A trial project that could help health authorities accurately gauge how many speech and language therapists they need is to launch in Northern Ireland.
The trial will take place in the Western Health and Social ServicesBoard area and will test a new approach to children's workforceplanning.
Stephanie Ticehurst, workforce planning project officer at the RoyalCollege of Speech and Language Therapists, said the traditional way tocalculate required numbers of therapists was to employ them based on afixed estimate of how many were needed per population.
"We're saying there may be different needs from one population toanother."
The four-month project will take into account the proportion of childrenthat have conditions such as autism and cerebral palsy, demand from pastreferrals, and the skills of different professionals such as teachersand mental health professionals.
