Speech and Language Therapy

The following information relates to students on the speech and language therapy caseload. If your child is not currently on the caseload and you have concerns about their speech, language and communication, please speak to their class team.

Between us, we are in school Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

Who we are

We are a team of Speech and Language Therapists (SALTs) who are employed by Bolton NHS Foundation Trust. We support the communication of the children and young people who attend Rumworth Special School.  We also support children who present with identified feeding difficulties too.

The current members of our team are:

Our Role Within School

The role of Speech and Language Therapy within Special Schools is to assess the children on our caseload as guided by their EHCPs , and then use this information to decide whether they need to receive a Universal, Targeted or Specialist level of support from us going forwards. Please note that this model of service only applies to the children on our communication caseload.

What do we mean by Universal, Targeted and Specialist Levels of support?

Universal Level

In special schools, the environment has been specifically modified in order to meet the communication needs of the children.  A Total Communication Environment is in operation which means that all children are consistently exposed to a combination of spoken language, signs, gestures, symbols, objects and pictures in order to support their functional communication.

School staff consistently embed advice and strategies into interactions with the children throughout the day, using the additional training that they have received on how to support children with communication difficulties. In this way, many of the children in school have their day to day communication needs met already by those around them and do not need additional support from Speech and Language Therapy.

For children where this is the case, we are likely to assess them as needing a Universal Level of support. We would then close their referral to our service. However, this would only happen if we thought that this would have no impact on their current communication skills both at school and at home. Also, if we were to close your child’s referral, we would endeavour to discuss this with you first, and your child could easily be re-referred back into our service if their needs significantly changed.

If our assessment findings indicate to us that a child has a communication need that is
not being met, then they would receive a Targeted or Specialist Level of support.

Targeted Level

At this level, a child’s communication needs will have been assessed as best being met by a SALT providing a programme of specific and targeted activities. However, these activities do not need a SALT to carry them out, with school staff and parents/carers receiving our support and guidance to enable them to work through the programme

Specialist Level

At this level, a child’s communication needs will have been assessed and it will have been determined that these only can be met by a member of the SALT team.

What will my child receive when they are assessed as being at a specific level?

As this is a tiered model, if a child is assessed as being at the Specialist level, they would also have the provision detailed under the Targeted and Universal levels too. Throughout their time in school, children will move up and down the levels dependent on how their communication needs are presenting at that time.

What can you do to help us?

We are keen to encourage contact from Families and we hope that this model of working will allow us to respond to any queries you may have in a timely manner.
We would also appreciate it if you could keep us informed of any changes to your contact information or of any important information relating to your child.

This could include:
- Your contact information – phone number or email address
- Your contact preferences
- Your address
- Any updated medical information relating to your child
- Any change to the languages spoken in the Family Home

Please provide any updated information using the SALT email address:
RumworthSALT@boltonft.nhs.uk

Thank you for reading this information about our service.
We look forward to supporting your child at Rumworth School.

If you have any questions about this information or about your child’s care, please contact the Speech and Language Therapy Team on 01204 462670 or email RumworthSALT@boltonft.nhs.uk