Closing date: 27 August 2026

Job Summary
An exciting opportunity as emerged to join the Oxleas Adult Autism Service as we seek to appoint a Specialist Speech and Language Therapist to join our service within the new Community Autism Service (CAS) and the Autism Acute Support Team (AAST) working with Autistic adults with complex mental health difficulties and without a learning disability.

CAS is a newly established service focused on delivering specialist community-based support to autistic adults without a learning disability and without a mental health condition that would make them eligible for other services. AAST is a long-established service supporting autistic adults without a learning disability who are admitted to acute care due to a mental health crisis.

The post will be split across both teams, with a strong emphasis on close collaboration with multidisciplinary teams and on delivering high-quality assessment and intervention for individuals with Speech, Language and Communication Needs (SLCN).

Main duties of the job

• To manage own caseload of patients within CAS and AAST
• To line manage/clinically supervise SaLT Co-workers, SaLT Assistant and SaLT Students as needed
• To deliver high quality Speech and Language Therapy assessment, diagnosis and intervention to patients in partnership with their families/carers and the MDT
• To act as part of the multi-disciplinary mental health team and represent the Speech and Language Therapy Service at Team/Directorate meetings/working parties

About us
Oxleas offers a wide range of NHS healthcare services to people in community and secure environment settings. Our services include community health care such as district nursing and speech and language therapy, care for people with learning disabilities and mental health care such as psychiatry, nursing and therapies. Our multidisciplinary teams look after people of all ages and we work in close partnership with other parts of the NHS, local councils and the voluntary sector and through our new provider collaboratives. Our 4,300 members of staff work in many different settings including hospitals, clinics, prisons, secure hospitals, children's centres, schools and people's homes.We have over 125 sites in a variety of locations in the South of England. In London we operate within the Boroughs of Bexley, Bromley Greenwich and into Kent. We manage hospital sites including Queen Mary's Hospital, Sidcup and Memorial Hospital, Woolwich, as well as the Bracton Centre, our medium secure unit for people with mental health needs. We are the largest NHS provider of prison health services providing healthcare to prisons within Devon, Dorset, Bristol, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire, Kent and South London. We are proud of the care we provide and our people.

Our purpose is to improve lives by providing the best possible care to our patients and their families. This is strengthened by our new values:

We're Kind
We're Fair
We Listen
We Care

Details
Date posted: 30 July 2026
Pay scheme: Agenda for change
Band: Band 6
Salary: £45,953 to £54,254 a year pa inc
Contract: Permanent
Working pattern: Full-time
Reference number: 277-8066834-ALD-A
Job locations: Queen Mary's Hospital, 135 Shooters Hill, Sidcup, DA14 6LT, United Kingdom

Job responsibilities
See attached Job description and Person Specification for details of main responsibilities for this role.

Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential

• Professional SaLT qualification
• Member of RCSLT
• HCPC Registration

Experience
Essential

• Completed RCSLT NQP competencies
• Previously working in a health MDT

Desirable

• Previously worked as a SaLT within an Autism service
• Previously worked as a SaLT in mental health

Skills and Abilities
Essential

• Knowledge of the relationships/interactions between Autism - Speech, Language and Communication Needs - Mental Illness

Desirable

• Awareness of a range of specialist assessment tools

Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Certificate of Sponsorship
Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).

From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).

UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).

Employer details
Employer name: Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust
Address: Queen Mary's Hospital, 135 Shooters Hill, Sidcup, DA14 6LT, United Kingdom
Employer's website: http://oxleas.nhs.uk/

Employer contact details
For questions about the job, contact: Highly Specialist Speech & Language Therapist, Victoria Biggs, v.biggs4@nhs.net, 02086765453