Who we are
Our team is made up of clerical support staff, Speech and Language Therapy Assistants and Speech and Language Therapists.

Who we see
We work with children with speech, language, and communication needs, and/or eating, drinking, or swallowing difficulties, from 0 years to their 16th birthday.

We do not provide professional support for specific learning disabilities (e.g. dyslexia). Please contact your SENDCO if you are concerned in this area of the child’s development.

We are also commissioned to provide a speech and language therapy service to adults who stammer.

Where we work
Children will be seen in a setting that suits their needs best. This may include at home, in a community clinic, acute hospital site or education setting. We have several clinics across the city (see Reaching Us).

What to expect
Speech and Language Therapy work in episodes of care. This supports us to see the right child at the right time with the right care. An episode of care with a Speech and Language Therapist/Assistant may include:

- an assessment of the child’s speech, language, and communication needs, and/or eating, drinking, and swallowing difficulties.
- helping adults to understand the child’s needs and support them to communicate and/or eat, drink or swallow safely.
- mentoring adults on strategies and therapeutic interventions that will help the child reach their potential both educationally and socially.
- signposting to relevant advice, training, and resources.
making referrals to other services if needed.

We will decide which team in the service is best placed to support your child. We will explain how to come back for more Speech and Language Therapy in the future if more help is needed. We will then end the episode of care and would need a re-referral to see them again. This system allows us to provide support for children and young people when they need it the most.

Referrals

On Monday 10th February, the Speech and Language Therapy service moved to an electronic referral form for our eating, drinking and swallowing community referrals.

We now only accept electronic referrals and any paper referrals will be returned back to the referrer.

If you need any support to complete our new electronic referral please contact us.

https://www.sheffieldchildrens.nhs.uk/services/speech-and-language-therapy-new-homepage/eating-and-swallowing-difficulties/

Referrals for speech, language and communication needs

The Speech and Language Therapy service is moving to an electronic referral form on our website and implementing new specialist referral criteria for the NHS service.

On Monday 10th February 2025 we started a pilot for all referrers in Locality E, and schools that have a bought in contract with us. If you are not part of this pilot, you can access this referral form now if you are interested in taking a look.

We will continue to accept paper during this pilot phase. If you choose this method during the pilot phase, we may be in contact with you to review the referral criteria.

Once the pilot has concluded, we will be moving towards all referrals being electronic through our website, and anticipate that this will be later this year. There will be a grace period when paper referrals will be accepted during that launch phase. We will keep referrers updated with progress and timelines.

If you need any support to complete our new electronic referral please contact us.

scn-tr.slt-sheffield@nhs.net
0114 226 2333