Specialist Speech & Language Therapist

East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust

The closing date is 27 February 2026

We are excited to share the opportunity for this new post within our adult SALT team.

You will have a unique opportunity to work across both the acute and community SALT teams in a dynamic way to aid admission avoidance and assist with patients being recently discharged.

Your clinical cohort will be wide and extensive, including frailty, dementia, neuro‑oncology, respiratory and progressive neurological conditions. You will be managing both swallowing and communication difficulties.

The team has excellent liaison with key MDTs, third sector organisations and the University of Essex. Our acute and community teams are very friendly and supportive and promote CPD, regular supervision and have decades of collective experience.

You will actively be engaged with the SLT team in ongoing service improvement to provide quality and efficient patient care. We have several other interesting projects underway including the promotion of patient education videos on You Tube, electrical stimulation for dysphagia management, developing FND MDT pathways and are forward‑thinking in our service delivery.

If you already have your 'dysphagia wings' and are a car driver and have the ability to tackle both in‑reach and outreach style working then we would be very happy to meet you at interview, which is presently planned for the 20/3/26.

Assessment and management of communication and/or swallowing impairments and liaison with MDT members.

We are ESNEFT and we provide hospital and community health services to almost one million people across east Suffolk and north Essex. Our dedicated staff deliver care from acute hospitals in Colchester and Ipswich, community hospitals, surgeries, community clinics and in patients' own homes.

We are one of the largest NHS organisations in England, employing more than 12,000 staff.

We pride ourselves on supporting our staff. We offer a wide range of training and development opportunities, as well as flexible working options.

Along with supporting you to achieve your career goals we offer a generous pension scheme, unsocial hours payments (where applicable), 27 days annual leave on commencement (pro rata) and access to a range of NHS discounts. Our Staff Health and Wellbeing programme offers a variety of services.

Our philosophy is that Time Matters to everyone. Across the Trust, we concentrate on improving the things we do and removing those which cause time delays for our staff and patients.

We are investing in our commitment to Time Matters with a partnership with leading electronic patient record (EPR) supplier Epic. This digital transformation will bring what's widely regarded as the world's best EPR system to ESNEFT, transforming life in hospital for staff and patients.

If you are passionate about patient care and want to develop your skills and knowledge, then we want to hear from you.

Find out about living and working here -

For full details of the responsibilities and duties of this role please see the attached job description.

• Recognised Speech and Language Therapy Degree qualification or equivalent
• Health Professions Council – Licence to Practice and current registration
• Registered Member of Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (R.C.S.L.T.)
• Evidence of reaching recognised post‑graduate dysphagia competency and or equivalent experiential competence
• Membership of relevant Special Interest Groups (SIGs)

• Ability to demonstrate independent working and good time management and awareness of hospital flow issues

• Knowledge of neurological disease
• In‑depth knowledge of a range of therapeutic interventions relevant to the care group particularly in relation to community dysphagia
• Awareness of MND, PD, MS, HC

• Knowledge of community services
• Proven post‑graduate experience within care group
• Broad range of experience in a variety of disorders prior to specialisation
• Awareness of constraints to working in community locations

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.

East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust