Children who are school aged will require a referral form to be completed by education staff.
School teaching staff are in the best position, along with parents / carers, to provide the required information about a child’s speech and language skills, their difficulties and the potential impact these are having on the child’s social interaction and their ability to access the curriculum.

School education staff can also provide information about what has already been implemented to support the child. Using this information, we can then ensure that the children who require specialist Speech and Language Therapy support can access the service for an assessment. As a service we therefore will only accept referrals for school age children from their school.

Please note for home-schooled children or young people not in education, employment or training the school-age referral form can be completed by their parent / carer or a professional / appropriate adult who is working with the child or young person.

School staff may find it useful to gather further information on the child’s skills and needs, to inform referrals and offer initial support, by using the Speech, Language and Communication Toolkit for Schools.

If you are an education professional wishing to refer a child to our service please complete the School Age Referral Form

If you are concerned about the child or young person’s speech sounds, please take a look at our Speech sounds screening tool

If you are concerned with the child or young person’s eating and drinking skills, please complete our Feeding Referral Form

Please note, all our referrals are triaged to ensure that a specialist Speech and Language Therapy appointment is the most appropriate next step for the child/young person. It is therefore important that you include as much information as you can within your referral. If the child/young person does not currently require specialist level Speech and Language Therapy, we will contact the referrer to advise of this and suggest alternative support.

For children who have been receiving Speech and Language Therapy support and have recently moved into Luton or Bedfordshire, the previous Speech and Language  Therapy service discharge report can be sent to the Single Point of Access team.  This can then be triaged alongside new referrals.  If further information is required this will be requested.

The 180 Speech and Language Offer is a partnership project between NHS Speech and Language Therapy, Bedfordshire Youth Offending, Greys Education Centre and Bedford Borough Council. We aim to provide a speech and language assessment to pupils at greatest risk of fixed term exclusion in order to support schools to best understand the pupils needs to reduce the risk of exclusion/managed moves.

To access the 180 SLT offer please click here.