DDCS CAMPAIGN SUCCESS TO IMPROVE

SPEECH AND LANGUAGE THERAPY 

In May 2010 Dorset DCS sent out a questionnaire to gather information from parents and carers about their experience of the speech and language therapy support their children were receiving. This arose because for a long time parents had expressed concerns about the level of support so Dorset DCS felt that the only way to measure this was to gather parent’s views. When we had received the replies we put together a report summarising the results and sent them to the Speech and Language Therapy Service in July 2010. Click on the link below to read the report.
 

SALT QUESTIONNAIRE RESULTS AND REPORT

Initially there was no reply but we continued to raise the issue at the Children Hearing Services Working Group meetings. Subsequent letters with copies of the questionnaire results were sent to NHS Commissioners and again there was no response.

At the time the service had one specialist SALT who had 7 hours a week for all the hearing impaired children in the whole of Dorset and this included all her admin and travel time. This was clearly not enough. 

In August 2011 after still receiving no response Dorset DCS stepped up the campaign and wrote to all eight of the Dorset MP’s, Councils, NHS Commissioners and Services for Children. Seven of the eight Dorset MP’s were very supportive of the campaign and wrote to commissioners. There has been a considerable amount of change within the NHS and in September 2011 we finally had a response which informed us that there was a review of the service taking place and a commitment to meet with parents. 

On 31st October 2011, Dorset DCS organised a meeting in Wimborne and Fiona Haughey, Deputy Chief Operating Officer for Dorset Healthcare University NHS Foundation Trust, came along with Eunice Gibson and Lesley Grey, SALT Managers, to meet parents. The meeting was well attended and it is fair to say that it was a full and frank meeting in which parents were able to have their say about their worries and concerns, so much so that they didn’t finish their presentation as the discussions took priority. The parent’s concerns were listened to with compassion and a promise was made to review the current service and they would return to report back to parents in April/May 2012. Parents were also able to have one to one talks with Fiona and her colleagues to discuss their worries.

After this meeting a decision was made to increase the specialist SALT hours from one day a week to three and this commenced on 28th November 2011. This was fantastic news but it was only a short term increase until 31st March 2012.

Dorset DCS continued raising awareness of this issue with letters and meetings with Councillors and MP’s. What was wonderful is that by January 2012 parents were seeing an improvement and children were at last getting the support they need, but we were concerned that the extra hours may not be maintained long term.

On May 3rd 2012 Dorset DCS organised another meeting in Wimborne for Fiona Haughey and her colleagues to meet with parents. She reported that the review clearly showed that there was insufficient capacity to manage referrals and there are now two more therapists trained to specialise with hearing impaired children. They have one day each (one in the East and one in the West) and the current specialist SALT hours are now 15 hours a week. This means that there are now 30 hours of support a week for our children and it was confirmed that this would not change. The Service had funded these improvements by internal changes but still had a business case submitted for more funding and Fiona agreed to let us know the outcome. 

The SALT service will now also have a section in the parent’s questionnaire that is sent out bi-annually from the Hearing Support Service which means that parents and carers are now able to raise any concerns and the service will get the feedback. The pathway for referrals has also been updated and they are producing a new information leaflet. The specialist therapist will also now give all the families she is working with her mobile phone number so that she can be contacted direct. 

We are pleased to tell you that we have now been informed of the outcome of the business case and it is brilliant news! The case was successful and has been fully supported by commissioners and the service has received an additional investment of £244,000!! This will be invested in areas related to children with special needs including hearing impaired children.

At a time when the NHS is being drastically cut and there are major changes happening, to have been successful with this campaign is amazing! We must thank Fiona Haughey and her team for being so understanding and taking on board all the concerns raised and thank them and the commissioners for the improvements that have been made. 
 

The most important thing in all of this is the children and we are incredibly proud that we have been 
able to make a difference!

Just shows what you can do with a bit of determination, hard work and perseverance!