Pre-school Children

Pre-school children can access our advice sessions where we will be able to offer advice and support regarding your child's communication skills. The Speech and Language Therapist will discuss your concerns and demonstrate evidence-based strategies to support your child.  Your child may then be referred on for further assessment or further support.  This may be delivered by other services, e.g. Family Hubs. These sessions are for parents/legal guardians of children that are:

• Aged two years and over and not yet attending Primary School.
• Registered with a GP within either the Basildon, Brentwood, Billericay, Wickford or Thurrock areas.
• Not already seeing a Speech and Language Therapist at their local clinic.

Please email drop-in@nelft.nhs.uk to arrange an appointment.

If your child is not yet two, please contact your local Family Hub to access groups and/or activities to support speech and language development.

School Aged Children

Referrals for speech and language therapy can be made by anyone — parents or the young person themselves, teachers, paediatricians, GP etc. We often require further information from your child's school in order to decide if the referral meets the service criteria.

Your child's school can discuss their concerns directly with their link Speech and Language Therapist for advice. If it is felt that your child needs further assessment and support, please complete the electronic referral form.

More information

All referrals are sent to the Children's Single Point of Access, where referrals are discussed by a team of professionals from the Integrated Therapy Team. This ensures that your child is seen by the most appropriate team within our service and jointly with other therapy services if appropriate.

To make a referral, please complete the electronic form to the right of this page.

We accept referrals for:

Children with speech, language and communication difficulties that have a functional impact on their social, emotional or educational development.

We do not accept referrals for:

• Learning difficulties where language is in line with the child's learning abilities
• Literacy difficulties
• Social skills
• Tongue-tie
• Interdental lisp ('s' said as 'th')
• Difficulties with 'th'or 'r' sounds
• English as an additional language where there are no concerns about the development of their first/home language including British Sign Language
• Autism where language and communication can be managed/facilitated appropriately by people around them
• Hearing loss with typically developing speech/language. This will typically include: Unilateral hearing loss, Bilateral hearing loss, Some children with a bilateral moderate loss