SERVICES FOR DISABLED CHILDREN AND THEIR FAMILIES – LOCAL OFFER FOR CHILDREN’S SPEECH AND LANGUAGE THERAPY
Name of Service:
Service Manager / Contact Person
Contact details
Bromley Healthcare Children’s Speech and Language
Therapy Service (SLT)
Moya Fielding (Head of SLT)
Address:
Children’s Speech and Language Therapy
Phoenix Children’s Resource Centre
40 Mason’s Hill
Bromley
BR2 9JG
Can your child receive support from the
service?
Tel
020 8315 4706
E-mail:
bromh.cslt@nhs.net
Your child can receive support from the Children’s Speech and Language Service if they are
registered with a Bromley GP or attending a Bromley School
(Eligibility criteria)
We will see your child if their speech, language or communication skills are not developing as expected
for their age and this is affected significantly more than other areas of their development.
This will include any of the following:
- Understanding
- Talking
- Speech sounds
- stammering
- Social skills
- voice
- Eating and drinking
How can your child be referred to the
Service?
We have an open referral system. You can refer your child yourself.
Referrals will also be accepted from Health and Education professionals, if you have given your permission,
GPs can refer to the service using the Single Point of Entry referral form.
To make a referral, you can contact the Speech and Language Therapy service, at the address and number
above.
If your child is of pre-school age you can also access a speech and language therapist at one of the monthly
drop-ins at the Children and Families Centres. For details of the drop-ins presently being run please ask at
your nearest Children and Family Centre or at the address and number above.
How to complain about anything related to
the service you receive for your child?
We want you to be happy with the service you receive from us, but we know that every so often
something might go wrong or could be improved. If you're unhappy with the care you receive or an
element of our service, we want to hear from you. This is important to us so we can continuously improve
our services
Please speak to your clinician in the first instance or Head of service if you prefer, details above. If they
are unable to resolve your concerns or you would like to take the matter further please contact us at the
address below.
Global House
10 Station Square
Hayes
Bromley BR2 7EH
contact@bromleyhealthcare-cic.nhs.uk
www.bromleyhealthcare.org.uk
Please see the attached for more information on how to give your feedback to us about your experience
LI0269 - Feedback
Leaflet.pdf
Of course, we also want to hear from you if you're happy with the care you're receiving - it's good to be
able to thank the team and let people know they're doing a good job, so if you have a compliment or
congratulation, we'd like to hear from you.
We are also encouraging people who use our services to write a review on Patient
Opinion of their experience. All postings are anonymous and feedback allows us to
improve the services we provide. www.patientopinion.org.uk
Learning / curriculum support
This is the support from the service,
available for teachers and other staff
members to adapt the curriculum and
environment to make sure your child
makes the best possible progress in
school.
UNIVERSAL
TARGETED
SPECIALIST
This means the support from the
Service that is available to ALL
children in mainstream preschool/schools, whether they have
identified speech and language
needs or not.
This means the Children’s Service
is available for individuals or small
groups who are considered to
require additional support.
This means the support available
to your child through a specialist
package of care, such as an
Education, Health and Care Plan.
This service is available to your child,
if needed. He / she may or may not
have a Statement of Special
Educational Need, EHC plan or a
pupil resource
Agreement.
This input may involve individual
support and is typically medium /
longer term intervention
Mainstream Schools:
The service provides:
- liaison meetings between therapists
and school Special Educational
Needs Co-ordinators (SENCOs) to
discuss ways of supporting the
development of child’s
communication skills
The service seeks to work together
with parents and carers and our Early
Years and Education colleagues to
identify how children with speech,
language and communication needs
can be best supported.
For children with a high level of need,
the therapists can:
The therapist can:
- Assess your child’s needs and
provide a report
- set targets together with teaching
- assess your child’s needs and
provide a report (e.g. for EHC plans
or Statement reviews)
- set targets and provide an
individualised programmes of
activities, with outcome measures
- liaise with other professionals
working with your child and attend
staff and / or parents, including
activities and programmes for home
or school
- Support your child’s move into
preschool / primary / secondary
school and ensure that information /
strategies developed to support your
child are shared
- liaise with Early Years staff,
teaching staff and other health
professionals working with your child
multi-disciplinary meeting (e.g.
annual reviews, team around the
child meetings)
For Pre-school children and those
in Mainstream Primary Schools:
- provide spaced appointments to
update and demonstrate advice.
- appointments can be attended by
parents and early years/teaching
staff, so the advice is useful both at
home and nursery/school. For
school aged children some of these
appointments will take place in your
child’s school. Initial appointments
and most of those for pre-school
children will take place in one of 5
community clinics (Beckenham
Beacon, The Phoenix Centre,
Mottingham, Eldred Drive or St
Paul’s Cray).
In specialist provisions
- regular sessions may be provided if
indicated (to a maximum of weekly in
term-time)
In Specialist provisions:
Therapists work together with the
teaching staff, to develop a
communication-friendly environment
in all specialist provisions. This
includes:
- teaching some lessons or groups,
together with education staff
- supporting teaching staff to
In mainstream primary schools:
- spaced individual sessions can be
provided
- some children may attend a block of
weekly / fortnight intervention
appointments
In specialist language provisions
- The therapist can offer therapy
sessions several times a week, in
term-time
differentiate the curriculum
- enhancing use of sign and symbols
in classes
- contributing to steering groups and
school policy
- The service also provides a named
therapist who attends a number of
the schools on a weekly basis and
will
- offer group sessions, if appropriate
- provide reports for the annual
review of your child’s statement /
EHC plan
- provide open liaison / advice
sessions for class staff
- provide opportunities for parents to
meet with the therapist
Secondary Schools:
The therapist can:
- Offer advice appointments to
children who have accessed the
service previously (in the last 2
years) or for children in specialist
provisions up until school leaving
age. The service can also offer
assessment and recommendations
for children over 12 with newly
identified communication
problems. The service also sees
children who stammer or who have
an acquired disorder e.g. following
head injury
Physical and emotional well-being
We recognise the importance of
children and their families receiving
timely advice when concerns arise.
Parents and carers of any pre-school
children can therefore access the
monthly drop-in clinics at two children
and family centres without requiring a
referral.
Children where their communication
difficulties are impacting on their
emotional well-being are prioritised.
As for targeted
Children’s use of language in
functional, everyday situations is key
to the advice given. This supports
their emotional well-being.
Children with significant difficulties
communicating are encouraged to
use signs and symbols, to reduce
frustration,
Therapists liaise with behaviour
support and children’s mental health
services, to support children with
communication and emotional needs.
Access and inclusion resources
Not provided at this level.
School based training
Not provided at this level.
The therapist can provide advice on
eating and drinking difficulties your
child may have, which may be
impacting on their physical wellbeing.
The therapist can support teaching
staff to:
- develop the use of symbols and
sign in classroom environments
- modify the curriculum and the
language used in the classroom, to
support your child’s needs
In specialist Provisions therapists
offer training to teaching staff,
contribute to some staff meetings
and inset days.
The service can also provide tailored
training when commissioned by
The therapist can:
- assess your child’s needs for
specialist equipment, such as high
tech communication devices
- provide support in obtaining funding
for devices, if recommended
Therapists can offer training to the
teaching staff working with your child.
In specialist Provisions therapists
also contribute to some staff
meetings and inset days.
individual schools
Support for families:
Families can access drop-in
sessions, where pre-school children
are informally assessed and advice is
given.
Where needed children can be
accepted into our core service for
further advice and support.
Families are referred to other
professionals and voluntary
agencies, for support, if needed
Therapeutic Approaches
Therapeutic approaches at this level
are focused on providing early advice
for parents and pre-school staff in
order to reduce the need for more
targeted support at a later date.
- Parents attend clinic appointments
with their child.
- In mainstream schools, they are
invited to appointments
- In specialist schools, parents are
offered opportunities to meet with the
therapist
- targets and activities are provided
for home
- families are referred to other
professionals and voluntary
agencies, for support, if needed
Therapeutic approaches at this level
focus on providing detailed
assessment of a child’s needs.
Following this advice and
programmes of language activities
are given, which can be carried out at
home or school.
- As for Targeted
Therapeutic approaches at this level
focus on providing detailed
assessment, detailed advice and
regular sessions with a therapist to
practise and demonstrate activities.