Speech and language therapy support worker frequently asked questions

Where do support workers work?

Work locations include: community health centres, hospitals, mainstream and special schools, assessment units and day centres. The majority of support workers are employed by the NHS, others by education services or charities.

What qualifications and experience will I need to work as a support worker?

Support workers are not required to complete a qualification to take up employment. However, support workers may bring a variety of existing skills or qualifications from other areas that can be of direct benefit to the speech and language therapy service. Specific qualifications or experience may be of great value in work with certain client groups (e.g. knowledge of other languages and cultures, nursery nurse qualifications etc).

Client contact means that the ability to get on well with people of all ages is essential. You must be able to communicate well, both written and verbally.

What training is available?

Opportunities do exist to gain qualifications and undertake in-service training programmes during employment. For example, it may be possible to work towards an S/NVQ qualification.

Experience gained working as a support worker may prove valuable when seeking a place on a degree course leading to qualification as a speech and language therapist. However, training undertaken while working as an assistant does not directly count towards the professional qualification.

What is the salary for support workers? (effective 1 April 2005)

The pay scale for support workers can be accessed here it varies according to band.

Where are support worker vacancies advertised?

There tends to be strong competition for support worker posts. Jobs are advertised in local newspapers and job centres. Your local health service should be able to provide the contact details of the speech and language therapy services in your area. You can also try the NHS website. The RCSLT does not hold details of specific job vacancies.

What about bilingual co-workers?

Opportunities also exist to work as a speech and language therapy bilingual co-worker. This post facilitates the delivery of speech and language therapy services to individuals in the language of their choice. Bilingual co-workers are normally members of the local community and reflect its demography.

They are trained by the speech and language therapy service to undertake a variety of roles including: taking the case history in the client's/carer's home language; assessing the client in his/her home language including, with children, advising on play observed as appropriate to the culture; and interpreting information between the client/carer and speech language therapist. Bilingual co-workers also have a key role to play in offering relevant training cultural and linguistic issues within the service and acting as an information resource for materials and cultural matters.

As bilingual co-workers are more accessible to the carers of bilingual clients, they also play a vital role in empowering carers to participate in the management of the client's speech and language difficulties.