Highly Specialist Speech & Language Therapist

While being part of the General Medical and Surgical SLT team, the successful applicant will take a lead role in introducing speech and language therapy provision within the emergency care pathway. This will include a focus on developing and delivering a highly specialised SLT service offering assessment and interventions to patients in A&E, the Same Day Emergency Care Unit and the Acute Medical Unit. You will develop, organise, and deliver an inpatient SLT service which aims to help prevent unnecessary admission to hospital, supports timely discharge and patient recovery, and provides prompt input, especially for those patients in the emergency care pathway who require specialist dysphagia and communication assessment and management. This will be particularly important for those approaching the end of life. You will have your own clinical caseload to manage, as well as leading on the development and introduction of a new SLT service, offering the chance to advance your leadership skills, while developing your specialist clinical practise. You will be an integral member of the wider multidisciplinary team, which includes medical, nursing and therapy staff. You will also work as an essential and valued member of the Acute Medical and Surgical SLT Team. The successful applicant will be managed by the Clinical Therapy manager within General Medical and Surgical Therapies team but will receive clinical support and supervision from the wider SLT service.

The Secretary of State has approved the partnership between St Helens & Knowsley Teaching Hospitals and Southport & Ormskirk Hospitals. From 1st July we have come together as a single organisation under the name Mersey & West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. The Trust delivers acute hospital care, intermediate care, community, and primary care services to a population of over 600,000 people with a combined workforce of around 9000 dedicated and skilled staff from 17 locations including Whiston, Southport & Formby, St Helens, Ormskirk and Newton hospitals. The Trust provides regional services for burns, plastic surgery and spinal injuries to more than 4 million people across Mersey and West Lancashire, Cheshire, the Isle of Man and North Wales. Our Vision is to deliver 5 Star Patient Care:

• CARE that is evidence based, high quality and compassionate
• SAFETY that is of the highest standards
• COMMUNICATION that is open, inclusive and respectful
• SYSTEMS that are efficient, patient centred and reliable
• PATHWAYS that are best practice and embedded, but also respect the individual needs of patients
Our achievements include:
• Trust rated Outstanding by CQC Inspection August 2018
• Top 100 places to work in the NHS (NHS Employers & Health Service Journal)
• Awarded National Preceptorship Accreditation (2023) for our Nursing & AHP Preceptorship Programme