The Service continues to operate at a restricted level due to the ongoing need to meet COVID-19 safety guidelines.
Please refer as normal.
Coronavirus (COVID-19) – information for children, young people and families
We understand that you might be worried about coronavirus – also known as COVID-19 – particularly if your child has a long-term health condition.
This information leaflet sets out our advice and the action the Trust is taking to respond to the coronavirus outbreak.
What do we do?
We provide evidence based specialist support to children (0-19) with a range of specific speech, language and communication difficulties and those with difficulties swallowing, eating and drinking.
Waiting times
The Children’s Speech and Language Therapy Service is experiencing high demand, which means there are long waiting times for appointments. We recognise that this information may be concerning and want you to know we are working actively with Birmingham and Solihull Clinical Commissioning Group (Health Commissioners of the service) and the Local Authority on implementing long-term solutions so that children can access support within a reasonable timescale. This situation worsened during the Covid19 pandemic when many services were closed down, which led to longer waiting times, however we are now working through our Recovery plan and waiting times are reducing for all children and significantly for some groups of children deemed to be at highest clinical risk.
At present, there are waits of several months for an initial assessment. However those with needs that pose the greatest risk to their health, such as eating and drinking difficulties, are seen much sooner. For children who require treatment, there is a second wait for treatment to start.
Therapy
Appointments are being offered through a variety of channels – via phonecalls, video and face to face - dependent on clinical need. This started in response to the requirement to meet COVID 19 safety guidance but has continued where evidence and clinical practice has shown it to be effective.
Intervention for pre-school children and children attending mainstream settings is being offered routinely via video in partnership with parents and education staff. Where this is not shown to be effective, alternative ways of working will be discussed which could involve face to face sessions.
Intervention has resumed on site in Special schools and Speech and Language Resource Bases.
Advice Line
In response to the restrictions in place due to COVID-19 we have opened a Speech and Language Therapy Advice Line
- Are you the parent/carer of a child or young person with speech, language or communication needs and/or eating, drinking and swallowing concerns?
- Are you a professional or member of school staff/children’s workforce involved with supporting children and young people with speech language communication needs and/or eating and drinking concerns?
If so, you can contact the Speech and Language Therapy Team for advice, strategies and support.
The phone line is open 24 hours a day and a short message can be left. Qualified Speech and Language Therapists are available to respond to messages on:
- Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays between 9am and 4pm
They will be able to provide advice, information and resources.
The child/ young person you are calling about must be:
- - Aged 0-18 years (or up to 19 only if in full-time special school education)
- - Registered with a Birmingham GP or attending a Birmingham School.
BIRMINGHAM CHILDREN’S SPEECH AND LANGUAGE THERAPY TEAM ADVICE LINE NUMBER: 0121 466 6231
