Job overview

We have an exciting opportunity for a speech and language therapy assistant to join our Children’s Therapy Service working in our Greater Preston team. We are looking for an enthusiastic, motivated and forward-thinking assistant, who already has experience of working with children with communication difficulties and is looking for their next challenge.  
Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust is an exciting place to work as a speech and language therapy assistant. We have sound professional structures in place to lead and inspire our workforce. The Children’s Therapy Service is a community service that is commissioned for ages 0-19. The team comprises of speech and language therapy, occupational therapy and physiotherapy. We work closely with colleagues in health, education and social care to provide a child-centred service. We work in a variety of community settings including special and mainstream schools, clinics, and nurseries. We have well-developed evidenced based pathways covering the needs of children with communication and social needs. 

The successful candidate must have experience of working with children with additional needs. We are looking for someone with excellent communication skills, who enjoys working with children, education staff and families delivering therapy programmes as directed by the therapist.  

Main duties of the job

The post holder will work as an integral member of the community team, delivering high quality care and support to individuals within their own homes, community setting and in multiple clinics. A key component of this role is the ability to travel independently across the locality to undertake home and community visits, including to areas not served by public transport. Community visits are an essential daily requirement, and the post holder must be able to travel efficiently between sites, patient homes, and other service locations to meet the needs of the service. Effective time management, flexibility, and the ability to plan routes independently are therefore essential.

They will be an effective member of the Children’s integrated Therapy team.

The post holder will have significant experience in working with children with additional and complex needs. 

The post holder will work under the direction of a qualified therapist within the Children’s integrated Therapy Service. 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.  

The Senior Assistant will be required to work closely with the client to carry out therapy techniques and treatments, to demonstrate these to clients and carers. 

Working for our organisation

LSCFT values diversity and inclusion, recognising that talent from varied backgrounds creates a flexible, creative, and effective workforce. We actively challenge discrimination and welcome applications from all, regardless of age, disability (including those with experience of accessing or caring for someone who has accessed mental health or learning disability services), ethnicity, gender, religion, belief, or sexual orientation.

Our aim is to reflect the communities we serve, so we particularly encourage applications from under-represented groups. If you’d like to discuss your application, please ask.

We also welcome individuals with lived experience relevant to the role or service area, as your insight brings authenticity to our services.

LSCFT support flexible working, we believe that a positive work/life balance benefits NHS employees through improved health and wellbeing. We would consider working patterns such as term time, part time, compressed hours and flexi-time.

The wellbeing of our people is at the heart of everything we do. We offer a wide range of resources, tools and support to help you thrive both in and out of work.

Explore our full wellbeing offer here: Keeping our workforce well