Speech and language therapy services

If your child's speech and language skills do not improve, even after you have: 

• Tried different activities at home
• Raised your concerns with Norfolk NHS healthy child programme team and/or had support from your child's nursery, preschool, or school

the NHS healthy child programme team, or your child's place of learning, can make a referral to the NHS speech and language therapy service in Norfolk.

Your child can be referred to a Speech and Language therapist if they have an identified speech language and communication need.

Your child does not need an education, health and care (EHC) plan to get support from the speech and language therapy service.  

If English is your child's second language, English language support is available in schools. The speech and language therapy service is only for children with speech and language development needs. 

Supporting evidence  

Supporting evidence must be sent with the referral. The speech and language therapy service will want to know:

• What speech and language assessments the NHS healthy child programme team or your child's place of learning has done 
• The speech and language support that has been tried. Your child's place of learning should supply their records

It is also helpful to include records of what you have done at home. 

Contact the NHS speech and language therapy service 

If the referral is accepted

If the speech and language therapy service accept the referral, your child will go on the waiting list for an assessment by a qualified speech and language therapist.

Unfortunately, the waiting list can be long, so your child's place of learning should continue to support your child using speech and language support tools and strategies.

You should also continue doing activities at home, as these really do help in the long term. 

If the referral is not accepted

The speech and language therapy service might not be able to accept the referral, if:

• No supporting evidence is provided
• The evidence is not detailed enough
• Activities have not been tried at home
• No initial speech and language assessment has been made by the NHS healthy child programme team or your child's place of learning
• Your child's place of learning has not tried different support tools and strategies
• Support has not been tried for long enough (this will depend on your child's level of need)

If the referral is not accepted, the speech and language therapy service should explain why and what your child's place of learning or the NHS healthy child team programme team can do.

You should also continue to support your child at home and keep records of what you are doing.