A to Z of services

The Children’s Speech & Language Therapy (SLT) Service is jointly commissioned by Croydon Health Services (CHS) and London Borough of Croydon.

We provide services at several levels:

• Universal – through training to Croydon health Services, Local Authority settings (Schools/Colleges) and private and voluntary staff and via Early Intervention, mainly in Children’s Centres.  This training covers the needs of children from 0-19.
• Targeted – children with general communication difficulties in nursery and school provisions.  These children may receive input from school/setting staff and in groups run by Speech & Language Therapy Assistants (SLTAs).  
• Specialist – children on the SLT caseload.  Some of these will be seen by school/setting staff, SLTAs and general SLTs and some by specialist SLTs; e.g., children with eating and drinking difficulties (EDD), hearing impairment, dysfluency, physical disabilities and AAC, developmental language disorder, etc.

Drop in groups are currently available in Children’s Centres and are known as Chatterbox groups.  These run in several locations across Croydon on a weekly basis and children/families do not have to make an appointment or be referred to attend them. 

Termly advice clinics are offered within each Croydon maintained school, for parents and those supporting children with speech, language, communication difficulties. Please contact the school for further information. These give targeted advice to address speech, language, communication difficulties and provide opportunities to triage and signpost families to local support and provision at universal and targeted level. Fortnightly advice clinics for children with EDD are also run – please contact the service for information about these.

Who the service is for:

• The Service is available to those aged 0-19 years for children whose communication or feeding problem is having a significant impact on their life.
• Clients need to be registered with a Croydon GP or live within LB of Croydon.

Appointments

What do I do if I haven’t received my appointment yet?

Please call the main office at Sanderstead – 020 8714 2594. 

What do I do if I want to change or cancel an appointment?

Call the main office and ask for a message to be given to the therapist or call the clinic that you were due to be seen in. 

What should I bring to my appointment?

Your child needs to attend the appointment

What time should I arrive for my appointment?

Please arrive five minutes before your appointment time.

The service aims to resolve concerns and complaints directly, following the Trust guidelines. If they remain unresolved, formal complaints can be made through the Patient Advice & Liaison Service (PALS) based at Croydon University Hospital.

Children’s Speech and Language Therapy

Sanderstead Clinic

40 Rectory Park

Sanderstead

South Croydon

CR2 9JN

Opening hours 8.30 – 5.00

Tel: 020 8714 2594

Email: CH-TR.SLTcroydonchildren@nhs.net 

Service outcomes

The overall outcome is to reduce the impact of a child’s communication or feeding problem on their life. This is achieved by:

• improving communication and/or feeding skills of clients;
• empowering parents to enable children to communicate or feed as effectively as they are able;
• training others e.g. education/settings staff, to develop children’s speech, language, communication, feeding skills.

Decision making and planning

Parents and settings are the primary focus for decision-making and planning. Older children and young people with capacity will be involved as appropriate. At an individual decision-making level, all clients on the caseload have care plans which are discussed and/or shared and agreed with the child’s parents or carers.  In settings, care plans are also discussed and shared with settings staff.

As a service, we actively request feedback following intervention or training and this is used to inform service planning.  

SLTs working in Education settings contribute to the annual review process and attend annual reviews wherever possible. An up-to-date report may be provided if the SLT is unable to attend, detailing current/new aims of care.  

The service is located throughout the borough of Croydon, in nurseries, Children’s Centres, mainstream schools, special schools, Enhanced Learning Provisions, the Youth Offending Service (YOS), clients’ homes, NHS clinics and Croydon University Hospital. The majority of appointments for school aged children/young people are held in schools who work closely with the service to maximise the best outcomes for pupils.

Useful documents

Chatterbox leaflet January-March 2019 

Chatterbox child communication development sessions - September to December 2018

Speech And Language Therapy - Parent Information Sheet

Prospectus for Speech, Language and Communication Services in Croydon Schools 2016/17 

Related organisations and services

• Local Education Authority (schools, ELPs, Children’s Centres, maintained nurseries, SEND, Educational Psychologists)
• Out of Borough and Independent Schools (where you are accessing a clinic based service)
• Youth Offending Service (YOS)
• Early Years Support Service
• Children’s Centres
• Social Services, particularly in safeguarding
• Private & Voluntary Nurseries
• Croydon Opportunity Preschool Group
• Staff in tertiary centres (e.g. South Thames Cleft Palate Service)