Patients range from children whose speech is slow to develop, to older people whose ability to speak has been impaired by illness or injury. It also includes treatment for those who have difficulty with eating or swallowing.
Working life
Working as a Speech and Language Therapist will mean that you’ll take part in a variety of different tasks during your working day. These can include:
- Creating a safe environment for each service user
- Assess patients’ difficulties and develop treatment programmes
- Provide support and care for service users and their families
- Use oral exercises to support service users to strengthen the muscles of the mouth
Speech and Language Therapists work with people of all ages and support those who are experiencing:
- Mild, moderate or severe learning difficulties
- Specific difficulties in producing sounds
- Hearing impairment
- Cleft lip and palate
- Stammering
- Voice disorders
- Selective mutism
- Developmental language disorder
- Communication or eating and swallowing problems following neurological impairments and degenerative conditions, including stroke, head injury, Parkinson’s disease and dementia
- Voice problems
- Mental health issues
- Learning difficulties
- Physical disabilities
- Stammering
- Hearing impairment
Speech and Language Therapists work in a variety of settings including:
- The NHS
- Social Care settings
- Social Services
- Educational Establishments (primary schools, secondary schools, further and special education settings)
- Private Practice
Speech and Language Therapists can work with service users on a one-to-one basis, in small groups or in larger groups depending on the client’s specific need.
Speech and Language Therapists work alongside other Allied Health Professionals, medical staff, healthcare staff and teachers, to support the wellbeing of a service user.
Requirements
Becoming a Speech and Language Therapist requires an undergraduate degree and a Masters degree in speech and language therapy which allows full registration with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC).
To get on to a speech and language therapy degree course you usually need:
- two or three A levels, along with five GCSEs (grades A to C), including English language, maths and science
or alternative qualifications, including:
- BTEC, HND or HNC which includes science
- A Relevant T level
- A Relevant NVQ
- Science-based access course
- Equivalent Scottish or Irish qualifications
Each university sets its own entry requirements, so it’s important to check with them directly which qualifications they will accept for entry. In most cases, the results of an interview and other selection processes are considered as well as academic qualifications. It’s also a good idea to spend some time with a registered speech and language therapist to get some firsthand experience of what the role’s really like before you apply.
If you already hold a relevant first degree, you can apply for an accelerated postgraduate programme in speech and language therapy. These courses usually last two years.
Working as a Speech and Language Therapist will provide further opportunities to develop your career through apprenticeships and internal training in the future.
Degree apprenticeship route
For those interested in becoming a Speech and Language Therapist through an apprenticeship route, there is an approved Speech and Language Therapist Degree Apprenticeship.
Opportunities to access these apprenticeships are currently limited and you will need to apply for an apprentice post at a healthcare employer willing to support the programme initially.
Other routes to becoming a registered Speech and Language Therapist include working in a therapy assistant role for an employer before stepping onto the apprenticeship pathway to speech and language therapy.
Personal characteristics
To work successfully as a Speech and Language Therapist, you need to consider your own personal characteristics. You would need to have the following attributes or similar:
- Be resilient and open to new ways of working
- Be supportive of service users who are experiencing difficulties
- Be patient
- Be able to work with a variety of different people from differing backgrounds and experiences
- Be creative and resourceful
- Be able to plan and organise treatment plans for service users
- Be able to explain complex information in an understandable way
Skills required
To work successfully as a Speech and Language Therapist, you need to consider the skills that you have. You would need to demonstrate the following:
- Be well organised and able to plan your time
- Be able to communicate with a variety of people using different methods
- Have good digital skills
- Be able to motivate and reassure service users
- Be patient, kind and compassionate
- Be flexible in your approach to problems
Training and development opportunities
Once qualified and registered as an Allied Health Professional Speech and Language Therapist, you can continue to develop your career over time. You could specialise in working with a particular client group such as children or the elderly or you could specialise in a particular health issue such as mental health, cleft and lip palate or people with swallowing difficulties. You may consider becoming self-employed and building up your own private practice. You can also do this alongside employed work.
Other development opportunities within Speech and Language Therapy include becoming a senior or consultant Speech and Language Therapist who manages the work of a team of therapists. You could also undertake additional training and become an Advanced Clinical Practitioner or move into management.
Once you are qualified you are also eligible to enrol with The Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (RCSLT) who offer further development opportunities, email updates and networking opportunities so that you are able to continue to learn from others who work in the same role as you.
Pay and benefits
Speech and Language Therapists in the NHS usually work 37.5 hours a week and depending on the setting and the service users, you could be required to work evenings and weekends too.
Speech and Language Therapists are paid using the Agenda for Change (AfC) system and will typically start their career on AfC band 5 but with experience, further training and additional qualifications, can progress further up the pay scale.
Speech and Language Therapists working for Social Care settings will be paid according to the employer they work for and the remuneration for the role should always be shown on their job advert. Other benefits of working as a Speech and Language Therapist include access to a pension scheme, health service discounts such as a Blue Light Card and 27 days of annual leave in addition to bank holidays.
Resources
Our colleagues at Norfolk and Waveney AHP Faculty have produced a series of videos exploring the role of a Speech and Language Therapist. Explore the videos below:
Q&A – How do I become a Speech and Language Therapist?
Q&A – What is it like to be a Speech and Language Therapist?
A Day in the Life of a Speech and Language Therapist in Forensic Services
A Day in the Life of a Speech and Language Therapist in the Autism Assessment Service
A Day in the Life of a Speech and Language Therapist in Paediatrics
A Day in the Life of a Speech and Language Therapist in the Youth Justice System
Speech and Language Therapy – Alternative and Augmentative Communication (AAC)
A Day in the Life of a Specialist Neurological Rehabilitation Speech and Language Therapist
A Day in the Life of Speech and Language Therapy Students
How can a Speech and Language Therapist Support with Swallowing?
How can a Speech and Language Therapist Support Communication?
Speech and Language Therapy – What People Think We Do vs What We Actually Do