Job summary
If you're passionate about shaping children's communication in schools and thrive in a dynamic environment, we have the perfect opportunity for you!

Join us in Islington as a Band 5 Mainstream Schools Speech and Language Therapist and help transform the educational experience for children with speech, language, and communication needs.

What you can expect:

• Supportive Caseloads: Manageable caseload with dedicated time for clinical and non-clinical duties, especially in your first year.
• Collaborative Environment: Work alongside a skilled multidisciplinary team, including school staff, outreach staff, and Occupational and Physiotherapists.
• Development Opportunities: Ongoing clinical supervision and the chance to build skills and learn from highly experienced and talented therapists across primary and secondary schools.

Are you ready for a strong start to your career while making a difference in schools? We'd love for you to join us!

Main duties of the job
The post holder will be responsible for delivering a comprehensive service to children and young people attending mainstream schools, including assessment, diagnosis and intervention for individual children and young people as well as providing a support service to schools themselves. The post holder is an autonomous practitioner and is responsible for organising and managing their own caseload in up to 5 mainstream schools (primary and potentially secondary), working from a central base. They will work with children and young people with a wide range of speech, language and communication needs including Developmental Language Disorders, Selective Mutism, Speech difficulties and children with language disorders in association with conditions such as Autistic Spectrum Condition, Down's Syndrome and ADHD.

Find out what it is like to work in our friendly, supportive teams which span hospital and community settings across vibrant and diverse North Central London first hand, visit http://www.whittington.nhs.uk/CYPrecruitment (you may have to copy and paste this link into your browser) to hear from some of our current staff about why they chose to join and stay at Whittington Health.

About us
Medical services have been delivered on the Whittington Hospital site for over 500 years. On 1st April 2011, Whittington Health was launched as a new Integrated Care Organisation (ICO) comprising The Whittington Hospital NHS Trust, NHS Islington and NHS Haringey. The Whittington and the community health services in Islington and Haringey are award winning organisations, delivering acute and community based health services to a population of 443,000 people. The organisation is the biggest employer in the area, with over 4,500 staff; delivering healthcare not only on the acute hospital site which has 420 beds, but also from a variety of other community based health centres and through visits to patients homes across the boroughs to address the health needs of the local population. Whittington Health also works with other health, social care and voluntary sector partners to support patients and service users from their initial appointment whether it be with a community health team or at the hospital, all the way through to treatment and tailored after care. We are one of the three main teaching campuses for the Royal Free and University College Medical School. Our ICARE (Innovation, Compassion, Accountability, Respect and Excellence) Values not only help us shape what we do, but also how we do it and why. They are fundamental to the way we do business and care for our patients. For more information, please access the following link: https://www.whittington.nhs.uk/

Details
Date posted: 14 October 2026
Pay scheme: Agenda for change
Band: Band 5
Salary: £38,488 to £46,852 a year Per Annum Including HCAS
Contract: Permanent
Working pattern: Full-time
Reference number: 220-WHT-8338492
Job locations: Northern Health Centre, 580 Holloway Road, Islington, N7 6LB, United Kingdom

Job responsibilities

• To demonstrate basic clinical expertise in the assessment, treatment and management of language and communication difficulties in school aged children providing appropriate intervention and evaluating outcomes
• To demonstrate clinical effectiveness drawing on evidence based practice and outcome measures
• To demonstrate highly developed auditory and perceptual skills in the assessment, diagnosis and treatment of patients/clients
• To make basic differential diagnoses and clinical decisions based on evidence from assessment, seeking support and advice from a supervisor as appropriate
• To develop knowledge and skills in a range of language and communication difficulties in school aged children with training, support and supervision from clinical supervisor as appropriate.
• To develop clear care plans based on best practice
• To provide advice to others regarding the management and care of children with language and communication difficulties
• To communicate complex condition related information from assessment to clients, carers, families and members of the multi-disciplinary team/other professions, demonstrating empathy and ensuring that effective communication is achieved, particularly where barriers to understanding exist
• To work closely with clients, carers and families in order to agree plans of management
• To deal with initial complaints sensitively, avoiding escalation where possible
• To form productive relationships with others who may be under stress and/or have challenging communication difficulties.
• To employ excellent communication skills
• To develop skills in motivating clients and /or carers to engage in the therapeutic process
• To maintain sensitivity at all times to the emotional needs of clients and their carers in particular when imparting potentially distressing information regarding the nature of the clients difficulties and implications of the same
• To develop the ability to manage children with challenging behaviours employing appropriate management strategies
• To monitor and review the progress of clients against the targets set and agreed, seeking support from clinical supervisor as appropriate.
• To demonstrate the ability to reflect on practice with peers/clinical supervisor based on research and evidence based practice.
• To develop the ability to reflect on auditory, visual and kinaesthetic aspects of clients communication and to identify appropriate strategies to facilitate and enhance communicative effectiveness
• To be aware of legal requirements relating to the provision of a specialist speech and language therapy service, seeking support and advice as appropriate.
• To maintain up to date and accurate case notes and write reports that meet departmental standards and are in line with local trust policy, and RCSLT professional standards, with support as appropriate
• To develop an awareness of current policies and practice in education
• To manage and prioritise a defined caseload and workload independently
• To contribute to multi-agency assessments, including the statutory educational assessment procedure, as required, seeking support and supervision as required
• To negotiate with carers, clients and others around individual case management
• To develop negotiation skills in the management of conflict across a range of situations, recognising potential breakdown and conflict when it occurs, seeking advice and support to resolve
• To ensure that clients are referred to other services as appropriate, in consultation with manager or supervisor
• To develop a working knowledge of the principles of Clinical Governance and their application to professional practice. This will include compliance with / adherence to service and team plans and policies, National and Local Guidelines and RCSLT Professional and Clinical guidelines.
• To develop a working knowledge of relevant procedures including: Safeguarding Children, SEN procedures, Working with Vulnerable Adults and other legal frameworks.
• To be accountable for own professional action, recognising professional boundaries and working within defined departmental and national protocols/policies and professional code of conduct, seeking advice as appropriate
• To work independently accessing appraisal within an Individual Performance Framework at pre-determined intervals

PLEASE SEE ATTACHED JOB DESCRIPTION FOR FULL DETAILS

Person Specification
Education & Qualifications (Essential)

• BSc. Speech Path or equivalent
• HPC licence to practise, and eligible for the full RCSLT register

Knowledge and Experience (Essential)

• Knowledge and experience of a range of assessment tools and procedures to evaluate a wide range of language and communication needs in mainstream schools for school-aged pupils.
• Knowledge and experience of the key characteristics leading to a differential diagnosis of a wide range of language and communication difficulties
• Knowledge and experience of a range of therapeutic interventions relevant to school-age children with a wide range of language and communication needs demonstrating the evidence base for these approaches
• Knowledge and experience of the application of knowledge of local cultural, linguistic & demographic factors to the management of a school aged caseload
• Knowledge of multi-disciplinary team approaches
• Knowledge and experience of working with children with a wide range of language and communication needs in mainstream schools

Personal Qualities (Essential)

• Excellent written communication skills
• Able to communicate complex, sensitive information
• Flexible

Other (Essential)

• Completion of post qualification registration

Skills & Abilities (Essential)

• Able to reflect on practice
• Able to select, set & evaluate treatment goals
• Able to plan, carry out and analyse assessments
• Able to deliver training relevant to the client group and audience

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. 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.

UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website.

Employer details
Employer name: Whittington Hospital NHS Trust
Address: Northern Health Centre, 580 Holloway Road, Islington, N7 6LB, United Kingdom
Employer's website: https://www.whittington.nhs.uk/

Employer contact details
For questions about the job, contact: Clinical Lead SLT, Sally-Anne Fraser, sally-anne.fraser@nhs.net, 02033161748

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