NHS Speech and Language Therapists

[ItsAStupidQuestion]

If you’re a NHS Speech and Language therapist working with children, do you actually get to do any therapy with the clients in your trust?

I’m currently working as a SLTA (Band 3) and love it! I’m debating whether to train as a SLT as I already have a degree and feel like there is no real progression available within the NHS, unless I train up at uni. However, the trust I work for is losing SLTs hand over fist as lots are unhappy that they don’t actually get to do any therapy - just reviews, reports and meetings. I love the therapy part of the job and am worried that that will disappear when I qualify. I know that you can work in private practices, but I’m primarily focusing staying in the NHS due to the perks/pension.

I love the whole research and studying part of speech therapy, but don’t want to train for years only to get stuck behind my laptop instead of actually doing any therapy!

Is this the same in all NHS trusts, or do they work differently?

In my local trust they do very little actual therapy, mostly assessments, reports and plans.

In most school settings no you don’t get to do much therapy, or even if you do you don’t get to see any individual child often enough to really get to know them and work properly with them. It’s not that you’re stuck at a laptop so much as your caseload is so huge that when you see a child you’re checking on progress as you may not have seen them for an entire term and making recommendations to whoever is actually working with them, or you’re delivering a group session to children with different needs (and then staying on doing unpaid overtime to write all the notes & reports). That said it is a fascinating job and if you’re interested in the academic side of it then I wouldn’t want to dissuade you from studying it - there are other paediatric settings, and there’s also the option to move into research and/or teaching. One of the best placements I had was in a charity run hospital, and there are more and more groups of independent slts working together so it’s not as stark as NHS vs lonely private practice either.