Prinicpal Speech Therapist

Job Description & Requirements

1. Clinical Management

Provide clinical leadership and advanced clinical practice across a wide range of routine and complex cases. Responsibilities include:

• Assess, develop, plan, and implement speech therapy interventions to clients with speech, language, communication, and/or swallowing difficulties in accordance with programme approach, framework, and SOPs.
• Be part of the collaborative team (e.g., multi-, inter-, trans-disciplinary) to work with clients on a one-to-one basis, group, or special setting based on programme requirements and client levels of functioning.
• Monitor clients’ speech therapy progress, evaluate intervention effectiveness, and review clients’ speech therapy needs in accordance with programme requirements.
• Provide speech therapy consultation, support and update on the clients' progress and status to caregivers and all those involved in the client care team.
• Refer clients to respective specialists (e.g., other therapists, psychologists, neurologists, doctors, etc.) for consultation and further treatment or training as and when necessary.
• Conduct home/school/workplace visits when necessary.
• Provide speech therapy-related training on relevant platforms when required.
• Provides consultation to speech therapists on complex cases and maintains consistent standards of care for complex cases across SPD programmes.

2. Clinical Administration

• Lead in new clinical service development in collaboration with internal and external partners to enhance service delivery and client care. Identify opportunities for clinical or operational improvement and collaborate with team members to test and evaluate innovative approaches.
• Lead departmental administrative duties and operational processes to support service delivery.
• Lead in service quality assurance initiatives, including audits, risk identification, and incident reporting.
• Manage and oversee team caseload allocation, ensuring equitable distribution and efficient utilisation of clinical resources.
• Advise on budget planning and resource needs for therapy equipment and materials for the division when required

3. Clinical Teaching and Supervision

• Demonstrate strong supervisory capabilities and provide formal clinical supervision as primary supervisor to both Conditional-Registration and Full-Registration therapists.
• Build the supervisory capabilities of junior and new supervisors within the department/division.
• Mentor and coach senior speech therapists, contributing to their clinical and leadership development.
• Plan, organise, and deliver division-level continuing education and clinical training initiatives.
• Develop and implement competency development frameworks and supervision assessment tools to address clinical learning gaps.

4. Professional Development

• Demonstrate leadership in professional development and sector engagement through active participation in conferences, learning networks, and special interest groups.
• Steer research in the department by identifying clinical practice gaps, conducting research, and supervising research projects to address them.
• Guide evidence-based practice by participating in the development of Clinical Practice Guidelines.
• Champion knowledge translation within the department through training, case reviews, and integration of current evidence

5. Other Activities

• Lead division-level initiatives, workgroups, or inter-departmental committees.
• Represent SPD in external networks or Communities of Practice (CoPs), including collaborations with Public Health Institutes (PHIs), other Social Service Agencies (SSAs), and/or Institutes of Higher Learning (IHLs).
• Participate in events organised by SPD when required.
• Engage in any other duties as may be assigned from time to time.

Job Requirements

1. Master’s degree in Speech Therapy or its equivalent.
2. Possess Full-Registration as a Speech Therapist under the Allied Health Professions Act 2011.
3. Possess at least 10 years of clinical experience, with active practice in the last 5 consecutive years at a supervisory level.
4. Has clinical practice experience in at least two community settings with demonstrated adaptability and sector-wide experience.
5. Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
6. Excellent communication and interpersonal skills both within and outside of SPD.
7. Fluency in local languages will be an advantage.