Local Authorities - Speech and Language Link

Supporting local authorities

A recent report, commissioned by the National Literacy Trust (NLT) in collaboration with KPMG UK (Feb 2024), found that there are about 106,000 five-year-old children in England each year who are not currently meeting the expected standard for literacy but could with adequate support.

The report estimates the long-term cost of insufficient literacy skills to be £7,800 per child on average. Two-fifths of the 106,000 children who could have been meeting expected literacy standards with the right support live in deprived areas. “We know that experiencing poverty has a huge effect on a child’s early communication, language and literacy skills, and that this will have consequences for their learning, their confidence, their wellbeing, and their ability to thrive for the rest of their lives,” said NLT CEO, Jonathan Douglas.

Speech Link Multimedia Ltd has been gathering data since 2004 and, from 2020, reporting on the receptive language levels of children on entry to school. Read our latest report here.

We are here to help you build knowledge and expertise across all your schools, providing a whole school approach to assessing need and helping all pupils to reach their full communication potential.

We have over 20 years experience of collaborating with Local Authorities throughout the UK to bring positive speech, language and literacy outcomes to their area.

Read about the difference our speech and language assessment and intervention tools can make in our impact report.

Case Study 1: Supporting a local authority initiative

The Hillingdon Send Advisory Service, local NHS SLT service and Speech & Language Link have been working together to support Hillingdon schools since 2010. Read on to find out more about our most recent collaboration.

Read case study

Our local offer

We contribute to supporting pupils’ speech, language and communication from early years to secondary:

Screening and assessment tools
Evidenced, school-delivered interventions
Training and CPD
Specialist support and advice
Information for school and LA staff, families and interested partners
Research, evidence and custom reporting

We do not replace Speech and Language Therapists but we do help schools make the best use of whatever level of service they have, identifying pupils who struggle and reducing the need for many pupils to wait for speech and language interventions.

In doing so, we help speech and language therapists to target their time as effectively as possible by improving the quality of referrals and enabling specialist resources to be focused on pupils with the most severe and complex speech, language and communication needs.

Area and national data sets

Our packages generate data on the number of students in a class, year group or key stage with mild, moderate or severe SLCN and results of pupil progress are available on individualised or cross-school reports, enabling demonstration of impact and coherent planning within schools and at a multi-school level.

We can provide bespoke area reports and national data sets allowing you to compare the local context to national norms.

Case Study 2: Building the partnership

East Sussex schools have been using Speech Link and Language Link from 2004 since their launch by Speech Link Multimedia Ltd. Read about Speechlink Multimedia's strong ongoing collaboration with East Sussex Children’s Integrated Therapy and Equipment Service (CITES) and their Communication, Language and Autism Support Service (CLASS).

Read case study

Next steps

We’d love to share with you how our assessments, evidenced interventions and training could be made available to your schools. Speak to our relationship development manager to talk about a bespoke solution for your area.

Email us at: helpdesk@speechlink.co.uk

Phone us on:0333 577 0784

Or follow Judith McMillan on Linkedin

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