'Let our children speak'
CHILDREN with severe speech problems are still not getting the specialist treatment they need, desperate parents have claimed.
Health bosses publicly apologised to parents for cutting speech therapy sessions in West Norfolk as a money-saving scheme last year and reinstated them.
But two mums whose children cannot talk say the fight to get sufficient treatment still goes on.
Leanne Richardson is now taking Norfolk County Council to tribunal over the "shambolic" assessments of her autistic son Charlie's educational needs and has also complained to the Local Government Ombudsman.
Fellow mum, Jenny Smith, says her daughter Sophie (seven), who suffers verbal dyspraxia – a condition which means she knows what she wants to say but cannot form the words – was promised an electronic aid to help her communicate when she moved up to junior school, but was never given it or offered an explanation as to why not.
Norfolk County Council and Primary Care Trust (PCT) have both issued statements saying they are committed to ensure children have access to the services they need and the PCT says it has extended the services available.
Mrs Richardson (27), of Tennyson Avenue, Lynn, said: "It is enough getting your head around your child having a disability, but we are having to fight the system that is supposed to be there to help us."
Teaching assistant Mrs Richardson and her phone engineer husband Tim have become so desperate to help their son they have been paying for private treatment for Charlie since February –racking up bills of more than 3,000.
Mrs Richardson said under the NHS they had two appointments with specialists in 18 months, but Charlie is now seeing a therapist every week, who has also diagnosed him with verbal dyspraxia, and Charlie is now making attempts to formulate words.
Charlie also now has an electronic communication aid, which speaks when he presses picture keys. It was one of those aids that a speech therapist said Sophie Smith, of Waveney Road, Hunstanton, should be assessed for before starting at the town's Redgate Junior School in September. Her parents are still waiting.
Mrs Smith (27) said: "I just want something to happen to help her to communicate. We want to give her a voice."
Norfolk County Council said Sophie, who has a one-to-one assistant at school, began seeing a speech therapist weekly from Friday, but it would be inappropriate to comment on Charlie's case before the tribunal.
Spokesman for Children's Services, Kate Gooding, added: "We take our statutory duties to assess and provide for children with special educational needs extremely seriously and are fully committed to doing all we can to make sure that each child gets the provision he or she needs."
The PCT would not comment on either individual, but head of speech and language therapy services for children, Alan Hunter, said: "The current situation for speech and language therapy in Norfolk is that these are vital specialist services and continue to be funded and retained locally."
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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