Information for Speech and Language Therapists
We look forward to welcoming you to the centre for your client’s appointment. Thank you for being available to support them in this way.
If you have questions that are not covered here please call us on 020 3316 8100 or email [email protected].
While there is no cost to your CCG/NHS Trust for your client’s assessment, the actual cost is £1000. Please help us to avoid missed appointments by following up with your family to make sure that they are intending to attend and ensuring that they are familiar with the requirements of the session.
Before the appointment
You should expect a wait of approximately 4 months from making a referral to your client being seen. If a family say that they would like to pay privately and be given the next available appointment then please show them our information about private fees.
If there is a particular reason for urgency (i.e. risk of self-harm) please call 020 3316 8100 to discuss this.
In the interim, it helps us if you have been able to complete the language assessments requested as it gives us more time in our session to focus on stammering. If you are not sure whether to continue the therapy that you are already doing or pause it while the family wait for their MPC assessment then call our helpline 020 3316 8100 to discuss this.
Coming to the appointment
The best person to attend with a family is the therapist who will then carry out therapy with the child or young person should further local therapy be agreed.
If you have just recently met the family please be ready to briefly talk us through, in broad terms, what therapy they have already had, how they got on and any other speech and language concerns.
If you prefer to attend remotely please discuss this with the family and, if they agree, then email [email protected] or call 020 3316 8100 to let us know. You will be sent information about how this with you. We use Zoom, Skype or Teams for telehealth appointments.
At the appointment
We will spend 5 minutes or so with you before we start the assessment to find out what you are hoping for from the session and also to catch up on any relevant information about your client that isn’t covered by referral information. It helps us to know something about your own level of experience working with people who stammer, any training that you have done either with the MPC or elsewhere and what is provided locally for children or young people who stammer.
If you are attending with a pre-school or school-age child you will sit in with the parent session. If you are attending with a teenager you will probably sit in with them. The MPC therapist will lead the session and you will be observing. Please do not take notes during the session.
There is a break during which time you and both of the MPC therapists will have time to confer. You can take notes at this time. Your observations and thoughts are valued as part of the joint decision-making about clinical next steps.
The recommendations that we make arise from the conversation that we have with you and with the family, taking into account what can be offered locally, what we all feel is clinically indicated and what role you and the family wish us to have.
The MPC therapists give feedback to the parents and child or young person separately. Parents may have questions for you at this point especially if recommendations are for therapy to be continued locally.
Some families come to the MPC for therapy after their assessment, while some continue to attend therapy locally. You will make a decision about this, with the MPC therapist, taking into account your family’s needs, what therapy is available locally and your own preferences. Attending therapy at the MPC for families who are not local to Camden or Islington, requires funding. This can be from local CCGs/NHS Trusts, or when that is not available, through private funding or via application for charitable funding.
After the appointment
We will write a report which will go to parents first . It is distributed to you and other professionals either when parents have given their consent or, alternatively, a two-week period of time has elapsed.
We offer all families attending a charitably-funded assessment a charitably-funded review in 6 months time.
If you are continuing to work with the young person or family and want to liaise further about any aspect of the recommendations that we made, please don’t hesitate to call 020 3316 8100 and ask for either of the therapist’s who you worked with.
FAQs
Call our helpline 020 3316 8100 to talk it through with us.
Approximately 4 hours.
The assessment is fully-funded by the Stuttering Foundation so there is no cost to local CCGs or NHS Trusts. Families must cover their own travel costs to the Centre.
No. It is not unusual for there to have been a change of staff since the original referral was made. Therapists often like to meet the family once before they come here together but that may not always be possible. It will help if you have reviewed the case notes so you are familiar with why the original referral was made and any pertinent things for us to be aware of. It is also helpful to think about what you would find helpful from coming to the MPC with this family.
Please let us know as soon as possible. Depending on individual factors we may postpone the session until you are available and it will help parents if they are able to plan ahead for this.
Please discuss this with the family first. If they agree then your student can also attend.
No, we need the Speech and Language Therapist in charge of the client’s care to attend.
Sometimes you just need someone to talk to
Sometimes you just need someone to talk to
Our Helpline, 020 3316 8100, is open during office hours (9am-5pm) and voicemail messages can be left when the office is closed.
“It was empowering to be told that my instincts are good!”
