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Am I right in thinking that we should have the right to receive direct feedback from the SALT?
Jeannie
Member Posts: 5
This discussion was created from comments split from: I'm Chris, I specialise in working with children with autism, asperger's and learning disabilities.
Replies
My Child has SaLT provision as part of a statement of SEN. The LEA employ a SaLT but are blocking any effective communication between us and the SaLT. Am I right in thinking that we should have the right to receive direct feedback from the SaLT?
Still looking forward to your advice.
In the meantime I've done some further research and found that all speech therapists operating in the UK are regulated by the health and care professionals council www.hpc-uk.org. They must comply with a minimal set of standards of conduct, performance and ethics detailed in this document http://www.hpc-uk.org/assets/documents/10003B6EStandardsofconduct,performanceandethics.pdf
This includes informed consent, keeping accurate records, confidentiality and acting in the best interest of service users, with honesty and integrity. Which could all be useful points for Louc's tribunal conflict between LEA controlled and private SALT?
It seems the hpc take action against those that to not meet their standards
http://www.hpc-uk.org/mediaandevents/pressreleases/index.asp?id=586
Thanks for your reply. However that's not the situation we are experiencing. There's only one Speech Therapist who is employed by the LEA. So the document you referred to is not particularly relevant, is there a similar document giving guidance on openness and working with parents.
The problem is the LEA is very controlling and prevents parental contact with the Speech Therapist, so we are not consulted and are excluded from having any effective input.
Previously Speech Therapy was provided by the NHS and we always had excellent relationships with the various speech therapists. We cannot see any reason why this should be prevented purely because the Speech Therapists' salary is paid by a different employer.
As they are all therapists do they work to the same code and standards with the same duty of care to the service user and their family? Can they make impactful recommendations without checking hearsay evidence or seeking any input from parents?
Whilst I do not know the SLT in question (nor would I professionally be able to comment) I do feel that it is very unlikely to be the SLT's 'fault' that they are not communicating with parents/you and is more likely their department's policy due to very limited resources.
The HCPC and RCLST provide SLTs guidelines with regards to communicating with families and evidence based practise etc.
When I said there's one SLT, I was meaning only one involved in our situation - not that there's only one SLT in our area.
We recognise that there is always a great deal of time pressure on SLTs and it is essential that their time is used effectively and efficiently - so we have requested that we attend any meetings the SLT has with school staff to ensure open & effective communication and efficient use of the SLTs time. This has been blocked, it seems by the LEA. By SLT/School going ahead with this meeting without allowing us to attend (we would fit in with their time for the meeting) it seems that they have acted without our consent?
In asking "is the SLT able to communicate with your child's teaching team?" you seem to be saying that this is an acceptable substitute for taking any parental input - is this what you are meaning?
We have finally had some written feedback from the LEA, purporting to be from the SLT, which indicates that incorrect information and conclusions have been provided to the SLT by school staff in the meeting which we were blocked from attending and the SLT is prepared to make impactful recommendations without checking the hearsay evidence. Please can you advise on the question we asked before ie "Can the SLT make impactful recommendations without checking hearsay evidence or seeking any input from parents?"
I haven't been able to find the guidelines you referred to in your last post : "The HCPC and RCLST provide SLTs guidelines with regards to communicating with families and evidence based practise etc."
Can you tell me where I can access them?