For many children we will aim to help and encourage the development of their understanding of spoken language and successful expressive communication and use of sounds. For some children it may include using visual communication strategies, for example: Makaton signing, use of pictures or objects. For some babies, children and young people Speech and Language Therapy may be needed to support skills to successfully and safely eat and drink.
About Us
All of our Speech and Language Therapists are members of the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (RCSLT) and the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC). Our team of therapists working with children with eating and drinking difficulties have completed relevant additional training.
Service Areas
Within all our service areas we aim to:
• Work alongside families and other professionals.
• Establish positive and successful relationships with children.
• Provide an assessment to identify the specific needs of each child.
• Offer strategies and advice as appropriate.
• Offer one to one sessions working towards individual goals using fun and motivating activities, as appropriate.
• Provide a child-centred individual care plan that can be shared with schools and early years providers, as appropriate.
Early Years Service
We work closely with parents, health visitors and nursery staff to help children to get the best possible help. We run clinics from Barton Children’s Centre and the Ironstone Centre in Scunthorpe. We accept referrals for children over the age of three years old.
Clinic venue addresses
Ironstone Centre,
West Street,
Scunthorpe,
DN15 6HX
Barton Children’s Centre,
Council Terrace off Castledyke West,
Barton upon Humber,
DN18 5AP
Child Development Centre
St Nicholas House,
Shelford Street,
Scunthorpe.
North Lincolnshire
DN15 6NU
There is no direct line at these venues. Please call the department on 01724 203755 if you need to get in touch.
Mainstream Schools
School aged children will usually be offered therapy within their school setting. This allows us to work more closely with the school staff in successfully supporting the child and to also minimise the disruption to their learning. It will continue to be crucial to maintain close links with parents and they will be invited to all speech and language therapy sessions.
Special Schools
St Luke’s special school and St Hugh’s special school have named speech and language therapists who visit regularly. They work closely with school staff to meet the needs of children with communication difficulties and eating and drinking problems, who need specialist support in addition to the help already provided by the teaching team.
Neurodevelopmental – Early Years Pathway
This pathway involves a multi-professional assessment of children’s social communication skills, including speech and language therapists and clinical psychologists. This pathway will provide specialist Autism assessment and referral onwards to relevant professionals when required, for example Autism Spectrum Education Team (ASET). For further information about this pathway and the relevant referral form, please look at the North Lincolnshire Local Offer website.
Eating and drinking difficulties
We provide an inpatient ward based service and a community service to support children who are having difficulties safely eating and drinking. Our management will include the assessment and diagnosis of the presenting eating, drinking or swallowing problem with recommendations for intervention. In some cases this will include the modification of the consistency of food and/or fluid and/or the adaptation of the feeding environment or method. We work closely with both parents and professionals including ward staff, allied health professionals and health visitors to ensure a consistent and collaborative approach to therapy.
Additional clinic services
As well as our services listed above, we also offer clinic based assessment and therapy for children and young people who stammer and our Cleft Lip and Palate clinic is led by a therapist linked to the Trent Regional Cleft Lip and Palate Network in Nottingham.
Referral Process
If your child is under 5 years old and not in full time education, we would advise parents to speak with your child’s health visitor or Early Years provider about your speech and language concerns.
If your child is in full time education, we would advise parents to speak with your child’s school or school nurse about your speech and language concerns. When they complete the referral we request the completion of relevant documents from the Speech and Language Therapy toolkit to be provided along with a referral form. Please follow the link to an electronic version of the toolkit on the North Lincolnshire Local Offer Website.
If you would prefer you can also discuss your concerns with your GP or child’s paediatrician and they will be able to complete a referral to the service by providing a clinical letter / report outlining the child’s skills and difficulties with the resulting impact observed.
For concerns about a child’s feeding, drinking and swallowing please discuss your concerns with your Health Visitor, consultant paediatrician or GP. They will offer supporting advice or will make a referral. Please follow the link to the swallowing referral form.
Appointments
For early years children, under 5 years and not in full time education, your appointments will be offered at our clinic settings at either the CDC, The Ironstone Centre in Scunthorpe or Barton Children’s Centre. For school aged children your appointments will be offered within your child’s school, as appropriate. For some children with more complex needs appointments may be offered within the child’s home or nursery setting.
We are currently using a range of Telehealth appointments, including telephone reviews and video consultations. Our video consultations are run through Attend Anywhere and can be found here under the ‘Children’s therapy team’ clinic. Additional information about how to access the video consultation will be provided with your child’s appointment letter.
Appointment booking
Following a referral to Speech and Language Therapy an appointment will aim to be offered as soon as possible this will be arranged either by phone or by letter.
Cancelling your appointment
Please notify us as early as possible so that we can offer the appointment to another patient. If you do not attend an appointment without notifying us, the appointment will be recorded as a failure to attend and your child may be discharged from the service.
Contact us
We would love to hear what you think about our service, how you found the appointments and any suggestions for improvements. You can tell us this by completing the online Friends and Family Test.
Or if you have specific comments or want to speak directly to a member of the team, please contact us via the methods below:
Email: [email protected]
Address: Children’s Therapy Team
New Beacon House
Ridge Way
Scunthorpe
DN17 1BS
Contact Number: 01724 203755
Office opening Times: 08:00am – 4:00pm
If you have any concerns / queries about any of the services offered by the Trust, in the first instance, please speak to the person providing your care or contact the Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) team on 03033 306518 or [email protected]
For school staff, please use our toolkit for ideas and activities that you can use to support children’s speech, language and communication needs. The toolkit will provide you with activities to support different areas of a child’s communication including understanding and using language, using speech sounds, attention and listening skills. Please follow the link to our toolkit on the North Lincolnshire Local Offer website.
Training
Our Speech and Language Therapists are involved in providing specific training to parents and other professionals to support children’s speech, language and communication needs. For example:
• Speech Sound Therapy and Language Therapy training days for school teaching assistants, provided with support from the local authority.
If you would like more details about these and other training packages available, please contact the department on 01724 203 755 or email us at [email protected].
