Band 4 Therapy Assistant

St George's University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 33,000 - 37,000; Full time

Job summary

A prominent UK healthcare provider seeks a Therapy Assistant to join the Care Home Inreach Team. The ideal candidate will work collaboratively with a multidisciplinary therapy team to improve health and wellbeing of care home residents in Wandsworth. Responsibilities include supporting training, delivering tailored therapy sessions, and administrative duties. Applicants need an NVQ 3 in Health or Social Care and experience in elderly care or similar settings. Salary ranges from £33,094 to £36,195 per year, with opportunities for professional growth.

Qualifications

• Essential experience working in an NHS/caring environment.
• Previous experience working with older people's rehabilitation
• Experience collaborating in a multi-disciplinary team.

Responsibilities

• Assist in teaching and delivering therapy activity sessions.
• Identify strategies to enhance care home resident engagement.
• Provide administrative support to the therapy team.
• Assist in completing therapy-related outcome measures.
• Support the therapy team in resettling residents post-hospital.

Skills

Excellent literacy, numeracy and IT skills

Able to communicate efficiently in English

Ability to work within a multi-disciplinary team

Ability to motivate patients

Ability to deliver individualised exercise programmes

Education

Broad general education including English and maths to GCSE level

NVQ 3 in Health or Social Care or equivalent

Tools

EPR system

Job description

St George's University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Band 4 Therapy Assistant – Care Home Inreach Team

The closing date is 01 February 2026

We are looking for an individual who is passionate about collaborative working to take on the vital role of Therapy Assistant in an established multidisciplinary therapy team, improving the health and wellbeing of care home residents in Wandsworth.

The Care Home Inreach Therapy Service serves 14 nursing and residential homes across Wandsworth. The team consists of a Physiotherapist, an Occupational Therapist, a Speech and Language Therapist, a Dietitian and a Dietetic Assistant.

You will collaborate closely with the therapy team, as well as external agencies and care home staff. The service aims to improve the health and wellbeing of residents through support, training, development and education of residents, care home staff and next of kin. The team embeds the principles of ‘Nourish, Move, Connect, Thrive’ and ‘Ageing Well’ into care homes.

Through this, residents are facilitated to be physically fitter, more active, more cognitively stimulated, and their nutrition and hydration needs met, aiming to reduce hospital admissions, falls and holistically prevent deterioration/deconditioning.

The team has a proactive and creative approach to prevention, with a shared vision and values. Due to the successes and effectiveness of the service since its inception, the service has been extended until the end of March 2027.

Main duties of the job

• Work alongside the MDT to assist in teaching, training, and providing guidance on delivering 1:1 sessions and therapy activity group sessions, including exercise programmes tailored to the specific needs of each care home environment.
• Work with care homes to identify/implement strategies that optimise and adapt the environment to enhance experiences, engagement and activity levels of residents with dementia.
• Provide administrative support to the therapy team, including organising newsletters, managing phone/email queries, preparing training materials and maintaining accurate records.
• Assist in completing therapy-related outcome measures with older residents and care staff, and implement group therapy plans developed by the therapy team.
• Support the therapy team during training sessions with care home staff, and lead various group activities with care home residents as part of staff training and coaching initiatives.
• Support the therapy team in a pilot project of 'resettling residents into the care home environment following a hospital stay' to prevent complications or deterioration and bridge the gap for other services.
• Maintain strong relationships with care home staff and management, helping to coordinate training sessions, gather feedback and support service improvement initiatives, including audits and surveys.
• Given the diverse needs of the 14 care homes, this role requires a high level of flexibility and adaptability to meet varying requirements across different settings.

About us

St George's University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is one of the UK's largest healthcare organisations and is integrated with Community Services Wandsworth. The Trust shares its main hospital site in south west London with St George's University of London, and is linked to Kingston Faculty of Health and Social Care Sciences. St George's has an established national and international reputation as a leading hospital for specialist care including neuroscience, cardiac care, stroke and cancer. We also provide excellent local care to the residents of Wandsworth, and regional care as both an acute, hyper‑acute stroke unit and trauma centre.

As well as acute hospital services, St George's Healthcare provides a wide variety of specialist and community hospital‑based care and a full range of community services to children, adults, older people and people with learning disabilities. These services are provided from Queen Mary's Hospital, Roehampton, 11 health centres and clinics, schools and nurseries, patients' homes and Wandsworth Prison. We employ 8,000 staff, have an annual income of c£620m, around 1,100 beds and serve a population of 1.3 million across south west London.

Person Specification – Education, formal training and qualifications

• Broad general education including English and maths to GCSE level or equivalent.
• NVQ 3 in Health or Social Care or equivalent academic qualification and/or equivalent level of experience of working as a Physio/OT/Rehab assistant.

Previous Experience

• Experience of working in an NHS/caring environment.
• Previous experience in elderly care working with older people's rehabilitation within hospital/community setting.
• Previous experience of working with a multi‑disciplinary team.
• Experience of working in care homes.

Skills and abilities

• Excellent literacy, numeracy and IT skills.
• Able to communicate efficiently and effectively in English, both verbally and in writing, to patients, carers and colleagues.
• Ability to work within a multi‑disciplinary team.
• Able to deliver, monitor and adjust individualised exercise programmes.
• Ability to motivate patients to achieve rehab goals.
• Ability to carry out therapy tasks for a specific patient group independently.
• Strong ability to liaise and provide accurate and comprehensive feedback to supervising colleagues.
• Previous experience of working on an EPR system.
• Able to understand and deliver health promotion messages.
• Able to understand and promote self‑management strategies.

Personal Qualities

• Motivated/willing to learn.
• Adaptable and flexible to changing demands at short notice.
• Ability to demonstrate creative approach and use of initiative in solving problems.
• Caring attitude.
• Physically fit to undertake all aspects of work.

Other Factors

• Able to physically travel to different areas of Wandsworth every day where required, using public transport or own transport.
• Ability to travel around Wandsworth borough and all STG healthcare sites.

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Registered Employer

St George's University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

£33,094 to £36,195 a year