Our Children's and Community (Adult) Speech and Language Therapy (SLT) teams have worked hard to improve the services they deliver across Calderdale and Kirklees, and their patients and colleagues are already seeing the benefits.

We asked their therapy leads to share more about the improvements they've made.

The Big Push initiative

Community Therapy Services Manager, Hannah Wood said: "The Community Adult SLT team faced significant challenges, with high demand and a small workforce, which made timely patient care difficult. Looking to work more creatively, the team have adopted a proactive approach to tackle the issue with the launch of the Big Push initiative. Led by the team, The Big Push temporarily prioritised new patient assessments over non-urgent tasks.

"It had an immediate impact, drastically improving access to services and reducing the waiting list. They adopted sustainable ways of working such as locality-based services, remote consultations and shared triage processes."

Colleague wellbeing and One Culture of Care

Hannah also said: "They also placed strong emphasis on colleague wellbeing by ensuring opportunities for internal training and career progression to create a more positive and supportive working environment. This approach not only improved staff morale, but also ensured longer-term stability and enhanced service quality."

Innovative redesign 

Children’s Therapies Service Manager ,Carly Hartshorn, added: "The Children’s SLT also faced challenges, and recognised that a complete redesign was necessary. The team implemented a range of innovative approaches to improve patient access and to support families more effectively, as well as ensuring colleagues developed specialist skills in areas of their own interest. They:

• Introduced a clinical prioritisation tool to assess children based on clinical needs and family circumstances
• Collaborated with system partners and schools to strengthen available support and to improve early intervention
• Developed digital strategies, including The Kids Speech Lab, online assessments with Mable Therapies, and an online referral system
• Established parent advice groups and telephone clinics to support families to take an active role in their child's progress.

"Both teams' achievements highlight the power of collective action, compassion, and creative problem-solving. The Community Adult SLT team’s Big Push approach demonstrates how a dedicated and adaptable workforce can drive significant change, while the Children's SLT team’s holistic redesign showcases the importance of partnership working and team development.

Team work

Community Healthcare's Interim Director of Operations, Jenny Clark, said: "We are immensely proud of the continued work carried out by these teams. The dynamic thinking and generation of ideas from administrative, clinical and operational colleagues, working together and across multiple teams and service providers has been brilliant. I'm sure the work will provide long-term benefits to the sustainability and performance of these services for both colleagues and patients."