Speech and Language Therapy Assistant | East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust

Posting date:	13 March 2026
Salary:	Not specified
Additional salary information:	£24,937 - £26,598 per annum
Hours:	Full time
Closing date:	12 April 2026
Location:	Ipswich, IP4 5PD
Company:	Colchester Hospital University NHS Foundation Trust
Job type:	Permanent
Job reference:	7871942/432-HR1408-25

Summary

We have an exciting opportunity to become a speech and language therapy assistant in our friendly, innovative speech and language therapy (SLT) service, based in Ipswich Hospital. You will work with other multi-disciplinary teams including Occupational Therapist, Physiotherapists and Dietitians. You will work with people who are in hospital, primarily following a stroke, but also those with other neurological and acquired conditions. Our assistants play a vital role in carrying out daily rehabilitation plans for people with aphasia, dysarthria and cognitive-communication difficulties to maximise their potential to recover. The role also involves supporting families and carers.

Ipswich Hospital Speech and Language Therapy is part of a wider, integrated SLT service in East Suffolk which also supports people with communication and swallowing difficulties in their own home, in care homes, and in clinic for outpatient appointments. You may be asked to work flexibly across these service areas. In the hospital, you will work alongside members of the multi-disciplinary team including occupational therapists, physiotherapists, nurses, and doctors.

The service champions innovation and quality improvement and are committed to developing leadership skills for staff at all levels. We recently won the ‘Making Better Use of our Resources’ award at the Suffolk and North East Essex Can Do Health and Care awards, demonstrating our commitment to development and innovation
• Under the direction of speech and language therapists, to deliver therapy programmes to clients with a variety of acquired communication problems including dysarthria and aphasia as a due to conditions such as stroke or progressive neurological conditions.
• To deliver individualised swallowing interventions for individuals who have dysphagia, as directed by the speech & language therapists, including rehabilitation.
• To assist with supporting nutrition and hydration in ward areas, by assisting clients during mealtimes, and working with Dietetic assistants to monitor compliance with eating, drinking and nutrition recommendations
• To facilitate groups for clients with communication disorders.
• To support with alternative augmentative communication (AAC).
• To deal with face to face/telephone contact with clients with a range of communication impairments in a sensitive, professional manner.
• To deliver basic communication/safe eating and drinking training and support to family carers and a range of staff groups. This may include joint working with the Dietetics team.
• To collect relevant information through liaison with the patients, their carers and colleagues from other agencies.

We are ESNEFT and we provide hospital and community health services to almost one million people across east Suffolk and north Essex. Our dedicated staff deliver care from acute hospitals in Colchester and Ipswich, community hospitals, surgeries, community clinics and in patients’ own homes.

We are one of the largest NHS organisations in England, employing more than 12,000 staff.

We pride ourselves on supporting our staff. We offer a wide range of training and development opportunities, as well as flexible working options.

Along with supporting you to achieve your career goals we offer a generous pension scheme, unsocial hours payments (where applicable), 27 days annual leave on commencement (pro rata) and access to a range of NHS discounts. Our Staff Health and Wellbeing programme offer a variety of services.

Our philosophy is that Time Matters to everyone. Across the Trust, we concentrate on improving the things we do and removing those which cause time delays for our staff and patients.

We are investing in our commitment to Time Matters with a partnership with leading electronic patient record (EPR) supplier Epic. This digital transformation will bring what’s widely regarded as the world’s best EPR system to ESNEFT, transforming life in hospital for staff and patients.

If you are passionate about patient care and want to develop your skills and knowledge, then we want to hear from you.

Find out about living and working here - www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkPu7HphU8A

For full details of the responsibilities and dutiesof this role please see the attached job description.




This advert closes on Monday 30 Mar 2026