Specialist Speech & Language Therapist

Are you looking for a role that offers clinical variety, professional growth, and the opportunity to make a real difference to children and families? If so, this could be the perfect opportunity for you.

An exciting opportunity has arisen to join the Speech and Language Therapy team at Leeds Children’s Hospital as a Band7 Highly Specialist Paediatric Speech and Language Therapist (0.4

WTE). The role is based in the Paediatric Critical Care services and focuses on supporting infants, children and young people with complex feeding, swallowing and communication needs.

• Provide high‑quality specialist care within Paediatric Critical Care, working as part of a multidisciplinary team.
• Assess, instrumentally evaluate, differentially diagnose, treat and manage complex communication, swallowing, cognitive and emotional impairments.
• Provide specialist second opinions to other health and social care professionals when requested.
• Build links with allied agencies across primary and secondary care to improve local and regional care pathways in both inpatient and outpatient settings.
• Develop rehabilitation care pathways that focus on education, enablement and empowerment of service users and their carers.
• Support children through discharge planning and transfer of care across local and regional services.

• Clinical experience in paediatric assessment, instrumental evaluation and differential diagnosis of Eating, Drinking and Swallowing (EDS) difficulties.
• Experience with complex health conditions that impact communication and swallowing.
• Familiarity with tracheostomy management and paediatric instrumental assessment is advantageous.
• Excellent interpersonal, organisational and team‑working skills, with a commitment to delivering high‑quality, family‑centred care.
• Ability to work within an acute paediatric environment, supporting patients from assessment and intervention to discharge.

• Supportive, stimulating and forward‑thinking working environment with modern clinical and office facilities.
• Structured induction programme and ongoing supervision and mentorship, including individual and group supervision.
• Protected time for professional development through the monthly Clinical Hour and opportunities to contribute to quality improvement, research and service development.
• Flexible working arrangements and a strong focus on staff wellbeing, including access to Trust‑wide wellbeing resources.
• Opportunity to work within one of the UK’s leading children’s hospitals with a diverse caseload across specialised paediatric services.

This role offers the chance to thrive, develop specialist expertise and make a meaningful difference to the lives of children and families. If you are passionate about acute paediatric practice, enjoy multidisciplinary working and are looking for a challenging yet rewarding opportunity, we would love to hear from you.

Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust is committed to delivering the highest quality and safest treatment and care to every patient, every time.