Janet Cooper Stoke Speaks Out

Stoke Speaks Out history.. Stoke Speaks Out is a multi-agency City wide programme aimed at tackling the huge deficits identified in children’s language ability across Stoke on Trent In 2001 local Surestart programmes provided opportunities to explore the needs of local populations The speech and language therapists involved in Surestart in Stoke on Trent investigated children’s language skills on entry to nursery The results were shocking…

Results of the initial study There was an average delay of 64% across the nurseries tested In a few nurseries ALL children fell well below expected norms The findings were supported by anecdotal evidence from the nursery practitioners and local health visitors and were reflected in poor outcomes for children in school

Developing an idea The information was shared with a wide range of strategic audiences including the Director of children’s services, council leaders and chief executive of the primary care trust They all agreed that this was one of the City’s priorities and that communication should be everybody’s business

Stoke Speaks Out A project was developed jointly by a range of key agencies The funding also came from joint sources (initially Neighbourhood Renewal funds, the Local strategic partnership funds and currently City Council/NHS contributions) The aim of the project was to embed a culture and practice of supporting and developing early communication skills at every level and to make communication ‘everybody’s business!’ This was branded Stoke Speaks Out

The project The project began as a core team hand picked from a range of agencies and led by Janet Cooper- a speech and language therapist The agencies ranged from Inclusion staff, SLTs, clinical psychologists, teachers, early years staff, bilingual support, midwife, play specialists The project also considered anyone within the children’s workforce to be a member of the extended team

The brief The brief was to embed core skills across the children’s workforce through training and mentoring and to create cultural and strategic change It was acknowledged that for this to be successful it needed to be a priority for everyone

Turning a project into a programme The project developed a 5 tier training framework- written multi-agency, delivered multi- agency to a multi-agency audience The framework ensured that practitioners all started with the same baseline knowledge and encouraged the theory to be put into practice The project identified gaps in knowledge and also key messages required The project engaged with everyone and anyone who had a role with families and parents

Activity 4150 practitioners trained between toddler groups have been developed and supported across the City to offer structured play sessions All childminders have access to the training All Children’s centre staff attend the training as part of their induction and ongoing CPD 31settings have achieved a ‘communication friendly’ award All student midwives and student paediatric nurses receive level 1 as part of their training.

The training framework has continued to grow- agencies delivering related courses develop these into level 3 modules These are now being linked to care pathways for some agencies eg ASD ECAT and SEAD were strategically aligned with SSO ECAT settings have been supported to work towards the level 4 competencies (22 out of 33 have already achieved this) Additional courses written for ECAT have been turned into level 3 ‘bitesize’ courses to offer more widely

Outcomes Speech and language measures 2005 City wide measures: 59% delay 2010 City wide measures: 39% delay Foundation stage profile results: % children achieved 78 points or more with 6+ points in PSED or CLL 2009 this rose to 51% The National average is 52% Level 4 settings are being recognised by Ofsted as Outstanding settings

Engagement Special schools deliver some L3 modules and have either achieved Level 4 or working towards this All midwives and paediatric nurses receive SSO training as part of their core training All health visitors and school nurses have accessed the trianing Key messages are joined up with other initiatives eg baby friendly/ 2 yr old funding/ oral health/Early Years strategy group A multi-agency group are currently developing a monitoring tool from birth to 11 years which will track children’s speech and language progress and will aid transitions between settings

Staged Pathway Pre-referral guidelines for SLT have been developed- these form part of the training Referral pathways to SLT have been altered in line with this The website is used as a place to share information with practitioners and parents SLT now triage all referrals and are able to reference the training in any programmes written Settings with children with SLCN can be supported by the Early Years Quality team to ensure the environment is conducive to their needs. SSO training is offered where necessary

Current commissioning Stoke Speaks Out is now the ‘Early Language and Communication Strategy’ for Stoke on Trent This is part of the Local Authority’s structure under ‘learning services’ as part of the Quality Team It is funded by the Local Authority but Health remain strong partners in every aspect The programme lead is seconded part time from Health to Education and holds a joint role as team leader for Community Paediatric SLT alongside this role This ensures seamless support from prevention through to early identification and early intervention

Stoke Speaks Out 1.Expert phase: Develop an evidence base of local need Research the causes Identify ways of addressing this need Develop new ways of tackling the issues Trial and perfect the methods 2. Enabling phase Training and supporting the infra-structure to develop skills to support all areas which affect communication development 3. Embedding phase Building in the capacity and expertise within agencies to continue to support and address the local need 4. Empowering phase Sharing the expertise beyond the City and ensuring the ongoing work is self-sustaining

Joining up Speech and language feature in virtually every strategy within the City- joined up thinking! Messages cut across boundaries eg CLL training, family learning, nurture conferences, SEN, access to learning, phonics training, Early Intervention strategy, parenting strategy, Children’s centre developments, care pathways