NHS- what's on offer?

[Paribus]

Thought you guys might be able to help- my DD has verbal dyspraxia, which was diagnosed privately when she was 2.9 (she is 3 now). We do private speech therapy, private assessments, you name it, but we thought it would be worthwhile for her to get into NHS system.
We waited for 3 months to be seen by NHS SLT. DD could not be assessed within one session, so we are coming back for the second assessment this week. During that first assessment, they told us they would definitely be offering her speech therapy course, however, we would have to wait for another 3 months to get it, and the course would consist of weekly sessions and would last for 6 weeks. That is 6 sessions altogether!! Oh, and they said that if her case was very severe, they would increase the number of sessions to twice a week, making it 12 sessions then. Is it really all NHS can offer??? Don't mean to be rude but she is currently getting sessions 3 times a week, so to get 6 sessions after 6 months wait seems to be a bit odd. Can anyone advise? TA in advance.

It all depends on where you live but that is the kind of support level they would offer here. Also, unless it is written into the statement specifying the exact sessions, children with severe difficulties of school age would see a SALT once a term ie 3 times a year in this area.

I agree with vjg, you'd be offered the same here only you may well wait longer and the sessions may be group ones.

Yes, that's the situation here too I think. Though the SALT will try to work with a school (once the child is of school age) to show the teachers how to help the child.

My DS had weekly SALT from age 3.5 till he started school then weekly group sessions in school with a SALT who works full time in schools in the LA for 6 more years.

But if that's not the set up in your area, it doesn't really help you to know that, lol. It might be worth trying to find out what's on offer in schools though.

yes, that is a pretty typical NHS offering I am afraid, as resources are very limited (and likely to become even more limited over the next few years). The best NHS support would probably be for a child at a specialist language nursery/language unit attached to a mainstream school. But places at this sort of resource are also limited and not all areas have them.

Thank you for your answers. We live in central London. But how do people get places in special nurseries, in Nuffield centre, etc? By sheer determination and will power? It's just we are expats here, so I really have no clue how the system works, what we can get, what steps to take... Is it worthwhile to be in the NHS records at all?

it depends on how they are run so you need to check entry requirements for each place. Determination and will power definitely needed Some units will require you to have a statement of special educational needs, if you need more information on how to apply ipsea has plenty of advice.

I would say worthwhile to be in the sysytem mainly for the statmenting process. Incidentally, a private SALT report can be included in the statement and that was the route we took to get my daughter the level of support and the school she needed.

Thank you for your messages, will persevere with NHS then.