What’s it like to be a speech therapist?

[Disabrie22]

Valuable career? Work/life balance?

I’d like to know too!
What degree, training do they do?

Let’s see if we can get help

Bump

It's great

I'm not that good but I love it. Passionate about what it can do. I find it physically exhausting but you can do reasonable hours.

4 year undergrad in most places, but increasingly Masters only, 2 year postgrad.

What else do you want to know?

It's very varied as career pathways, can work in hospital from NICU with babies or in elderly care with dementia patients. Or in schools, increasingly forensic SLTs working in prisons /court system too. Not common to move areas from Paediatric to Adults.

Working for NHS can be draining, high caseloads long wait lists, little finding and increasingly not enough money for much direct therapy. Huge variation again across geographical areas the infamous 'postcode lottery. '

4 year undergrad in most places, but increasingly Masters only, 2 year postgrad.

What subjects? Speech therapy degree ( do they exist?!) or something else?

Yes, 'speech and language therapy' degree. There are limited training places so there's a list of universities that are the only ones that offer accredited training.

This is the Royal College website for lists of unis etc. But keep asking.

[https://www.rcslt.org/ Royal College]]

God!
Trying again

I enquired years ago and was told I needed a foreign language and a science at A level, neither of which I could see myself achieving.
Requirements might have changed though.

The Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists has good info here on how to get into the profession. www.rcslt.org/speech-and-language-therapy/become-a-speech-and-language-therapist/

I retrained after being a teacher and have never regretted it (20 years on).

As PPs have said, there's a huge range of roles. It can be incredibly rewarding although the NHS is often a frustrating context, especially at the moment. There are other employers though, and the option to go independent too.

@Suzanne999

I enquired years ago and was told I needed a foreign language and a science at A level, neither of which I could see myself achieving. Requirements might have changed though.

I've not heard of anyone being asked for a foreign language before - v frustrating for you. But the science requirement makes sense.

It's quite competitive. I applied 15 years ago as a (very) mature student and had to get a B in a Biology A level I was doing - I was expecting to be offered A. Several fellow mature students were doing Access courses, I can't remember what they needed to get.

Training was hard. Ds was 3 when I started. It was essentially 8.30 to 4.30 most days, with placements theoretically over a wide area, though they did their best to find me local ones. Doing the undergraduate degree at least meant I had vacations off.

Is it a career you can train for with an entirely unrelated degree? Post graduate/masters/ training/ placements. Or do you have to be on the right path from being an undergraduate?

I don't think there's any official restriction on the type of first degree you have but in practice a lot of the Masters students have degrees in psychology or biology. English could work too.

The different universities do in theory have slightly different emphases in their courses - eg Reading traditionally strong in linguistics, UCL in medical science. City University is a huge course cohort I think. Dont know if that really translates to admissions.

Honestly?

I love the research. I love the Science. I love learning about new interventions and maximising the potential of our clients on the caseload.

I work in the mainstream service, NHS and I find it quite repetitive and boring. I like working with children who are much more complex. My primary caseload of children have language disorders (which I love) and Autism (which I love too) but it's difficult to find the time to really develop your skill and keep up to date with the latest research. Most of my time is spent writing up reports, attending annual reviews, writing up assessments, admin 🙄, updating therapy programmes. Therefore, it is very ridicule to find the time to read about latest research and continuing to develop your clinician skills. Any training I have undertaken has been done not within my working hours (which I do not get paid for but I don't care as I love learning new practices to help my clients).

However, Speech therapy is vast. You can work with adults who have Aphasia, Motoneuron diseases, brain injuries (so interesting) eating and drinking (neonatals), head and neck cancers, AAC, prisons, law. The list is endless. Only problem is that it is better to find out what area your interested in and continue to work in that skill. So for example, if you work, in the NHS, as a band 6 with children and you now want to work with adults, you will go back to a band 5.

I'm hoping to get as much experience as I can to move within another field which I'm very keen to develop my skills in.

Speech Therapy can consume you and take over your life if you let it. It doesn't end when you stop the course but you need to continue to develop your skills and research as a practitioner. I found it very ready to find a part time job as an SLT, if a female dominated industry. Also the higher up you go, the more likely you will find part time job posts.

Just bumping again as I’m another who’s considering this as a possibly career change option (former primary teacher with a Modern Languages degree and a Master’s with a child development/psychology element). There seem to be a few of us! Been considering it for years but haven’t been in a position to do anything about it until now.

I work with adults acutely ill in hospital and I haven't been bored yet! I love the immediacy of hospital work and the variety. I hardly ever have to do reports, just notes. Most of what I do is swallowing but the communication work happens as well, particularly voice work.

Undergrad degrees in England tend to be 3 years or 3+1 leading to an undergrad Masters. In Scotland they are 4 years. Postgrad are two years across U.K. Entry grades for school leavers to UG programmes are high, but relatively easier to get into if you have a previous degree. Most PG programmes look for a 2:1 or above in your first UG degree, the requirement for a specific UG degree varies, with many programmes being open to a wide variety. In England there is bursary support of approx £5k per year for both UG and PG. In wales there is a bursary scheme that then requires you to work for NHS Wales for a minimum of 2 years after graduation, but only Cardiff offer SLT and only at UG. Scotland has 2 UG and 1 PG programme. Placements may require some travel, and if the programme includes block placements then travel may be further afield and require you to source and pay for accommodation. Expenses for travel etc will only be covered if your funding source supports it, so you may have to cover this too. As a previous PP has said, it is a full time degree, as in you will have lectures and placements most days. SLT is a protected title and courses have to be accredited by HCPC. Lots of flexibility regarding working hours usually and lots of variety in the different groups of people that you can work with. The RCSLT website and YouTube channel are good sources of information.

Best job in the world 30 years in now work in both NHS and private practice - get bought in directly by schools for children not attending NHS provision so still Highley rewarding. Exhausting but ace and ever changing. The private and charitable sector has grown vastly over recent years so far more opportunities available

I love the job, more so now I have left the NHS, worked for 19 years before leaving just over a year ago, now independent working in the field of social emotional mental health with young people. It is a full on degree, working for the NHS can be stressful with varying levels of support. I love independent practice as it is so flexible and I can work the hours I want, however having the experience of working in many roles In the NHS has set me up to do this, I'm not sure I would feel so confident without the experience.

'I work in the mainstream service, NHS and I find it quite repetitive and boring'

I was a speech and language therapist for nearly 20 years, and very much relate to this. I got completely burned out by the insanely high caseload numbers ( with nowhere near enough staff to address them), endless admin, and lack of job satisfaction. Most of my colleagues agreed that the job they ended up actually doing was nothing like what they thought they would be doing when they trained. It felt like constantly firefighting the latest demands rather than being able to offer a meaningful, high quality service

It's incredibly important and worthwhile work, but like a lot of the NHS, not funded or resourced properly.

Thank you all - I’m a teacher by trade but need a new career and every questionnaire I have ever done points me back to Speech therapy. Did you find it easy to get a job?