Emily Hoskins
Aneurin Bevan University Health Board
Project Background:
Speech, language and communication needs (SLCN) are the most common type of additional learning needs in Wales with 4.8% of school children having SLCN. If unaddressed, this has lifelong impacts for education, wellbeing, mental health, youth offending and employment, however modest investment into training early years practitioners can have a huge impact on SLC outcomes Speech, Language and Communication (SLC) needs: infographics | GOV.WALES. The communication environment is crucial for language learning. Early Years professionals can promote SLC within the home learning environment, but key professionals often don’t have training in SLC so the project had 2 key strands:
- Rollout a package of SLC training to the integrated Health Visiting and Local Authority Family Support workforce across Gwent.
- Co-design a bespoke SLC contact point for Gwent with key stakeholders and pilot this with a focus on SLCN prevention/identification.
Project Objectives:
Objective 1: Upskill the Health Visiting and Local Authority Family Support team workforce across Gwent, increasing confidence to deliver high quality support to families around SLC promotion.
Objective 2: Develop a contact point around SLC tailored to the needs and wants of the Gwent population.
Objective 3: Save staff time and impact waiting lists and engagement to targeted and specialised Speech and Language Therapy (SLT) services.
Objective 4: Increase caregiver confidence to interact with their child/ren in a way that helps them learn to talk, and increase their use of responsive interaction strategies.
Project Approach:
Training rollout:
- Offered to all Health Visiting and Family Support Teams across the 5 local authority areas of Gwent
- 23 dates, from January 2023 – January 2024 in local venues
‘Talk With Me’ contact point design via stakeholder engagement:
- Staff survey: 28 responses, 11 Health Visiting, 17 Local Authority
- Caregiver survey (QR codes given to caregivers/posted on social media): 32 responses
- Visited existing universal and targeted interventions to talk to caregivers, accessed 39 caregivers (33 Mothers, 4 Fathers, 1 Auntie, 1 Foster parent)
- Focus group of Health Visitors and skillmix (11 staff present and video available)
Key themes were identified and included in the contact point structure, 2 outcome measures have been embedded (caregiver responsiveness and confidence to interact in a way that supports SLC development).
Project Outcomes:
- 297 staff have attended 1 day of in person SLC training
- 219 staff completed the training evaluation
- 46 Flying Start families have accessed the Talk With Me contact across 2 Local Authority areas
Project Impact:
For the 219 staff that completed the training evaluation, confidence across various domains increased from 6.22 to 8.61 on average on a 1-10 scale:
Within the Talk With Me SLC contacts, responsiveness and confidence have increased:
Referrals to targeted and specialised services have changed, estimated savings per month:
- 24 slots in targeted interventions
- 12.75 hours in Specialised SALT community clinic