A major step towards extending the ability of early years practitioners to support children with speech, language and communication needs has been taken with the launch of a new self-assessment framework.
The free, interactive, online tool was published just a week after the interim report from the Bercow review of services for Children and Young People with Speech, Language and Communication Needs (SLCN) called for the skills of the wider children's workforce to be increased.
The Speech, Language and Communication Framework (SLCF) is available for anyone working with children and young people and enables them to evaluate their competencies and identify training routes in areas where they lack confidence.
It was developed by the Communication Trust and is funded by the DCSF. The Trust's director Anita Kerwin-Nye says, 'The evidence collected during the Bercow review consultation clearly states that the wider children's workforce needs and wants further training and knowledge when it comes to addressing the needs of the children they work with every day. The SLCF supports those who are already skilled and wish to build on their experience, and provides an easy introduction to those whose knowledge is limited.
'With between 40 and 50 per cent of children starting school without the speech, language and communication skills they need to learn, achieve and make friends, and an additional group of children with long-term persistent SLCN arising from disability, it is clear that the wider children's workforce has a key role to play in speech and language development.'
She emphasises that an awareness of SLCN needs to be built right across the workforce.
'With, as a generous estimate, only 8,000 speech and language therapists working with children and young people and over one million children and young people with SLCN, a purely pragmatic response is that the rest of the workforce needs skills to ensure that the scarce specialist resource is used where it is most needed.'
Therapists have a major role to play in increasing the skills of the wider workforce, says Marie Gascoigne, speech and language therapy consultant and a trustee of the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists. 'Speech and language therapists were widely commissioned by Sure Start programme managers to be part of the teams to deliver training to colleagues, as well as to work with families directly in a holistic way. With the transfer of funding to the children's centres, services are now less consistent. Therapists have a significant training role in upskilling the workforce as part of a holistic approach that allows families to access targeted and specialist support within children centres.'
The long-term impact on children's lives if their needs go unaddressed is highlighted by speech therapist Janet Cooper. She leads Stoke Speaks Out, a multi-agency project to look at the issues underlying children's language deficits in Stoke-on-Trent.
'SLCN is not just a therapeutic problem but can stem from social deprivation, different models in the home or lack of support for parents,' she says. 'We have children struggling in high school to understand and communciate. Their behaviour can be seen as bullying, but they cannot read non-verbal clues.'
She says the project is succeeding because it involves multi-agency teams in training, learning and working together.
The SCLF
The Speech, Language and Communication Framework outlines key competencies across eight strands:
- Typical speech, language and communication development and use
- Identification and assessment of speech, communication and language needs
- Positive practice
- Speech, language and communication and behaviour, emotional and social development
- Roles and responsibilities of practitioners and structures of services
- The Special Educational Needs context in educational settings
- Parents/carers, families, peers and friends.
The SLCF has three strands:
- Universal - if you need a general awareness of the importance of speech language and communication
- Enhanced - for when speech, language and communication is a key part of your role
- Specialist - if your work relates significantly to supporting children with SCLN.
The framework maps to the integrated qualification framework, so it links speech and language therapists to the wider children's workforce, says Marie Gascoigne. For example, the SCLF Specialist competencies map to the core competencies of a Speech Language Therapist, as both equate to Level Five on the IQF.
Access the SCLF at www.communicationhelppoint.org.uk.
