At our recent Leeds Parent Carer Forum Coffee Morning, we welcomed colleagues from the Leeds NHS Children’s Speech and Language Therapy Service, who spoke about the support they currently provide for children and young people and shared proposals for a new service offer through the Government’s developing Experts at Hand programme.
The session gave parents and carers an opportunity to learn more about speech and language therapy services in Leeds, ask questions about accessing support, and provide feedback on early ideas for the new programme.
What is Speech and Language Therapy support?
The team explained that speech and language therapy is about much more than helping children talk. Support can include communication, understanding language, following instructions, social interaction, learning, independence, and eating and drinking safely. These skills play an important role in children’s daily lives, education, relationships, and ability to communicate their needs.
The service aims to help families better understand their child’s communication needs and build confidence in supporting them at home and in everyday situations.
Current support available in Leeds
The team outlined the range of services currently available, including pre-school clinics, support for school-aged children, and a number of specialist pathways. These include services for speech sound difficulties, stammering, feeding and swallowing difficulties, hearing impairment, communication aids and augmentative and alternative communication (AAC), Down syndrome, and more complex communication needs.
Parents can make referrals directly to the service, alongside referrals from professionals such as GPs, health visitors, teachers and SENCOs. Information, guidance and referral forms are available through the Leeds Speech and Language Therapy website.
The service highlighted that, due to funding and capacity pressures, it is not currently able to provide regular therapy for all children who may benefit. Instead, support is usually delivered through assessments, advice, workshops, goal-setting and targeted interventions.
Parent and carer questions
The discussion included a wide range of questions from families. Parents raised concerns about support for children who are home educated, educated outside of school settings, or who may not easily fit within existing pathways. Questions were also asked about support for non-speaking children, children with Down syndrome, communication aids, ARFID, Pica, Makaton training and access to specialist therapies.
What is Experts at Hand?
The second part of the session focused on Experts at Hand (EAH), a proposed new programme being developed as part of the Government’s SEND reforms. The aim is to provide earlier support, improve access to specialist expertise, strengthen partnership working, and help education settings become more inclusive.
Proposed Speech and Language Therapy offer within Experts at Hand
The draft proposal shared during the session included early identification of communication needs, advice and support for staff, communication-friendly learning environments, training and coaching, family support, small group activities and greater access to specialist advice at an earlier stage.
The team stressed that these proposals are still at an early stage and that no final model has been agreed. The intention is that support would be tailored to the needs of individual settings and communities rather than offering a one-size-fits-all approach.
Importantly, families were told that Experts at Hand would not replace existing EHCP processes or specialist support services.
Thank you
We would like to thank the Leeds NHS Speech and Language Therapy Service for taking the time to meet with Leeds PCF families, answer questions and seek feedback on their developing proposals. We look forward to continuing the conversation as Experts at Hand develops and will share further information with members when it becomes available.