Archives

ABC Update

Date: 27th April 2018

It has been a busy time for all things ABC and we have been working very hard behind the scenes on developing the service. We’ve liaised with senior Speech and Language Therapy Leads in the NHS and the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists to get their input into how we can improve the service. We have also recruited an experienced Speech and Language Therapy (SLT) Support Lead and just appointed a qualified SLT, who will be joining us on the 1st May.

In addition to this we have had lots of feedback, via a recent survey issued to families/carers who use the service, and we will be using this to help us ensure the service continues to be aligned with the needs of the people who use it.

We’re working through the detail at the moment but the key headlines are as follows:

  • Over 67% people responded (58 out of 86 asked)
  • Almost 85% were satisfied with the ABC service (with almost half very satisfied)
  • 79% felt that the service met their needs (very or extremely well)
  • Almost 80% rated the quality of the ABC service as high or very high
  • Over 98% felt that their child’s confidence and communication skills had improved as a result of using the ABC service
  • Over 55% are not receiving speech and language therapy input from anywhere else.

There was of course some feedback about areas where we could improve, and we’ll be speaking directly to those who felt we could be doing better to help us develop a service that is the best it can be.

We know that there is more demand for the service than we can currently accommodate. The ABC service has a significant waiting list (25 and growing) and there is also interest in establishing new groups for the Stirling, Kilmarnock, Inverness and Dumfries and Galloway areas.

As mentioned previously, we want every young person in Scotland to be able to access support that will help them (and their families) to develop their communication skills and we will continue to talk to funders about how they could support the growth of this vital service.

If you have any questions at all about this, please do send Rory an e-mail (rory@dsscotland.org.uk) or give him a call on 0131 442 8840.