Are you an experienced Speech and Language Therapist ready to take your clinical expertise and leadership to a national level?
Compass Community Schools is looking for a Senior Speech and Language Therapist to join our Education Team and provide clinical leadership, professional oversight and strategic direction for Speech and Language Therapy across our schools.
This is an exciting opportunity to help shape and develop a growing Speech and Language Therapy service, ensuring that children and young people receive high-quality, evidence-informed and trauma-responsive support wherever they are within our organisation.
Working closely with the National Lead SENDCo, you will lead the development of consistent clinical standards, systems and approaches across our schools, while ensuring that Speech and Language Therapy remains focused on what matters most: communication, participation, independence, wellbeing and positive outcomes for every learner.
A role with national influence
As our organisational clinical lead for Speech and Language Therapy, you will have the opportunity to influence how Speech and Language Therapy is delivered across Compass Community Schools.
You will lead the strategic development of our provision, establish clinical pathways and standards, and use quality assurance, service evaluation and outcomes to continually improve our practice.
You will also provide specialist advice on complex communication needs, supporting our Speech and Language Therapists and wider school teams to develop confident, effective and communication-supportive practice.
A key part of your role will be developing our Speech and Language Therapy Champion programme, helping schools build sustainable communication knowledge and creating a whole-school culture where communication, interaction and participation are everyone's responsibility.
Leading and developing our people
You will provide clinical supervision and professional leadership to our Speech and Language Therapists, supporting their professional development, wellbeing and clinical practice.
You will play an important role in recruitment, induction, appraisal and performance development, while creating opportunities for our therapists to share expertise, learn from one another and continually develop their practice.
You will also lead national Speech and Language Therapy training and workforce development, creating resources and guidance that help our schools embed communication-supportive approaches into everyday education.
About you
We are looking for an experienced Speech and Language Therapist who is ready to combine strong clinical expertise with strategic leadership.
You will bring:
- HCPC registration and RCSLT membership.
- Significant experience within specialist education and/or therapeutic services.
- Experience supervising and managing Speech and Language Therapists.
- Experience of clinical leadership and service development.
- Strong knowledge of trauma, attachment, neurodiversity and communication needs.
- Experience developing others through supervision, training, coaching and consultation.
- A commitment to evidence-informed, trauma-informed and neurodiversity-affirming practice.
- A passion for improving services and creating sustainable, high-quality practice.
A clinical supervision qualification is essential.
Experience within specialist education, residential care, multidisciplinary teams or regional/multi-site services would be advantageous, as would additional training in areas such as Autism, Developmental Language Disorder, Attachment, Trauma, Sensory Integration or AAC.
Our values
Our values of Courage, Integrity and Care are at the heart of how we work.
Courage – We advocate confidently for children and young people's communication needs, challenge barriers to inclusion and have the courage to develop new and innovative approaches.
Integrity – We uphold high clinical and ethical standards, take responsibility for our decisions and provide honest, respectful and constructive leadership.
Care – We build trusting relationships and create emotionally safe, communication-supportive environments where every learner is valued, supported and able to thrive.
Why join us?
This is an opportunity to help shape something with national reach and lasting impact.
You will join an Education Team where Speech and Language Therapy is valued as an integral part of supporting children and young people to succeed. You will have the opportunity to develop services, influence organisational strategy and support a team of therapists to deliver high-quality practice across our schools.
Whether you are developing clinical standards, supervising a therapist, supporting a complex case, leading national training or shaping our Speech and Language Therapy Champion programme, your expertise will help influence practice across the organisation.
If you are ready to take the next step in your Speech and Language Therapy career and want to lead, develop and shape a national service, we would love to hear from you.
Please see the attached job description for full details of the role and responsibilities.
Travel across Compass Community Schools is an expected requirement of this position.