Children and Young People Speech and Language Therapy

Who are we?

We are a team of Speech and Language Therapists (SLTs), Assistant Practitioners (APs), Senior Health Care Support Workers (SHCSW) and Administration Staff.

What do we do?

We support children and young people, from the ages of 0-18 years who have a range of difficulties with their communication and/or eating and drinking. This is extended to care experience young people up to age 26. We are committed to giving the highest quality of care for the children and young people living in Lanarkshire. We will do this as part of a society that includes everyone with any communication and swallowing difficulties.

1 in 5 people may experience communication difficulties at some point in their life. Speech and Language Therapy are here to help when you are concerned.

How will we help you?

We want children and young people to get the help they need, at the right time and from the people who know them best. We will work with you, your family and other professionals who work with your child or young person (e.g. Health Visitors, Early Years Practitioners and Class Teachers). This means your child or young person will get the best support for their communication and/or swallowing difficulties.

The support we give will depend on the difficulties your child or young person is having with their speech, language, communication and swallowing. Support can vary at different times, depending on how much their difficulties are affecting them.

We give support in 5 different areas; the support needs to be right for your child or young person across each area. This is called The Balanced System. You can see the 5 areas of the balanced system in the picture below:

Environment

• Changing communication environments (e.g. home, school) to help children and young people to communicate.

Families

• Building parents’ confidence in supporting language and communication development.
• Efficient access to services.

Workforce

• Collaborative working.
• Training and support.

Identification

• Early identification of needs.
• Timely intervention.

Interventions

• Joint planning and delivery.
• Specialist
• Targeted
• Universal

Here is a bit more information about each area of the balanced system:

1. Environment

The right environment (e.g. home, nursery, and classroom) can make communication or eating and drinking easier.

We can give you advice on changes you can make at home. We can also work with school and nursery staff to make changes there.

2. Families

We will communicate with you and your family clearly to help you to support your child or young person in the best way. We give information in different ways, including: on social media (Twitter, Facebook); telephone helpline; and website.

3. Workforce

We work with others in Health, Education (nurseries, schools) and 3rd Sector services (charities). As experts in communication we can give advice, guidance and training to help them support your child or young person.

4. Identification

It is important to pick up on your child or young person’s speech, language, communication, eating and drinking needs as soon as possible. We can do this by working together with you and all the people that are involved with them. This lets us give help at the right time which is good for your child or young person’s wellbeing.

5. Intervention

We might give advice to you or other people to change the way you or they communicate with your child or young person. They will get the best results if they get support from the people who are with them often. It’s not just about coming to appointments.

What are universal, targeted and specialist supports?

We help children and young people by providing universal, targeted and specialist support. Children and young people can move through these different types of supports depending on their need at the time. We will work together with you to identify which type of support best meets the need of the child or young person.

Universal – This is available to everyone. This includes getting general advice and information from our website, social media (Twitter or Facebook) or our telephone helpline.

The aim of universal support is to give you a better understanding of speech, language and communication needs. We may also suggest other services who can help.

Targeted – This includes working with you, your family and other people who support your child or young person. We can look at any difficulties your child or young person is having and suggest how to help them.

We might give advice, suggest things to try, recommend resources (e.g. videos, information leaflets or websites), make changes to your child or young person’s environment, or give training.

Support at a targeted level helps your child or young person by giving help to the people they see often.

Specialist – Your child or young person may be offered assessment and treatment at this level. We will agree goals for this with you, your child or young person and other people (e.g. Health Visitor, Early Years Worker or Class Teacher). We will update the goals regularly.

We may work directly with your child or young person, or we might work with you and your family or other people close to them. Your child or young person might be seen one to one or in a group. The appointments may be face to face in person, over video, or phone.

How can I contact a specific therapist who is working with my child and/or family? 

To contact a named member of the team, you can leave a message at their Health Centre base or you can call their mobile.

Locality base details 

North Locality (Cumbernauld, Kilsyth, Muirhead Areas):
Central Health Centre, North Carbrain Road, Town Centre, Cumbernauld G67 1BJ

Call: 01698 755020

Coatbridge Locality
Coatbridge Health Centre, No 1 Centre Park Court, Coatbridge ML5 3AP

Call: 01698 754708

Airdrie Locality
Airdrie Community Health Centre, 88 Graham Street, Airdrie ML6 6DB

Call: 01698 753045

Motherwell Locality
Motherwell Health Centre, 138 Windmillhill Street, Motherwell ML1 1TB

Call: 01698 755325

Wishaw Locality (Wishaw, Newmains, Shotts)
Houldsworth Centre, Kenilworth Avenue, Wishaw ML2 7LP

Call: 01698 759298

Bellshill Locality
Bellshill Community Health Centre, Greenmoss Place, Bellshill ML4 1PS

Call: 01698 755181

Hamilton Locality (Hamilton, Blantyre, Larkhall)
Douglas Street Community Clinic, 19 Douglas Street, Hamilton ML3 0BP

Call: 01698 754915

East Kilbride Locality (East Kilbride, Strathaven)
Hunter Health Centre, Andrew Street, East Kilbride G74 1AD

Call: 01698 753952

Camglen Locality (Rutherglen, Cambuslang)
Rutherglen Primary Care Centre 130 Stonelaw Road, Rutherglen G73 2PQ

Call: 01698 754232

Clydesdale Locality (Lanark, Carluke, Biggar)
Lanark Health Centre, Woodstock Road, Lanark ML11 7DH

Call: 01698 687583

How can professionals make a request for assistance?

Professionals (e.g. Class Teacher, Early Years Worker) can also use our enquiry service. They can get advice and discuss whether a child or young person might need assistance from our service.

They can make a request for assistance. These should be made on paper, not electronically and posted to the health centre listed above. Please note that requests for assistance for children and young people living in Bellshill should be sent to Motherwell Health Centre. We do not currently accept requests for assistance by email. We are working on changing this and hope this option will be available soon.

Requests for assistance should be made by someone who knows your child or young person well and knows about their speech, language or communication or swallowing difficulties.

They should let us know what supports have already been tried and information on who is worried, as well as what they want speech and language therapy to do to help.

Confidentiality and the use of patient information

NHS Lanarkshire take care to ensure your personal information is only accessible to authorised people. Our staff have a legal and contractual duty to keep personal health information secure, and confidential. In order to find out more about current data protection legislation and how we process your information, please visit the Data Protection Notice on our website at www.nhslanarkshire.scot.nhs.uk or ask a member of staff for a copy of our Data Protection Notice.

Visit NHS Lanarkshire – for local services and the latest health updates

Call the NHS Lanarkshire General Enquiry Line: 0300 30 30 243

Visit NHS inform – The national health information service for Scotland

Call NHS Inform: 0800 22 44 88

If you need this information in another language or format, please e-mail:

Translation.Services@lanarkshire.scot.nhs.uk