East London NHS Foundation Trust

Paediatric Speech and Language Therapy Assistant -Complex Needs

The closing date is 08 June 2025

Job summary

Band 4 Paediatric Speech and Language Therapy Assistant

Paediatric Community Services- Newham, East London Foundation Trust

We have an exciting opportunity for a Speech and Language Therapy assistant to join our Complex Needs team.

Do you want to make a difference?

Do you want to develop your skills in an innovative team?

Our Complex Needs team works with children to support communication development and works with children who have difficulties with eating and swallowing. Most children we work with are Under 5 years old.

The role includes:Supporting the Speech and Language Therapists during assessment and intervention of children

Delivering speech and language therapy groups

- Supporting the Speech and Language Therapy team with any administrative tasks such as making resources including communication books

- Supporting the team when running parent workshops.

- Independently running therapy intervention programmes and training sessions in community settings or on virtual platforms

If you have excellent interpersonal skills, awareness and sensitivity to the needs of clients from a range of ethnic and linguistic backgrounds and are willing and able to work flexibly, we would like to hear from you.

For more information contact: Sorcha Clark Sorcha.Clark@nhs.net

Main duties of the job

1.The post holder will work under the direction of a qualified therapist within the Children's Complex Needs Speech and Language Therapy Service.

2.The post holder will be required to carry their own caseload where they will carry out treatment programmes devised by the clinician. The post holder will accept an agreed range of clients and manage a delegated caseload in an appropriate environment e.g. person's home, community settings, schools.

3.The post holder will be required to work closely with the client to carry out therapy techniques and treatments, to demonstrate these to clients and carers. The post holder will be required, to carry out detailed observations and feedback the client's response to therapy interventions.

4.The post holder will work alongside and under the supervision of SLTs to research, plan, organize, deliver and evaluate groups and individual therapy for clients aged 0 - 18 years, working closely with parents and carers.

5. The post holder will be required to make/develop and demonstrate resources that support the therapy activities, support delivery of training by the therapy team and will demonstrate safe and effective use of equipment.

6.The post holder, following essential training, will work alongside SLTs to plan, organize, run and evaluate training sessions and parent workshops.

About us

Our mission is to make a positive difference to people's lives by improving the quality of life for all we serve. Our values are: We Care, We Respect, We are Inclusive - so we are looking for people who live and breathe these qualities when supporting service users and carers, and in their relationships with colleagues in the Trust and our partner organisations.

Details

Date posted

23 May 2025

Pay scheme

Agenda for change

Band

Band 4

Salary

£31,081 to £33,665 a year per annum

Contract

Permanent

Working pattern

Full-time

Reference number

363-SS7184967

Job locations

West Ham Lane Child Development Centre

84 West Ham Lane

London

E15 4PT


Job description

Job responsibilities

  1. To have a sound understanding of the role of SLTs and use this knowledge to assist them in the planning and delivery of SLT services to clients and families/carers attending the clinic. This involves creating communication books and resources to facilitate the use of AAC.
  1. To work independently in a variety of settings carrying out intervention packages and programmes, writing reports and updating clinical notes.
  1. To assist in SLT assessments (example: by actively observing children and writing formal notes), group sessions (example: co-lead or make resources) and nursery inputs (example: assist with training nursery staff).
  1. To use initiative and take the lead in researching, planning, organising and running groups (example: booking venue, reading literature on a specific developmental age) in the community, with a specific focus on promotion and development of childrens language, general communication abilities and modelling low and high tech AAC. Groups could be childrens therapy groups or groups for training parents/carers with or without their children present.
  1. To work alongside and under the supervision of SLTs to design and deliver individual and / or group therapy sessions for children (0 to 5 years) who are experiencing difficulties with eating, drinking and swallowing. To help parents/carers, who are also present at these sessions, to help learn to create enjoyable and non-stressful experiences around food.

Job description

Job responsibilities

  1. To have a sound understanding of the role of SLTs and use this knowledge to assist them in the planning and delivery of SLT services to clients and families/carers attending the clinic. This involves creating communication books and resources to facilitate the use of AAC.
  1. To work independently in a variety of settings carrying out intervention packages and programmes, writing reports and updating clinical notes.
  1. To assist in SLT assessments (example: by actively observing children and writing formal notes), group sessions (example: co-lead or make resources) and nursery inputs (example: assist with training nursery staff).
  1. To use initiative and take the lead in researching, planning, organising and running groups (example: booking venue, reading literature on a specific developmental age) in the community, with a specific focus on promotion and development of childrens language, general communication abilities and modelling low and high tech AAC. Groups could be childrens therapy groups or groups for training parents/carers with or without their children present.
  1. To work alongside and under the supervision of SLTs to design and deliver individual and / or group therapy sessions for children (0 to 5 years) who are experiencing difficulties with eating, drinking and swallowing. To help parents/carers, who are also present at these sessions, to help learn to create enjoyable and non-stressful experiences around food.

Person Specification

Education/ Qualification

Essential

  • GCSE or equivalent standard of education with emphasis on numeracy and literacy

Desirable

  • relevant child care qualification

Experience

Essential

  • Previous experience of working within a speech therapy assistant role
  • Experience of working with children and young people
  • Experience of working within a team
  • Experience of working in a busy environment in an orderly and professional manner
  • Experience of working of working in a community setting

Abilities/ skills and knowledge

Essential

  • Ability to organise and prioritise own workload
  • Ability to work in a team
  • IT literate and able to use Microsoft Windows/ excel/ power point software and use emails
  • Ability to maintain effective working relationships and work flexibly as part of a team
  • Ability to problem solve
  • Ability to communicate effectively verbally and in writing
  • Ability to adapt to changing environments/workloads

Other

Essential

  • oAble to travel around the Borough to different venues and settings
Person Specification

Education/ Qualification

Essential

  • GCSE or equivalent standard of education with emphasis on numeracy and literacy

Desirable

  • relevant child care qualification

Experience

Essential

  • Previous experience of working within a speech therapy assistant role
  • Experience of working with children and young people
  • Experience of working within a team
  • Experience of working in a busy environment in an orderly and professional manner
  • Experience of working of working in a community setting

Abilities/ skills and knowledge

Essential

  • Ability to organise and prioritise own workload
  • Ability to work in a team
  • IT literate and able to use Microsoft Windows/ excel/ power point software and use emails
  • Ability to maintain effective working relationships and work flexibly as part of a team
  • Ability to problem solve
  • Ability to communicate effectively verbally and in writing
  • Ability to adapt to changing environments/workloads

Other

Essential

  • oAble to travel around the Borough to different venues and settings

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Certificate of Sponsorship

Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).

From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).

Additional information

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Certificate of Sponsorship

Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).

From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).

Employer details

Employer name

East London NHS Foundation Trust

Address

West Ham Lane Child Development Centre

84 West Ham Lane

London

E15 4PT


Employer's website

https://www.elft.nhs.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)


Employer details

Employer name

East London NHS Foundation Trust

Address

West Ham Lane Child Development Centre

84 West Ham Lane

London

E15 4PT


Employer's website

https://www.elft.nhs.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)


Employer contact details

For questions about the job, contact:

Clinical Lead Speech Therapy Complex Needs

Sorcha Clark

sorcha.clark@nhs.net

07435734565

Details

Date posted

23 May 2025

Pay scheme

Agenda for change

Band

Band 4

Salary

£31,081 to £33,665 a year per annum

Contract

Permanent

Working pattern

Full-time

Reference number

363-SS7184967

Job locations

West Ham Lane Child Development Centre

84 West Ham Lane

London

E15 4PT


Supporting documents

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