AIBU in thinking £90 for speech therapy is expensive?!

[Nothinglikeachocolatebrownie]

I've never used a speech therapist before but am going to one with by DD and I'm really surprised at the cost. Her paediatrician cost £150 for an hour, and the speech therapist is £90 for 45 minutes. AIBU in thinking this is extremely expensive? (In London btw).

Plucking figures from the air I'd say that's about right for professional services. More importantly, is it worth it for you? Can you get it cheaper?

It sounds about right given the skills and qualifications of the professional. You'd pay that for a plumber or hairdresser.

I recently paid £2500 for a private ASD assessment for DD. In total that was 6 hours of sessions before diagnosis.

I pay over $200 here in aus. It’s an expensive therapy but covered through government scheme now. Do you have access to it through nhs?

Well I'm in Australia and I just worked out ours is equivalent to £103 for 45 min. Regional area. Psychologist is £125 for an hour. They also charge on top for any letters, forms, reports etc. needed.

Luckily my child gets funding (it's govt funding so when they know that the price goes up & I have to beg for it every year). The services do help, long term, but sitting in the sessions I really don't think the cost per session is value. Personal opinion only.

Ireland here. I have paid between 80 euro and 150 euro per hour for SLT for my son. I think it's reasonable.

Well the NHS charge £42 an hour went I am traded to schools. That's just staff time. No resouses assessments travel or profit. So £90 (as she ll have work to do when not face to face with you) seems reasonable. It takes us 3-6 years to train. (depending on route) plus a year post qualification. Plus union hcpc rcslt and insurance fees need to be paid - even when we work solely in the NHS this is approx £500 a year!

I paid £60 per session twenty years ago so it sounds about right

We paid 75 a session but were north east so prob cheaper than london

It sounds about right, bearing in mind they will write up notes on top of the actual appointment time.

Unfortunately every service seems to be getting rapidly more expensive (I have noticed this because my salary certainly has not been keeping pace).

Dd had speech therapy for free as a toddler. Is this not done anymore or do you need to go private?

Sounds reasonable- there's far more work to be done than just the hour that you get face to face.
Most SLTs that I know wouldn't be able to see more that 4 clients per day; and less than that for a complex assessment, and report writing.

The level of responsibility for a state registered health professional; ongoing training, supervision, insurances, state registration fees, clinic rental, practice management software.
The cost to buy the standardised assessments, or training programmes, is very expensive.
Etc etc.

I'm in Sussex and pay £75 a session.

£90 seems a lot to me.

I'm in Wales and I pay £65 per session- £55 for one hour of therapy and all related reports and materials, plus £10 travel expenses as we have home visits.

Your paediatrician sounds cheap. I paid £200 for a 15 min dermatology appointment in Leeds.

Interesting. Does anyone know what a speech therapist earns?

Earns as in average salary per year. I’ve been thinking of retraining but the low salary has put me off

@Dannyandsandy

Earns as in average salary per year. I’ve been thinking of retraining but the low salary has put me off

In the NHS you would start as Band 5 - rates are here: www.healthcareers.nhs.uk/working-health/working-nhs/nhs-pay-and-benefits/agenda-change-pay-rates

NHS newly qualified starts at Band 5, you can work up to Band 7 in around 5 years. Most would be Band 6, salary depends on amount of time in role, around 35k.

£90 per session doesn't sound wildly out for London.
Here's an example of a London practice's fees: wlspeechtherapy.co.uk/page/3/Services

Can you take.out a health insurance policy to reduce the cost. I'm in Ireland but have a policy for my DD that costs 38euro a month for her but gives 75% back on all therapy costs. Not sure how this works in UK but it is 85 euro here so is worth it.

My sons pediatrician and 12 years of speech therapy has always been free on NHS

And we were sent for specialist therapy in london.

Try "The baby talk program" book written by a the late dr Sally Ward (a speech therapist). Life changing in my experience. And you can get it for pennies on Amazon. Worth at the very least using alongside the speech therapy. I can't rave about this book enough and buy it for all my new-parent friends/ relatives.

Sounds right to me .
You’re paying for a professional service .
Would you come on here querying it if the washing machine repair person charged you that amount ???

@Dannyandsandy I'm an NHS slt earning £48000 a year took 15 years to get there but two babies with 14 months mat leave each time (11 of that paid one of the perks plus generous 8.5 weeks annual leave) and wasn't super ambitious. Pay is reasonable for the level of responsibility I have and conditions such as sick leave flexible working good. And I say that after an epic year of redeployment telehealth and PPE! I'm in paediatrics and can honestly say it's the best job ever