The Children & Young People Speech and Language Therapy (SALT) service supports children and young people, aged 0-19 years-old, who have difficulties with speech, language, communication, stammering, social interaction skills, feeding and swallowing difficulties.
CCICP provide Children & Young People SALT services to patients registered with a Cheshire West GP, as well as those registered with Central Cheshire and Vale Royal GPs. This is an exciting opportunity for Children & Young People SALT to provide a robust & flexible service and deliver the best possible care to our patients.
Please take a look at the interactive Early Years Communication Pathway above.
This was created in collaboration with our Starting Well Team, Early Years Consultants, and our Children and Young People’s (CYP) Speech and Language Teams.
This pathway will help you to receive the right support at the right time in the right place.
It includes lots of useful resources, social media accounts, and screening tools suitable for all children, young people, and their families.
The pathway also helps decide when children may need extra support or a referral to the Speech and Language Therapy Service.
We would be really grateful if you could take a couple of minutes to complete our short survey about your experience of the service. Just scan the QR code on your mobile device, and it will take you straight to the survey. Thank you!
Children and young people will be offered an appointment in the most appropriate setting which meets the needs identified for the patient during the referral process. This could be:
- Community Clinics
- Children's Centres
- Mainstream Schools
- Special Schools
- Resource Bases
- Patient's Homes
- Preschool Settings
Children and young people aged 0-16 (end of Year 11) are eligible for referral if they are registered with a GP located within the catchment area of CCICP:
- South and Vale Royal areas
- Chester, Ellesmere Port, and surrounding areas
Children and young people aged 16-19 with Education and Health Care Plans, in full-time education, are also eligible for referral, subject to local authority commissioning arrangements.
Young people aged over 16 with stammering concerns are eligible for referral to the Young Persons and Adults Dysfluency Service, if they are registered with a GP located within the catchment area of CCICP.
If you are considering making a referral, please look at one of the following checklists:
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Preschool children aged 0 - 5 (opens in a new window)
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School children aged 5-16 (opens in a new window)
We also operate an open advice line on Tuesdays, 12pm - 4.30pm
Tel: 07825 103893
Speech, Language and Communication Difficulties
How to help your child with communication difficulties.
Our new online referral form is now available using the link below.
If a Speech, Language and Communication Difficulties referral is appropriate, please complete and submit this online referral form (opens in a new window) with full parental/carer consent.
Important:
Before completing a referral, please rate the below 2 questions with parent(s)/carer(s) from 1-8: With 1 being not worried at all/no difficulty to 8 being highly worried/very severe difficulties.
The ratings must be entered on the referral consent page:
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How worried are you about your child's communication difficulty?
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How much difficulty do you think your child is having with communication?
Supporting Information:
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You can also email supporting information to our Therapy Booking Team, such as WellComm Score Sheets, completed ASQ, First Concerns profile/SEND Support Plan and/or other professional reports (with parental/carer consent).
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Please ensure that the child’s/young person's full name and date of birth are on each document.
- Email supporting information to: CCICP.
TherapyServices (for South and Vale Royal areas) or CCICP.@mcht.nhs.uk CYPSaltChesterTeam (for Chester, Ellesmere Port, and surrounding areas).@mcht.nhs.uk
Feeding and Swallowing Difficulties
Our new online referral form is now available, using the link below.
If a Feeding and Swallowing Difficulties referral is appropriate, please complete and submit this online referral form (opens in a new window) with full parental/carer consent.
(The department provides a service to assess feeding and swallowing concerns but is not currently commissioned to provide intervention for behavioural difficulties with food, e.g. aversion.)
Please note:
You will need to complete and submit both forms if you wish to refer a child/young person for Speech, Language and Communication difficulties and Feeding and Swallowing difficulties.
For general enquiries please contact 01270 826312.
Tips
In the meantime, see the resources section below for tips and advice for early years and school aged children.
Next Steps
If your child's referral has been accepted, please see the information outlining what to expect at your first appointment (opens in new window).
Commissioned time is when a setting buys in SALT time which is over the time entitled from NHS and Local Authority contracts.
It might be direct time spent with children, group programmes for children at risk of speech and language delay, teaching, staff coaching and whole school approaches.
We work with you to create and measure Key Performance Indicators for the contract and evaluate this annually.
You can see the Commissioning Brochure here (opens in new window).
If you want to get in touch to enquire about commissioned services please contact Mat Southall, Community Operational Manager-Paediatrics: mathew.southall2@mcht.nhs.uk
All links open in a new window.
Cheshire East Council have now released training dates for early 2023, more information and dates can be found here.
CATCH is an award-winning health app for parents and carers of pre-school children and expectant parents in Cheshire. Free to download, the CATCH app offers tips on how to stay healthy during pregnancy, prevent accidents and illness and treat minor ailments in 0 to 5 year olds. It also offers advice on when to seek medical advice.
The app was developed by the NHS and local government in Cheshire, with health technology studio Damibu Ltd. To download the free app now, scan the QR code or search for ‘Catch app’ in Google Play or the App Store.
