Therapy Support Worker (RAAR - Speech and Language Therapy)

Job overview

This post will support the clinical work of the Rapid Access to Acute Rehabilitation (RAAR) Team clinicians, with a special alignment with the speech and language therapy service. The RAAR Team is an interdisciplinary team of rehabilitation professionals including occupational therapy, physiotherapy, psychology, speech and language therapy and therapy support workers, all overseen by rehabilitation medicine consultants. The RAAR team provides intensive rehabilitation to inpatients with complex rehabilitation needs including brain injury, neuro-medical conditions, spinal cord injury and polytrauma, within the acute setting.

The therapy support workers are expected to be multi-skilled across the spectrum of rehabilitation interventions including physical therapy interventions and exercise programmes, functional task practice, cognitive and emotional health interventions and communication and swallow interventions. Training will be provided in any areas where new starters have development needs.

As there are physiotherapy and occupational therapy apprentice positions within the team, this Band 3 therapy support worker will be provided with additional training to support the speech and language therapy practitioners and would in particular suit individuals with a particular interest in communication, language and swallow rehabilitation interventions.

Main duties of the job

Tasks will include, under the direction of the individual RAAR clinicians:

• providing individual rehabilitation sessions as prescribed by the treating clinicians, in particular speech and language interventions including communication practice, speech and language exercises, swallow rehabilitation and cognitive-communication interventions
• assisting clinicians in providing sessions that require two or more people
• contributing to organising and running rehabilitation groups such as upper limb groups, standing groups, communication training, brain injury rehabilitation or kitchen based tasks
• assisting in preparing rehabilitation materials such as personalised orientation booklets, communication aids or personalised timetables
• supporting everyday routines including assisting with showering and dressing and bringing patients from the ward to the therapy gym, kitchen and treatment rooms
• assisting in therapy administration tasks such as maintaining and ordering equipment, maintaining paper based assessment stock

Working for our organisation

King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust is one of the UK’s largest and busiest teaching Trusts with a turnover of £1 billion, 1.5 million patient contacts a year and more than 15,000 staff based across South East London. The Trust provides a full range of local and specialist services across its five sites. The trust-wide strategy of Strong Roots, Global Reach is our Vision to be BOLD, Brilliant people, Outstanding care, Leaders in Research, Innovation and Education, Diversity, Equality and Inclusion at the heart of everything we do. By being person-centred, digitally-enabled, and focused on sustainability, we aim to take Team King’s to another level.

We are at a pivotal point in our history and we require individuals who are ready to join a highly professional team and make a real, lasting difference to our patients and our people.

King’s is committed to delivering Sustainable Healthcare for All via our Green Plan. In line with national Greener NHS ambitions, we have set net zero carbon targets of 2040 for our NHS Carbon Footprint and 2045 for our NHS Carbon Footprint Plus. Everyone’s contribution is required in order to meet the goals set out in our Green Plan and we encourage all staff to work responsibly, minimising their contributions to the Trust’s carbon emissions, waste and pollution wherever possible.