.7% believe they are making a positive difference to patients/service users;
- 73.3% would recommend the organisation as a place to work;
- 82.4% agree that care of patients and service users is the organisations priority;
- 76.7% would be happy with the standard of care for a friend or relative
Our results put us as 5th nationally as a Community, Mental Health and Learning Disabilities NHS Employer of Choice and 1st equal amongst all NHS Provider Trusts in the South West. However, we know we have more to do and will continue to drive forward our commitment to making GHC a Great Place to Work.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
To assess patients, identifying areas of impairment, potential complications and contraindications and referring back for assessment by a registered practitioner when necessary. To provide appropriate follow up treatment within a delegated framework of responsibilities, reporting back to registered staff and referring on to other agencies when necessary.
To use clinical reasoning skills to agree functional goals and develop and evaluate the treatment plan. To implement and progress treatment programmes in order to promote optimal communication and swallowing abilities.
To exercise autonomy in the management of the caseload in the clinical area. To undertake specific unaccompanied work and organise own caseload.
To use verbal and non-verbal communication tools to communicate effectively with patients/carers. This may include education, motivation, persuasion, and empowerment. This will include patients/carers who may or may not have barriers to communication through cognitive or physical impairment e.g. hearing or visual impairment, confusion and depression
To use own clinical and non-clinical observation skills and accurately record these observations to support therapy packages.
To participate in own continuing professional development (CPD), including supervision, appraisal and training to ensure competency, service quality and meet the clinical governance agenda and organisational goals.
To undertake administrative tasks to support the Therapy team and ensure the ongoing care and rehabilitation of the patient. To include making accurate entries in the Speech & Language Therapy and electronic medical records. To contribute to measuring the treatment outcomes and audit activity related to the service. To contribute to the development of the service, and representing the Therapy service at internal and external meetings when delegated
Applicant requirements
Person specification
Qualifications
Essential criteria
- GCSE level C or equivalent for literacy and numeracy
- NVQ level 3/City & Guilds in Health & Social care or equivalent experience in healthcare setting
Length and/or nature of Experience
Essential criteria
- Experience as a therapy support worker/rehabilitation assistant in the clinical area of Stroke
- Significant experience of using advanced interpersonal and communication skills with patients and carers
- Experience of working as part of a multi-disciplinary team within an NHS environment
- High level of computer literacy e.g. ability to create communication books on Microsoft Publisher/ability to quickly learn new clinical systems
Desirable criteria
- Experience of working as a Speech & Language Therapy assistant with adults
Professional/Managerial/Specialist Knowledge
Essential criteria
- Knowledge about the Speech & Language Therapy profession
Desirable criteria
- Awareness of strategies which support speech, language and communication difficulties
- To be able to perform therapeutic mouth care on nil by mouth patients
Personal skills, abilities and attributes
Essential criteria
- Ability to recognise and to work within appropriate boundaries of policies, professional standards and requirements e.g. working with dysphagia
- Demonstrate an ability to act on own initiative when working independently in challenging environments
- To produce accurate documentation of treatments
- To be able to use verbal and non-verbal communication skills with patients and relatives where there will often be barriers to effective communication.
- To be approachable and be able to work flexibly in response to the changing demands of the service
- To be able to deal sensitively with patient and/or relatives who have high levels of anxiety/aggression associated with dementia, cognitive or communication difficulties
- Work and maintain judgment under pressure whilst effectively managing time.
- Demonstrate an ability to act on own initiative when working independently in challenging environments
- To be able to perform treatments with stroke patients with moderate to intense mental and emotional effort on a daily basis.
- Demonstrate a commitment to lifelong learning, with self-awareness of own knowledge and learning needs, and ability to seek support appropriately.
- To be able to communicate effectively with SLT and MDT colleagues regarding patient progress
- To be able to accurately and appropriately relay information from other members of the MDT to Speech and Language Therapy colleagues
Desirable criteria
- To develop negotiation skills in the management of conflict across a range of situations
- To be able to deliver an assessment or therapy session for patients with non-complex communication difficulties, adapting as appropriate depending on patient response
Further details / informal visits contact
- Name
- Rachael Smith
- Job title
- Clinical Lead Speech & Language Therapist
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Telephone number
- 03004224120
- Additional information
Helen Spear
Head of Service for Physical Health Speech and Language Therapy
07929385487/07738336903
Email: [email protected]
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