Specialist Speech & Language Therapist Communication Disorders

County Durham & Darlington NHS Foundation Trust

The closing date is 09 July 2026

AFC Band 6 £39,959 to £48,117 per annum pro rata

We are delighted to offer a permanent full time post for an enthusiastic, motivated and well organised Speech and Language Therapist. The post holder will work within County Durham with children and young people with Developmental Communication Disorders.

As a key member of the team you will be passionate about improving health outcomes for clients and will work closely with health colleagues, partner agencies, parents and carers. You will be a great communicator and enjoy working both independently and as part of a team in various settings.

This post offers the opportunity to focus clinical work on children & young people with a complex and diverse range of social communication and/or language difficulties including autism, selective mutism and DLD. You will be an active member of the local multi disciplinary team and work closely with the Children's Therapy team to ensure continued development of the service. You will help develop evidence based pathways for the client group, and work within a range of community settings including clinics, homes, mainstream and special school settings.

1. Generate appropriate strategies to manage an individual specialist caseload including assessment, diagnosis, treatment and discharge of a diverse range of clients with complex communication difficulties with support and supervision from the lead clinician.
2. Provide specialist advice to the Autism Diagnostic Teams to contribute to the diagnosis of children with social communication difficulties.
3. Develop and implement specialist care protocols and programmes of care and treatment to meet the needs of clients in conjunction with parents, carers, education staff and other members of the appropriate multi disciplinary team (MDT) with support and supervision from a lead clinician.
4. Independently manage and negotiate the management of complex cases with others, such as onward referral to highly specialist clinicians or other specialist support agencies.
5. Provide specialist education, training and supervision to speech and language therapy assistants and to speech and language therapists with less experience in the management of the client group, with appropriate supervision from the clinical lead.
6. Provide specialist advice and second opinions to less experienced colleagues.
7. Continually evaluate the effectiveness of care protocols and packages of care, audit and implement changes as appropriate in conjunction with lead clinician/line manager.
8. Evaluate the effects of communication difficulty on the psychological health of the client.
9. Work with the lead clinician(s) to develop and coordinate service provision and policy development for the client group.

• Knowledge of NHS and education policies
• Knowledge of clinical guidelines, national documents and research relating to children and young people with social communication difficulties and autism
• High level problem solving skills
• Ability to work under pressure
• Flexibility in approach
• Well motivated
• Skills in making formal presentations
• Use of Microsoft word processing packages for producing programmes and reports

• Degree or equivalent qualification in Speech and Language Therapy
• Certificate to practise as a Speech and Language Therapist
• Counselling qualification
• Evidence of leadership training
• Evidence of postgraduate study

• Experience of working as a Speech and Language Therapist, some of which has included working with clients with social communication disorders
• Working in partnership with children and parents
• Experience of working as a member of a multi agency team
• Experience of planning and delivering teaching and training

• HCPC registered

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.

We particularly welcome applications from disabled and Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) candidates as BAME and disabled people are currently under represented.