How language support gets families talking

PROJECT

Let's Talk

PURPOSE

To improve the communication and language development of very young children and reduce referrals to the statutory speech and language therapy service

FUNDING

A Better Start Southend (ABSS) is part of the 10-year National Lottery-funded A Better Start programme set up by the Big Lottery Fund. In Southend, the programme is funded to the tune of £40m. Let's Talk has a £1.1m budget allocation, including staffing costs, from summer 2016 to summer 2019

BACKGROUND

A Better Start Southend is one of five such programmes set up by the Big Lottery Fund, and shares expertise and experience with the other four Better Start projects in Blackpool, Bradford, Nottingham and Lambeth.

It provides free services supporting children under four and their parents, as well as expectant parents, focusing on diet and nutrition, social and emotional development and communication and language.

ACTION

Let's Talk is aimed at children under four and their parents. A monthly Talking Walk-In is held at children's centres in central Southend and Shoebury.

It is set up as a stay and play session but families receive a one-to-one slot to discuss their child's needs with a speech and language therapist (SLT), and receive immediate advice to support them. This reduces the need for individual home visits.

The SLT signposts families to the most appropriate Let's Talk course or organises a home visit, depending on circumstances. The Talking Walk-In is also a means of following up children already known to the team, to review progress and next steps. This could result in families being signposted to another course, discharged or transferred back into the community clinical service.

The five-week Let's Talk courses include: Let's Talk with Your Baby, for babies aged between six and nine months; Talking Tiddlers for 12- to 18-month-olds; Talking Toddlers for children aged 18 to 24 months; and Chatting Children for children over the age of two. Children take part in activities such as music and messy play while parents learn techniques such as repeating words as they play with their children. Also on offer are Super Sounds, a course focusing on phonology, and Little Listeners and Attention ABS, which focus on listening and attention skills.

As well as being referred from the Talking Walk-In, families are also signposted to the Let's Talk courses via universal 23-month development checks of children's language.

"These have been held at children's centres but we are currently exploring other venues such as local libraries to see if this affects attendance," says Isobel Wratislaw, highly specialist speech and language therapist. Members of the team also visit a local food bank every week where they signpost families to the courses and the universal check.

"An important element of this work is to develop trust with the adults so that, should the children need to be transferred to the main service, there will be fewer children failing to attend appointments," says Wratislaw.

"The advantage here is that we have two SLTs who work both in ABSS and in the main service, so there can be a seamless transition or we could, for example, offer an SLT Assistant known to the family who will attend the first appointment with them."

The team is working with health visitors for the homeless to develop a similar service for families who may be transitioning through the area. The aim is to build relationships and support families to access the courses. The team offers a block of three mini-sessions at the family's current place of residence.

The Let's Talk team works in collaboration with the Family Nurse Partnership, Early Help Team, Southend Library Bookstart team, The Fatherhood Institute, and family support charity Henry.

OUTCOME

Data from Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust and Southend-on-Sea Borough Council, two of the partners of ABSS, shows the Let's Talk scheme is having a positive impact.

The number of children transferred into the main statutory speech and language therapy service went down by 15 per cent in the first quarter of 2018 compared with the previous year.

Ninety-six per cent of transfers from ABSS areas to statutory services were appropriate, compared with 77 per cent in the previous year, and 79 per cent in non-ABSS areas.

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