Speech and Language Therapist
Speech and Language Therapist
Communication is a right, not a skill someone has to earn.
Positive Futures supports people with a learning disability, acquired brain injury or autism across Northern Ireland and Ireland, working together to achieve dreams and transform lives. As our Speech and Language Therapist, you'll sit at the heart of that: helping people be understood, be listened to, and have real choice and control over their own lives, in collaboration with an established PBS Team.
This is a specialist role with genuine independence. You'll manage your own caseload of children, young people and adults with complex communication needs, using advanced clinical reasoning to take each person from assessment through to formulation, intervention, review and discharge. You'll build communication systems that work in real life, whether that's a communication profile, talking mats, AAC, PECS or visual supports, then work alongside families and support teams to embed them properly. You'll also be the person colleagues come to, feeding specialist insight into Behaviour Support Plans, Stress and Coping Plans and Person Centred Plans, and designing training that lifts the whole team's practice.
Clinical autonomy: you'll practice independently within a Positive Behaviour Support framework, making your own clinical decisions and shaping how Speech and Language Therapy develops here.
Specialist influence: you'll act as a consultative resource to PBS specialists, managers and support teams, and build partnerships with HSC Trust, HSE, TUSLA and multidisciplinary colleagues.
Restriction reduction: your work will directly support the reduction of restrictive practice, because when someone can communicate what they need, far less has to be managed and far more can be lived.
If you want a caseload with real depth and the freedom to practise the way you know good therapy should work, we'd love to hear from you.
📍 - Hybrid Role - Office base negotiable. Positive Futures has offices across NI. The contract will be NI (UK) based but there will be cross-border working required as part of the role, there will be a requirement to travel to meet the needs of the role.
Professional Supervision / Indemnity / Registration
Positive futures will ensure the provision of professional supervision for the successful candidate. In addition, we will provide funding for registration costs for professional registration fees as well as professional indemnity.
About this role
The best sign you've done this well is a team that knows exactly what to do when you're not in the room.
You'll be responsible for a high-quality, person-centred Speech and Language Therapy service for the people we support across both jurisdictions. That starts with detailed assessment, working in partnership with families, support teams and colleagues in HSC Trusts, the HSE and TUSLA to understand a person's communication strengths and needs in depth before anything is planned. You'll assess the use of AAC systems, refer on to the Communication Advice Centre where specialist input is needed, and revisit your assessment whenever someone's communication or behaviour changes.
From there, it's about intervention that lasts. You'll design and review communication approaches with the person and the people around them, make sure your recommendations are written into the plans support teams actually use day to day, and step support down or conclude it when goals have been met. Communication sits at the center of rights, choice and least-restrictive practice here, so a good part of your work will involve building accessible information, supporting people to take part in decisions about their own lives, and providing the specialist formulation that underpins restriction reduction.
The other half of the role is capability building. You'll design and deliver training for staff, families and carers on communication, social interaction, AAC and PBS-informed practice, coach staff teams towards consistent practice, and contribute to the supervision and development of junior therapists, assistants or students where appropriate. You'll also help strengthen the evidence base, contributing to audit, service evaluation and quality improvement, applying current research, and helping shape the policies, tools and resources that improve communication support across our services.
What you will need
Required criteria
- A Degree or Diploma in Speech and Language Therapy recognised by the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (RCSLT) or the Irish Association of Speech & Language Therapists (IASLT).
- Must hold current HCPC registration and CORU registration (or be eligible to obtain CORU/HCPC registration) to practice as a Speech and Language Therapist across Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
- Minimum of 3 years’ postgraduate experience, within the last 5 years, working as a Speech and Language Therapist with individuals with learning disabilities, autism and/or an acquired brain injury.
- Well established knowledge and experience of a broad range of assessment tools and interventions relevant to individuals with complex communication needs and behaviours of concern.
- Full UK/EU/EEA driving licence and access to a car which is insured for business use, and willingness to travel throughout Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland as required by the role. Consideration will be given to those applicants unable to drive due to a disability.
Desired criteria
- Experience of delivering training to carers, families and professionals.
- Experience of Trauma-Informed Support.
- Awareness of PBS values and principles and the connection between behaviour and communication.
- Experience of using Person-Centred Planning Tools.
- Postgraduate qualification or advanced training relevant to learning disability, autism or acquired brain injury.
