Speech will be clearer in Wiltshire (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Speech will be clearer in Wiltshire

12:33pm Thursday 4th February 2010

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Health bosses say speech and language therapy for children will improve following the decision to have one provider for the county.

There are three different providers in Wiltshire but following a tendering exercise Wiltshire Community Health Services will be the sole provider.

Maddy Ferrari, an assistant director at NHS WIltshire, said the new service would deliver speech therapy consistently across the county.

She said: “The waiting list for therapy is unacceptably long. There are between 200 to 300 children waiting for several months. “ The new model of service has been developed with input from parents. Mrs Ferrari said the new service would involve parents, nursery staff and teachers being trained to communicate with children on a day to day basis while therapists continue to work with children.

She added: “The new service will work more collaboratively with parents and education professionals and deliver more timely assessment and support. Parents have told us that they want to work towards self care and management. They want information on how to help themselves and their children.”

The new service will start during the summer and all speech therapy staff in Wiltshire will transfer to Wiltshire Community Health Services with full protection of their pay and conditions.

Mrs Ferrari said the aim would be to recruit more therapists in time.

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