Speech and Language Therapy Assistant

Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

The closing date is 18 January 2026

An opportunity has arisen for a Band 4 Speech and Language Therapy Assistant (SLTA) role in the acute SLT team in Sheffield. It is an exciting environment, and you would be working within a supportive and very friendly team of Speech and Language Therapists.

The post is 22.50 hours a week as a permanent position.

The successful candidate will be based in the Sheffield Teaching Hospitals Speech and Language Therapy (SLT) service working as members of the acute team working with adult patients on the acute wards who could in one of three hospitals, the Northern General, the Royal Hallamshire and Weston Park.

To provide high quality speech and language therapy support to adult patients with swallowing and/or communication difficulties associated with a wide range of conditions under the guidance of the speech and language therapist.

To work within a specified scope of competence with swallowing disordered patients. This will include and equate with Levels 3 and 4 on the Eating, Drinking, Swallowing Competency Framework (EDSCF) of the RCSLT (Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists).

You will be working for an organisation which values and respects all of its staff and the community it serves. The Trust is a leader in the NHS and research sectors and provides excellent benefits for its staff. This includes commitments to professional development but also many policies to support employees in balancing their personal and professional lives.

The SLT service cover acute and community SLT for adults in Sheffield. It is a large service with 66 members of the team (51.94 wte) including SLTs, SLT assistants and admin support.

The SLT teams are highly motivated to provide a quality service to their patients, they are research active and embrace innovation. The service has established processes for supervision and supports personal and professional development.

Please view the attached Job Description and Person Specification documents for full details regarding this post.

When completing your application please ensure that you clearly demonstrate how you meet the role criteria

• Evidence of Foundation Degree Level Study (Level
  4) or equivalent knowledge/experience
• Functional skills at level 2 (literacy and numeracy/GCSE grade A-C or equivalent in English and Maths)

• Experience of working in a range of healthcare settings e.g. acute wards, people's own homes and care homes.
• Experience of supporting people with dysphagia
• Experience of communicating with and supporting people with communication difficulties.
• Experience of, and ability to, work as part of a team.
• Ability to relate to the client group/s.
• Ability to interpret dysphagia or communication therapy programmes.
• Ability to devise new activities to enable client to reach goals.
• Experience of working with people with long term medical conditions.
• Experience of training other health and social care professionals
• Experience training and supporting carers

• Ability to engage successfully in further in-house training in dysphagia in order to gain competence at Levels 3 and 4 on the RCSLT EDSCF. (Eating, drinking and swallowing competency framework.
• Understands the remit and boundaries of Assistant Practitioner role.
• To know where, when and how to obtain information and guidance.
• Able to communicate effectively with carers/ families.
• Understanding of client confidentiality.
• Ability to organise own work
• Ability to cope with change
• Ability to work under own initiative
• Computer literate - including basic software packages e.g. Word processing, Power Point, Excel
• Good communication and interpersonal skills (verbal and written).
• Ability to adhere to protocol guided assessment processes.
• Ability to effectively communicate findings of protocol guided assessment and implement appropriate management plans.
• A basic understanding of: oThe communication process. oLanguage disorders. oNon-verbal communication. oTotal communication. oVisual support. oHigh tech systems. oLow tech…