Joining #TeamNELFT means you’ll become part of a welcoming and supportive working environment. We’re CQC rated Good, and we want you to join us on the journey towards an Outstanding rating. NELFT has sites across North East London, Essex, Kent and Medway. We provide community and mental healthcare services to adults and children within these areas.
The Trust has award winning equality and diversity initiatives and staff health and wellbeing activities. We invest heavily in your development, because when you are valued and supported, we provide the best care to our patients. We are a Level 3 Disability Confident Leader, have been featured in the Working Families Top 10 Employers benchmark for five consecutive years, and we have achieved a Carers UK Level 1 Accreditation. Along with our staff networks and training opportunities, we work hard to embed a just and compassionate culture here at NELFT.
Find out more about NELFT careers and what makes our Trust a great place to work, in this video
Job overview
Due to new funding, we are pleased to announce an exciting opportunity for a Band 4 Support Practitioner to join our growing service in the area of urgent community response. The post will be working in the community and based in our multi-disciplinary community treatment team in Havering. After a successful pilot of speech therapy and dietetic support to this team last winter, the service was successful in gaining fixed-term funding to support a speech therapist, dietitian and assistant practitioner until the end of March 2026. The role will involve supporting the qualified clinicians as they use quality improvement methodology to understand the current service and horizon-scan for new opportunities to keep vulnerable people out of hospital wherever possible.
Main duties of the job
We are interested in recruiting an individual who is able to provide a thorough, evidence-based and holistic approach to patient care. The successful candidate will be responsible for supporting the work of the speech and language therapist and dietitian working in the community support team. You will be expected to screen new referrals, provide intervention under the guidance of the qualified clinicians, and support the clinicians with administrative tasks. The role will involve collaboration with members of the community treatment team, as well as with external teams, particularly primary care teams, our local virtual frailty ward and the frailty unit at the new St George’s Health and Wellbeing Centre in Hornchurch.
Clinical support will be provided by the Band 7 Speech & Language Therapist and Dietitian, as well as by the Clinical Leads for Speech Therapy, Dietetics and the Community Treatment Team. CPD is actively supported through regular clinical supervision, appraisals, quality improvement ‘huddles’ and excellent training opportunities. For further information on some of our work, please follow the speech therapy twitter @NELFTAdultSLT .
Working for our organisation
Our Values 2025 - 2030
Working with our colleagues, patients and carers we have co-produced three new values that we aim to embed within our culture here at NELFT.
They are:
1. We are kind.
2. We are respectful.
3. We work together with our communities.
These three values help us to strive to provide the best care by the best people.
High Cost Area Supplement - Outer London
This post also attracts payment for High Cost Area Supplement of 15% of the basic salary (with a minimum of £4,313 to a maximum of £5,436 pro rata for part time).
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Detailed Job Description and Main responsibilities
Please see the attached job description and person specification for more information about this role and working at North East London NHS Foundation Trust. We encourage you to refer closely to this when completing your application.
We welcome your application even if you do not meet all the criteria listed in the person specification. Any development needs to help you succeed in the role, can be discussed at the interview stage. We are willing to consider internal applicants looking to join us on secondment.
References
Please ensure that the references are from your most recent employer and one of these must be your direct Line Manager or Supervisor. You must provide professional email addresses for all referees as we will contact them as soon as an offer has been made. Please note we do not request references prior to interviews. Additionally, ensure that any gaps in your employment history are clearly indicated. All applications made through NHS Jobs account will be processed by TRAC System. Please note that some emails may go to your spam/junk mailbox so make sure you check this regularly.
Person specification
Values
Essential criteria
4. Demonstrates NELFT values
Qualifications
Essential criteria
5. NVQ level 3 or equivalent standard of literacy and numeracy.
6. Previous Band 3 role or Dietetic or Speech and Language Therapy related Degree
Desirable criteria
7. Dietetic assistant or therapy assistant training
Experience
Essential criteria
8. Experience of working in a care setting /NHS
Knowledge
Essential criteria
9. Knowledge of multi-professional working
10. Understanding roles of dietitian and speech and language therapists
Desirable criteria
11. Knowledge of first line nutrition support and enteral feed ordering
Skills
Essential criteria
12. Basic awareness of IT and IT skills
13. Able to work independently and within team
14. Good written and verbal communication skills
15. Good time management skills
16. Flexible and adaptable
other
Essential criteria
17. To be able to travel efficiently throughout the area
Benefits
We believe in bringing your authentic and best self to work, in order to deliver the best care to our patients. We are committed to supporting our employees holistically. Here is a snapshot of what is on offer at NELFT:
18. A long-standing and award-winning approach to equality and diversity with supportive networks for ethnic minority staff, staff with disabilities or long term/chronic conditions and LGBT staff.
19. A commitment to supporting colleagues to achieve a work life balance, through flexible working opportunities and our effortsto support our working parents and carers. This has resulted in us being recognised as a ‘Top 10 Family Friendly Employer’ from the Working Families Charity.
20. Proactive health and wellbeing support, including access to our employee assistance programme, staff psychological support, individual wellbeing conversations and a network of health and wellbeing ambassadors.
21. Detailed information about our wellbeing and benefits offer can be found in this link.
As a flexible working friendly organisation, we want to be sure that you can work in a way that is best for us and for our patients, and for you. Speak to us about how we might be able to accommodate a flexible working arrangement whether that’s a job share, part time hours or another flexible pattern.