Agenda item

To receive a presentation regarding the Speech and Language Therapy Service.

The Lead for Children, Young People & Family Services and Head of CAMHS and Children services at Dorset HealthCare gave a presentation which detailed:

• What services Speech and Language Therapy (SALT) offered
• How the SALT service could be accessed including community based, Ready Steadi Chat and Specialist referrals.
• Activities of the SALT service including caseloads, number of EHCPs and referral to treatment time.
• Transforming the System using a whole system approach which would require additional training and input from all services.
• Challenges for the Service including recruitment, implementation of the balanced system and specialist and alternative placements that would require support.

The Committee discussed the presentation which included:

• In response to a query regarding working with libraries to increase the number of parents reading to their children and children reading, the Committee was advised that whilst most of the services work was within school settings, they also worked closely with libraries too.
• In response to a query about whether the service was meeting their 18 week referral time target, the Committee was advised that this was an internal target used to monitor the service and was met 90% of the time.
• In response to a concern regarding the accessibility of the service, the Committee was advised that with regard to Under 5s, having the Ready Steadi Chat response within 14 days should see an improvement in accessibility for that age group and with regards to school age children, a barrier could be delays in the referral if the form wasn’t correctly filled in and whether it was actually an issue which the service could resolve or whether the issue would be better resolved by a SENCO which could cause further delays.
• In response to a query about the balanced system, the Committee was advised it was about providing consistency in support outside of the therapy sessions provided by working with schools, early years and families to ensure the work continued.  Regarding how success of the system could be measured, the Committee was advised the plan started about 18 months ago and the work was detailed which included being at the start of the transformation program which would take approximately three years to fully implement.  The Committee was reassured that it was continually being monitored and evaluated for its effectiveness.
• In response to a query about diagnosing conditions, the Committee was advised that the SALT service could provide diagnosis’ specifically related to speech, but anything more complex would need to go through the paediatric process provided by University Hospitals Dorset, however SALT would be actively involved in the assessment process.
• In response to a query about once a diagnosis had been given, and the SALT involvement in the delivery of any treatment, the Committee was advised that the service could recommend how many sessions known as dosages would be required, which would then be fed into a multidisciplinary plan from paediatrics.
• In response to a concern about the inability to offer adequate SALT provision within mainstream settings therefore requiring more specialist provision as the only suitable alternative, the Committee was advised that the service did not provide all SALT across Dorset and independent SALT including within alternative provision, would not work in the same way.
• In response to a concern regarding speech and language difficulties and youth offending, the Committee was advised that whilst there was already SALT within the Youth Offending Service, and it had recently been agreed to increase that provision with recruitment currently underway.
• In response to a query regarding the need currently outstripping availability and what was being done to address this, the Committee was advised of the difficulties in recruitment including the reluctance to undertake the degree qualification, which meant consideration to different ways of delivering the service was necessary.
• It was acknowledged that Covid had caused a surge in demand and the reasons for that were highlighted.
• The qualification was discussed, and it was noted that there was not a national scheme in place to increase the workforce, however the service was in discussions with local universities to see how they could offer support to students choosing the SALT degree.
• In response to a concern that the balanced system was not needs led but resource led, the Committee was reassured that this was not the case but from experience and evidence that wider engagement with people that support the children was needed to ensure a consistent approach.  It was stressed that children with more complex needs support would be commissioned by University Hospitals Dorset and SALT would support any arrangements put in place.
• In response to a concern that parents feedback regarding the balanced system was not the same as was being detailed in the presentation, the Committee was advised that parents should contact the managers of the service with any concerns, however it was noted that the introduction of the balanced system was in its infancy and the service would be happy to bring back a report on its implementation and progress at a future date.
• The Chair requested contact details for the managers to be passed to Democratic Services to be passed to any parents with issues.  ACTION.

RESOLVED that the contents of the presentation be noted.