How I extend the reach (2) Funding gaps

7/30/2019 How I extend the reach (2) Funding gaps

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HOW I

SPEECH & LANGUAGE THERAPY IN PRACTICE Summer 200726

HOW I (2):

Funding gaps

In March 2004 a two and a hal year Childrens Fund

Speaking and Listening Project was set up in Burton-

on-Trent, Stafordshire. The Childrens Fund - a cen-

tral part o the governments agenda or children and

amilies - aims to make a real diference to the lives o

children and young people at risk o social exclusion.

My manager Isabel Dodsley spotted a service gap and

put together a successul bid or unding. She backed up

her proposal with inormation about the links between

juvenile ofending, potential social exclusion and com-

munication sk ill di culties. She also tied it in with one o

the key outcomes o the government green paper Every

Child Matters (Be Healthy) with a health indicator o

improved speaking and listening and social interactionskills leading to enhanced sel-esteem.

Our project is managed and delivered by a speech and

language therapist (me) and two assistants, Wendy Bur-

ton and Helen Saville. It aims to improve the speaking,

listening and social interaction o children and young

people by developing their:

listening and attention knowledge and behaviours

story telling skills through narrative

ability to reason and iner

social skills / sel-esteem.

The project was set up or children in the 5-7 year and

9-11 year age range who did not meet the criteria or ac-

cessing the mainstream speech and language therapy

service but who nevertheless had been identied by

schools as needing to develop or improve their skills in

any or all o these areas. In addition, the project aimed

to enhance the knowledge o teaching staf and parents

about communication skills and to develop their skills as

communication acilitators.

The Childrens Fund identied places in Burton where

children and young people had not been able to access

other national or locally driven preventative programmes

or services. They specied the two wards in Burton where

we could work, so this necessarily limited the number o

schools with which we could be actively involved. As the

project developed we were given permission to extend

and by the end o the nancial year to 2007 we will have

delivered the project in 10 schools.

We asked the schools to help us identiy children who

were struggling with social and communication skills

development. With the assistance o a teacher, we sup-

ported this process by providing staf with a ormative

assessment prole based on a combination o National

p-scales and National Curriculum Literacy attainment

targets. We also observed the children rom a social in-

teraction perspective in the classroom setting. In addi-

tion to identiying children, this initial assessment phase

would provide a baseline or ongoing evaluation and

reporting to the Childrens Fund.

ContinuityThe project is delivered in weekly one hour sessions over

three terms and relies on schools making a commitment

to provide accommodation. When possible we actively

encourage an assistant rom school to work with us, or

the purpose o continuity, eedback and skill sharing. All

sessions aim to develop efective listening and spoken

language but ocus on more specic elements o lan-

guage skills as required (reasoning, inerence, story tell-

ing, components, using and understanding questions,

giving opinions). We evaluate all sessions at the end, and

some o these observations help to inorm class teachers

about skill development. We have ound it necessary to

develop promotional resources and material to support

and promote our work. The two speech and language

therapy assistants have become experts in this!

Training school staf has taken several orms, initially

using I CANs Joint Proessional Development Frame-

work. We have actively encouraged staf to observe and

participate in group sessions and to run parallel groups.

As well as talking to school staf as a whole we have

done talks or groups such as teaching assistants, and

we share and discuss aims o group sessions to make

these supportive o skill development in the classroom.

One o our primary aims was to work with parents to

develop and encourage their skills as primary language

acilitators with their children. We were targeting some

parents who had never been into school or any purpose

at all. Although the numbers are relatively small we have,

with the childrens encouragement, been able to inorm

and engage some very di cult to reach parents.

We worked very closely with schools to obtain paren-

tal consent. We designed our own letter or used school

pro-ormas with adapted wording. Schools were very

good at promoting the project (an exciting opportu-

nity, very lucky to be chosen). We produced yers

to attract the children and used existing home school

liaison staf to phone or contact parents on our behal.

Where English was a barrier we ensured that there was

someone at home who could translate, or used bilingual

support.

IncentivesWe got the children to create the invites or their par-

ents and carers to come to group sessions and actively

encouraged attendance through incentives. Initially we

ofered small general prizes rom pound type shops

but with recently increased unding we have bought in

games to encourage language development, commu-

nication and cooperation. We also always have reresh-

ments.We keep parents ully inormed about the aims o the

work we do through leaets (symbolised as appropri-

ate), drop-ins and parent sessions. Home school liaison

staf inorm us about any special requirements o ami-

lies. We send activities and ideas home with children on

a regular basis and regularly ask parents or opinions

and comments.

The Childrens Fund also promotes and encourages

the active participation o children and young people.

As a team we have developed skills and knowledge

about gaining opinions and eedback through involving

children and young people. Satisaction levels are moni-

tored closely by the Childrens Fund Management team -

and indeed unding has depended not only on perceived

improvement o skills but also on service users satisac-

tion (see gure 1). As well as actively inviting spoken

comments, we use smiley ace eedback rom younger

children where they select one o three aces to post in a

box to indicate their satisaction. With the older children

we use red, green or amber cards or their eedback. We

also use a system o reward cards linked to communi-

cation behaviours like good waiting, you didnt butt in,

good ideas, and the children are encouraged to reward

each other i they a identiy a good behaviour in a group

session. We also regularly give out certicates. Our high

school children preer to have their rewards via existing

school reward systems such as merits.

Childrens Fund Projects are perormance managed

on a quarterly basis and so staf are required to moni-

JULIE COLEYREFLECTS ON THEBENEFITS OF BEINGPART OF A PROPERLYRESOURCED ANDMANAGED PROJECTTO IMPROVE THESPEAKING ANDLISTENING SKILLSOF CHILDRENWHO WOULD NOTNORMALLY ACCESSSPEECH ANDLANGUAGE THERAPY.

We have, with the childrens

encouragement, been ableto inorm and engagesome very di cult to reachparents.


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HOW I

SPEECH & LANGUAGE THERAPY IN PRACTICE Summer 2007 27

tor and evaluate childrens progress regularly. Outcomes

have been very positive with comments rom school

staf about improvements in childrens condence and

sel-esteem, improved listening and attention, more

contribution to class discussions and increased parental

involvement in schools.

With an extension o unding until March 2008 we

have been able to ofer our project to several new

schools in the area and also to include young people in

the 11-13 year age range. We have also been awarded

a urther sum o money to build on the work we have

done so ar with parents. This will involve running par-

ent workshops to enhance their knowledge as language

acilitators and attending parents evenings with displayboards, resources and inormation regarding the impor-

tance o communication skills or lie. We are also look-

ing or alternative sources o unding in order to allow

the project to run on beyond the scheduled nish date.

RewardingIt has much such a diference having dedicated time,

sta ng and resources to carry out a project efectively!

The opportunity to use and adapt my skills has been

personally rewarding, and I have beneted rom work-

ing alongside two assistants who take a less clinical ap-

proach to intervention. As I normally work in a Speech

and Language Centre, I now eel more in touch with

what is happening in mainstream schools in terms o

social and educational expectations and demands on

education staf. Going into schools requently and regu-

larly and being accessible beore and ater sessions has

helped enormously to improve relations between health

and education. The project has also created opportuni-

ties to reach more parents and children than we would

normally be able to see.

There are signs that the project will have ripples be-

yond the initial splash. Every school involved has wel-

comed the initiative and recognised that we need to do

more to promote efective speaking and listening. They

recognise that children respond to regular, ocused work

in a small group on basic communication skills, that they

make progress and enjoy the sessions. Staf are now

more easily able to identiy children who may be at riskbecause o their poor communication skills. Teaching

and support staf have picked up skills through observ-

ing sessions and some schools are setting up similar

groups to run in parallel with ours.

Julie Coley is a speech and language therapist with South

Stafordshire Primary Care Trust. To see examples o resourc-

es developed by the team, go to www.speechmag.com.

Resources Every Child Matters,

see www.everychildmatters.gov.uk/aims/outcomes

Joint Proessional Development Framework,

see www.ican.org.uk

Figure 1 Feedback

For some members o the group this is the rst time they have been asked what

they think and why and within a sae environment are being encouraged to orm

and articulate their ideas.(teaching assistant, 11-13 years)

One o the boys is now condent enough to speak in ront o a group.

Strong links have been built between school and the speech and language therapy

department. (teaching staf, 9-11 years)

That was really good. Id like to come again because I could take these ideas to

playschool.

It was brilliant, I love the interactive stuf. (parents, 5-7 years)

I nd it easier to talk to teachers and parents about problems [now]. (Sarah, 12)

Photos: ar let: Julietalks to parents andchildrenLet: Helen workingwith some olderchildrenBelow: Wendy gets thechildren involved

SLTP


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reprinted from www.speechmag.com


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How I extend the reach (2) Funding gaps

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