Overview

More Help is support additional to that already offered in the 'Every Child', 'Getting Advice' and 'Getting Help' sections of the Pathway.

This further help is offered by other agencies who have not previously been involved with the child and family. 

Criteria for accessing More Help:

A parent/carer has concerns in relation to the child’s communication and language development, and:

• Clinical judgement following New Born Observation (NBO) assessment.
• The child is under 5 years old.
• The child has accessed the WellComm intervention (an initial screen, the relevant activities from the Big Book of Ideas shared and implemented followed by a review WellComm screen) and progress is limited.
• A referral to Paediatric Speech and Language Therapy has been completed with the child being triaged to EYCLDS.

Referral guidance and accessing More Help:

If you have any queries about making a referral, please contact EYCLDS for guidance. If there are concerns regarding the child's social communication skills, again please contact EYCLDS prior to making a referral.

We want to ensure that children are receiving a level of support at the right stage of the pathway. For many children, WellComm intervention at the 'Getting Help' stage will be sufficient without needing onward referral to 'Getting More Help'. This is why we ask that evidence of WellComm intervention is included with the referral, so we can see what support has already been provided and that further support is required. In most cases this will be an initial WellComm screen, the relevant activities from the Big Book of Ideas shared and implemented, followed by a review WellComm screen no earlier than 12 weeks later. The child will have demonstrated limited progress. If this information is not included, the referral will be rejected.  For exceptions, please see additional important information (on page 3).

To access More Help from SLT/ EYCLDS, referrals will now be accepted on a single agency referral form when speech, language and communication is the ONLY concern. For those children where there are additional concerns, referrals would still need to be made using the Early Help Assessment (EHA) form, as the purpose of EHA is to provide a team around the child to support the child, young person and family with their additional needs.

Please ensure that all sections are completed when you are referring the child and if an EHA is being used, then please ensure your referral information is focused on the functional impact of the child's speech, language, and communication concerns, for example, a child's speech sound clarity difficulties are impacting on behaviour/speaking confidence. If children are referred without the right level of information, then the referrals will be rejected.  The services need to ensure that they are supporting the children who need their support most, and therefore it is key that you consider whether a referral to the service is fundamental to support this child and whether there is evidence that the child has initially been supported in setting using the graduated approach. Referrals which are not sent in the correct format i.e. a letter instead of the single agency referral form or EHA form, will be rejected. This ensures equity across the quality of the referral information received to ensure a child is being triaged accurately.

Referrals should be sent via email to: paedcommtherapyreferrals@boltonft.nhs.uk - please clearly mark your email to state that this is a Speech and Language Therapy referral.

Contact EYCLDS

Early Years Communication & Language Development Service,

Oxford Grove Start Well Centre

Tel: 01204 33 8349

Email: eyclds@boltonft.nhs.uk 

Resources

• Pathway for referrals to Speech and Language Therapy including SARF
• Early Help Assessment Form