Children's Speech and Language Therapy Service

Service description

Due to an increased demand for our speech and language therapy service, we are sorry that children and young people are experiencing waiting times of up to 24 months for a follow up appointment. We are doing all we can to reach children and young people on our waiting lists as quickly as possible whilst maintaining a good standard of care. Our website has resources that can help parents and our education colleagues to support children and young people with a variety of speech and language or eating and drinking difficulties. If you have significant concerns about your child’s needs, please contact the speech and language therapy office on 0116 2955256.

Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Find out more information about why are there waits for children’s speech and language therapy support by watching the video below:

Find out more about what to do and how to support your child while you’re waiting for your second appointment by watching our video:

More resources are available on our Help, Support and Resources page.

We are a team of speech and language therapists and support workers who provide episodes of care to children and young people across Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland.

We support children and young people who have difficulties with:

• Speech, language and communication skills
• Eating, drinking and swallowing skills

We work in episodes of care. This means a child has an assessment with a speech and language therapist followed by therapy sessions. The therapy sessions might be with a speech and language therapist or a therapy support worker. During this block of therapy, the important adults in the child’s life are coached and supported in how to support the child with their communication at home and in their setting. At the end of a block of therapy, in most cases, the child is discharged with specific targets to continue to work on. Personalised strategies and activities are given to you (parents/school staff) to continue to support the child’s communication skills and work towards their communication aims. In rarer cases, children are kept on the waiting list for a further episode of care. When a child, who has been discharged, has met their communication aims, parents can contact the service by telephone to re-refer (0116 295 5256). At this time a digital questionnaire will be sent out to the parents to help the therapist gather more information about the child’s speech and language needs to establish if further support is needed. School or setting staff can also re-refer using the referral form on the website. If the referral is accepted another assessment session will be completed in school, clinic or at home to determine what the child needs next.

We work in partnership with a range of other agencies and colleagues including schools, Early Years settings, children’s centres, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, medical teams and the voluntary sector.

Utilising Recite Me for text-to-speech and translations

Recite Me, a web accessibility toolbar, is available on this website to help you understand our content and interact independently. Features of the Recite Me toolbar, which can be launched by clicking the icon in the bottom right hand corner of your screen, include:

• Text-to-speech: reads the text out loud with highlighting
• Translation: translates the text into over 100 languages
• Screen mask: provides a screen tint overlay
• Picture dictionary: displays the meaning of a word through illustration

Referral criteria

Please see “Referrals” tab.