Specialist Speech and Language Therapist | Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust

This role is a great opportunity if you have ever wondered about a job in mental health.

Although this is a fixed term role, it will give you the opportunity to work jointly with Highly Specialist and Consultant Speech and Language Therapists across a range of working age and older adult mental health wards.

We work with patients and ward staff to support communication and manage dysphagia by providing assessment, recommendations, therapy and training. This post would allow you to find out more about this fascinating and rapidly developing specialist area of Speech and Language Therapist practice. We welcome applications from both Band 5s who have completed the NQP competencies and B6 staff. This can be offered as a secondment.

• To manage own caseload of patients with mental health needs who have SLCN and/or Dysphagia/Choking Risks
• To line manage/clinically supervise SaLT Co-workers, SaLT Assistant and SaLT Students as directed by Clinical Lead SaLT
• To deliver high quality Speech and Language Therapy assessment, diagnosis and intervention to patients with mental health needs 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.

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

Please see job description for full details.

• To carry out and interpret specialist assessments of the SLCN of patients with complex/challenging mental health needs
• To diagnose the SLC impairments of patients with complex/challenging mental health needs
• To carry out and interpret specialist assessments of the Dysphagia/Choking Risks of patients with complex/challenging mental health needs
• To diagnose dysphagia in patients with complex/challenging mental health needs
• To plan, implement and monitor specialised packages of care including direct therapy, advice and training
• To contribute to specialist multi-disciplinary assessment and care packages
• To contribute to medical diagnosis including differential diagnosis
• To contribute to and carry out Capacity to Consent Assessments in accordance with the Mental Capacity Act
• To demonstrate a high level of clinical effectiveness by the use of evidence-based practice and clinical outcome measures

This advert closes on Sunday 17 May 2026

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