Highly Specialist Speech & Language Therapist, Early Years Team Lead

Job summary

Are you looking for an opportunity to develop your leadership skills within an early years/community clinic service? If so come and join Bexley Children's Speech & Language Therapy service.

• To provide leadership to the early years community clinic team ensuring continued clinical service development.
• To demonstrate and provide highly specialist knowledge in clinical specialism/s underpinned by current evidence-based practice and to evaluate outcomes.
• To manage complex and highly specialist caseload independently and plan the workload of others.
• To make highly specialist clinical decisions in assessment of complex cases.
• To provide highly specialist advice to others regarding the management and care of children with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN).
• To manage, lead and provide highly specialist supervision to therapists and assistants working within the early years' community clinic team and other parts of the service.
• To meet with parents, child and young people, taking and responding to feedback to develop care pathways and monitor the quality of child and parent information.
• To ensure that children, young people and families are involved in the planning and prioritisation of their care plans wherever possible.
• To take a clinical specialist role in the development of local clinical guidelines informed by evidence, for children and young people with SLCN.

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

Date posted: 18 August 2026

Pay scheme:
Agenda for change

Band:
Band 7

Salary: £55,524 to £62,652 a year pro rata pa inc

Contract:

Permanent

Working pattern:
Part-time

Reference number:

-CYP

Job locations:
The Lodge, Erith Hospital Park Crescent Erith DA8 3EE
United Kingdom

For more information and a detailed description of the main duties please refer to the Job Description attached

For more information and a detailed description of the main duties please refer to the Job Description attached

• Recognised Speech & Language Therapy degree qualification or equivalent
• Membership of The Health & Care Professions Council (HCPC)

• Evidence of successful completion of specialist short courses up to Master's degree equivalent. Membership of relevant CEN/s

• Clinical experience of working with children with specific speech and language difficulties in early years community clinics at least 5 years
• Experience of co-ordinating service delivery
• Experience of supervising staff/conducting appraisals

• Experience of writing local policies

• Well established knowledge of a broad range assessment tools relevant to the client groups
• Demonstrates…