Overview

This section is for those children and families who require support additional to 'More Help' or children who require specialist speech and language intervention.

Criteria for accessing Risk Support:

• Diagnosis of additional or complex needs impacting on the child’s speech and language development.
• Limited reported/observed progress following interventions as detailed in previous sections in the Pathway.
• Transfer from EYCLDS.
• Referral from other professional e.g., Paediatrician.
• Professional judgement of a likely persistent speech and language delay.

Getting Risk Support

To access support from SaLT/ EYCLDS, send a copy of the completed and signed single agency referral form when speech, language and communication is the ONLY concern. For those children where there are additional concerns, these referrals would still need to be made using the Early Help Assessment (EHA) form, as the purpose of EHA is to provide a team around the child to support the children, young person and family with their additional needs.

Please ensure that all sections are completed when you are referring the child and if an EHA is being used, then please ensure your referral information is focused on the functional impact of the child's speech, language, and communication concerns, for example, a child's speech sound clarity difficulties are impacting on behaviour/speaking confidence. If children are referred without the right level of information, then the referrals will be rejected.  The services need to ensure that they are supporting the children who need their support most, and therefore it is key that you consider whether a referral to the service is fundamental to support this child and whether there is evidence that the child has initially been supported in setting using the graduated approach. Referrals which are not sent in the correct format i.e. a letter instead of the single agency referral form or EHA form, will be rejected.  This ensures equity across the quality of the referral information received to ensure a child is being triaged accurately.

Referrals should be sent via email to: paedcommtherapyreferrals@boltonft.nhs.uk - please clearly mark your email to state that this is a Speech and Language Therapy referral.

Resources 

• Pathway for referrals to Speech and Language Therapy including SARF
• Paediatric Speech and Language Therapy Service

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