Children’s Commissioner visits Speech and Language Therapy Service

The Commissioner recently visited the Southern Trust’s Paediatric Speech and Language Therapy service.

The Paediatric Speech and Language Therapy community team offers a wide range of support across community clinics and specialist provision in mainstream schools (SPIMS). They support children with a variety of speech, language and communication needs including speech sound disorder, developmental language disorder, stammering, voice disorder, cleft palate, deafness and language disorders and special education needs.

The Commissioner joined the team to meet staff, children and parents who use the service.

He observed a virtual group session of the Communicating Every Day Parent Group. The programme supports families of pre-school children who are experiencing speech language and communication difficulties by teaching strategies that they can use every day.

The Commissioner also sat in on a Speech Sound Disorder Intensive Intervention appointment. The team developed the innovative programme which increases the intensity and frequency of sessions and is achieving much better outcomes for children’s direct speech sound development. Nikki McDonald spoke about her son Luca’s journey with the service and setting up the charity Luca’s Voice to support other families.

The team also gave an overview of the Balanced System Model which has been established in both Special Schools and local SPIMS (specialist provision in mainstream schools) and takes a whole system approach to supporting children with speech, language and communication needs. Mr Quinn was given a demonstration of telephone triage and the team’s webpage which offers a wide range of advice and information to help families support their child’s speech, language, eating and drinking needs.

Commissioner for Children and Young People, Chris Quinn, said at the event: “I feel privileged to be here today and witness the incredible work that paediatric speech and language therapists carry out daily.

“However, I am aware of the difficulties and obstacles they encounter regarding workforce and funding. Speech and language therapy plays a crucial role in giving children a strong foundation for life, so the focus should be on enhancing support for children and young people. This includes addressing the need for an adequate number of speech and language therapists to meet the growing demand.

“Quality early years education is fundamental for promoting social mobility so we need to be ambitious and together, we can raise expectations, outcomes, and opportunities for children now and in the future.”

Speaking at the event, Assistant Director for Specialist Child Health and Disability for the Trust, Julie McConville said: “We were delighted to welcome the Commissioner for Children and Young People to learn more about the work of our highly skilled and dedicated paediatric speech and language therapy community service.

“Like many services across health and social care, the team are challenged with workforce and financial pressures, rising demand and increasing complexity of children’s needs. Today the Commissioner saw first hand and heard from families, how the team remain absolutely determined to overcome these challenges and find innovative ways of helping children to reach their full potential.”