Therapy Assistant Practitioner - Psychology, OT, SLT

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Therapy Assistant Practitioner - Psychology, OT, SLT

Band 4

Main area Therapies Grade Band 4 Contract 2 years (2 year fixed term project post) Hours Part time - 22.5 hours per week Job ref 197-AJ-R-8900

Site University Hospital Lewisham Town London Salary £28,392 - £31,157 per annum plus HCAS pro rata Salary period Yearly Closing 11/11/2026 23:59

Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust, (LGT), is a community-focused provider of local and acute care, delivering high-quality services to over one million people living across the London boroughs of Lewisham, Greenwich, and Bexley. We provide whole-life care and we are here to support our communities to live healthier lives as well as taking care of them when they need us the most.

Employing almost 7,500 colleagues, affectionately known as Team LGT, we provide services at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich, University Hospital Lewisham, and at over a dozen community settings in Lewisham. We also provide some services at Queen Mary’s Hospital in Sidcup.

We have recently launched our new vision and values to mark the LGT10 – the tenth anniversary of our Trust forming in 2013. Our trust vision is to be exceptional. In the quality of our patient care; our support for colleagues; and in the difference we make through our partnerships and in our communities.

Our hospitals and community sites provide a wide range of inpatient and outpatient services, as well as emergency and planned care. The Trust is rated as “good” or “outstanding” in over three-quarters of the services inspected by the Care Quality Commission.

Every year our work includes performing 10,000 procedures in our theatres; bringing seven and a half thousand new lives into the world; carrying out 570,000 visits to patients in their homes or communities and providing emergency care for more than 300,000 patients arriving in our busy Urgent and Emergency Departments.

LGT is a centre for the education and training of medical students enrolled with King’s College London’s GKT School of Medical Education. We are a training centre for nurses, midwives and allied health professionals. We are pioneering new roles that will support the changing needs of our patients and are one of the largest employers of physician associates in the country.

We are committed to working with our partners to deliver the best outcomes for our local communities. This means playing an active role in the South East London Integrated Care System (ICS), and in formal partnerships including the South East London Acute Provider Collaborative, provider partnerships with our local mental health trusts and borough‑based boards of the ICS in Bexley, Greenwich and Lewisham.

Job overview

Therapy Assistant Practitioner - Psychology, Occupational Therapy and Speech and Language Therapy

An exciting opportunity has arisenfora Therapy Assistant Practitioner for Psychology, Occupational Therapy and Speech and Language Therapy within our Community Stroke Team.

New funding provided for this 2-year post will support the team to enable them to continue to provide an excellent stroke specialist service and design and launch our new Life After Stroke group.

Main duties of the job

1.Provide psychology, occupational therapy and speech and language therapy interventions with patients following a stroke. These sessions will take part within patients homes and other community locations

2.Support with admin tasks to support designing, implementationand data collectionfor our new Life After Stroke group.

3.Participate it the weekly multidisciplinary team meeting, feeding back on patient’s process throughout the week and support in the clinical decision making around the patient.

4.Manage stroke clinical caseload

Please note: Post is based at Honor Oak Health Centre, 20 Turnham Road, SE4 2LA

Working for our organisation

Our people are our greatest asset. When we feel supported and happy at work, this positivity reaches those very people we are here for, the patients. Engaged employees perform at their best and our Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) initiatives contribute to cultivate a culture of engagement. We have four staff networks, a corporate EDI Team and a suite of programmes and events which aim to insert the 5 aspirations:

• Improving representation at senior levels of staff with disabilities, from black, Asian, and ethnic minorities background, identify as LGBTQ+ and women, through improved recruitment and leadership development
• Widening access (anchor institution) and employability
• Improving the experience of staff with disability
• Improving the EDI literacy and confidence of trust staff through training and development
• Making equalities mainstream

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• To undertake all aspects of clinical and care duties under the supervision, direct and indirect, of a therapist.
• To carry a full caseload of patients under the supervision, direct and indirect, of a therapist
• Assess and provide for equipment needs
• Progress patients in their homes to maximise their function and independence
• To provide information, teaching and instruction to relatives, carers, colleagues, other disciplines and agencies. To promote understanding on the aims of Therapy and to ensure continuation of the treatment programme.
• Contributes to advice and education sessions for relevant patient groups
• To participate in multidisciplinary / multi-agency team meetings and case conferences to ensure the co-ordination of patient care. This may include the review of patient progress, and discharge planning.
• To employ appropriate skills such as persuasion, motivation and negotiation to gain co-operation in the continuation of the agreed treatment programme.
• Maintain accurate clinical records of all interventions
• To produce patient related reports for other disciplines or agencies relating to assessment findings and/or treatment outcomes
• Input to databases as required
• Referring to the qualified practitioner when necessary, to work independently with specified client group to manage equipment provision and functional assessment and rehabilitation, from pre- operative phase to post-op rehabilitation
• Deliver and install simple aids and equipment in the patient’s home and instruct patients and carers in use of this equipment as appropriate
• To carry out home visits and access visits, with or without a therapist, as required
• To manage own day to day workload and maintain level of service within the pathway at the local site, and assist other members of the team to make appropriate prioritisation choices. To ensure the effective exchange of information across the pathway team and co-ordination of service delivery.

Work force

• To provide guidance and teaching to therapy assistants working for Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust
• To be proactive in the community with therapy staff within the Lewisham Enablement Team to feedback on patients’ progress, immediately highlighting any clinical concerns
• To participate in supervision and appraisal with a designated senior therapist
• To attend staff meetings
• To contribute to the clinical induction of therapy staff
• To be able to independently progress patients’ exercise programme and mobility, including issuing walking aids, for the specified patient group
• Ensure adequate activities of daily living equipment is available and accessible, and work with Transferring Community Equipment Services (TCES) agenda

Partnerships

• Communications and Relationships

To communicate directly with ward staff any relevant information for patient care and discharge facilitation

• To provide information and instruction to other disciplines to ensure a consistent approach to patient care
• To educate patients / relatives/ carers regarding the nature of the condition and the aims of the therapy intervention

General

• To maintain accurate computer and written records that meet professional Trust and council standards
• To undertake general administrative tasks as required including filing, appointment booking, processing referrals, answering the telephone, and other duties as required
• To drive a lease car to visit patients’ homes, with or without passengers
• To be able to work flexibly between community and hospital, depending on demand, and be able to prioritise and organise own workload to facilitate this

Care duties include, but not exclusively, help with personal hygiene, management of continence, medication management in line with LBL policy on Medication Administration, light housework, shopping and meal preparation.

Able to participate in weekend / out of hours rota.

Person specification

Qualification & Training

• BTEC or HND or NVQ level 3 or equivalent experience in relevant subject
• CSP
• Undertaken relevant healthcare courses

Experience

• Significant experience in health or social care setting
• Experience and ability to work collaboratively within MPT
• Previous experience of working within a therapy rehabilitation area either therapy assistant or equivalent
• Experience of an NHS environment
• Supervision of staff

Knowledge

• Able to demonstrate an intermediate level knowledge of conditions, clinical pathways and therapeutic interventions
• Awareness of clinical governance and its implication for Therapy
• Awareness and understanding of NHS structure
• Knowledge of local services

Skills

• Willingness and ability to undertake competency based skills programme
• The ability to identify and act upon potential clinical risks
• Able to communicate complex information to patients, carers other health professionals and team.
• Ability to work effectively in a team environment
• IT skills - Ability to create and/or format data and/or spreadsheets using computerised systems
• Demonstrates good motivational skills

As a local employer and anchor institution we work closely with our community to recruit locally and we welcome applications from the widest variety of people to ensure our workforce are reflective of the local communities which we serve. We encourage all suitable candidates to apply including if you are Black, Asian or other ethnic minorities, live with a disability (visible or not) or are LGBT+. We have a number of active staff networks including Disability, LGBT+, Multicultural Inclusion and Women’s staff networks to bring staff together and celebrate diversity across our whole workforce.

Please note: Information provided during recruitment and pre‑employment checks must be accurate. Misrepresentation may be investigated as fraud and could lead to withdrawal from the process, professional sanctions, or criminal action.

Please note: that sponsorship under the Skilled Worker route is subject to Trust allocation and UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) approval.

Use of AI in recruitment: We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support the initial review of applications against the essential criteria for this role. Where AI is used, it will support rather than replace human decision-making, and applications will remain subject to appropriate human review.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.

Application numbers

To ensure fairness and manageable shortlisting processes, some vacancies may have an application cap. This means the vacancy will close once a set number of applications have been received even if this happens before the advertised closing date.
We recommend applying as early as possible to avoid missing out. All applications received before the cap is reached will be considered equally and assessed against the person specification.

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