Every Child Understood - The Communication Trust

Guest slot, Jean Gross CBE

2012-01-20T02:11:00.000-08:00

It’s been a busy week, publishing a final report on my work as Communication Champion and talking to journalists and on the radio about my findings. As always, some of the media picked up on the less important messages and were less interested in the very serious issues of cuts to front-line services - but not all. I hope the publicity will do a little good.

It’s time, then, for me to ‘sign off’ as Champion. It has been a wonderful two years. I have seen fantastic practice in everything from baby groups to schools to young offender institutions. I’ve seen people everywhere get behind the Hello campaign with energy and creativity that no-one could have expected, given that many of those involved were uncertain whether they would still have a job in the future.

Highlights for me in the last weeks were the Hello Heroes event at BT Tower, a weekend with AAC users in Derbyshire, a visit to a language unit at Little Ridge School and visits to some really communication-friendly schools in Sheffield. And then , of course, there was being awarded a CBE in the New Year’s Honours list.

Getting an honour is a pretty random process and I have met so many people who deserve it a lot more than I do. But I was very pleased, especially with all the kind messages I got from people I have worked with. Thanks to you all for taking the time to write, and all those who sent the Trust a message to put in the big black memories book I was given as a leaving present. I will treasure that for ever.

People ask me what will happen now that I have stepped down. The answer is that the championing of SLCN will continue just as it did before the time-limited Champion role existed, through the highly effective lobbying work of The Communication Trust and the RCSLT. You can feel absolutely confident that a strong voice for children’s communication skills is still working hard to support all those children and young people everywhere whose needs still often remain unmet.

So good luck to the Trust for its future, vital work- and I wish all of you the very best for 2012 and beyond.

Could the Minister please read the report now? - Anita Kerwin-Nye, Director

2012-01-18T08:23:00.000-08:00

Jean Gross last report as the Communication Champion was released this week, please click here to view.

Full of excellent intelligence on the state of services on the ground and bursting with sensible recommendations for improving outcomes for over a million children, you would have thought that this would be on the must read list for relevant Ministers – or at least their special advisors – or I’d settle for their junior civil servant.

However, the Minister for Public Health - Anne Milton – press response to the report is very telling, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-16548559. Repeating the now ubiquitous quote that GP commissioning will solve all shows a total lack of understanding of how children’s community health services operate in practice and frankly leaves me in doubt as to whether anyone in her department has even read the report.

Jean Gross’ report is clear on the risks of leaving services for children with SLCN to GPs and clinical commissioning groups. In London, for example, only 9% of referrals to speech and language therapists go through GPs.

And Milton’s reference to GPs working with paediatricians and nurses on this issue shows a significant gap in knowledge about the realities of supporting children with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN). While community paediatricians have a valuable role in supporting children whose communication needs are part of more complex impairments most children with SLCN do not see (or need to see) a paediatrician or nurse. Their needs are met through speech and language therapists and appropriate targeted support from teachers and staff within early years and schools.

It could just be of course that this is the response from an uninterested Department of Health press officer. But sadly I suspect it is part of a wider malaise affecting the Department when it comes to children. I received an email yesterday inviting me to the launch of an ‘exciting’ new initiative in children’s health and well being to be unveiled by the Secretary of State (at least he hopes to be there) in Liverpool next week. I think most of us would settle less for exciting and more on functional. And the Trust are no nay sayers – we work hard to inform and to respond to government policy trying to ensure that it works in practice. But even we are stretched in understanding where Health places the needs of children who struggle to communicate.

This is at odds with the efforts of their government colleagues within Department for Education who have made such strides in work to identify and support children with SLCN. Maybe it is time for the entire responsibility (and budget) for this work to move across? It is this significant disparity in both understanding and in approach between these health and education nationally and locally that is of such grave ongoing concern with so much of Jean’s report highlighting the risks of these children falling between the gaps at a local level between the NHS and local authorities/schools.

The government’s communication champion has written a report with so many of the answers – just about time somebody read it!

From the report

38. I have met no one outside government who believe that commissioning by Clinical Commissioning Groups led by GPs will change this fundamental problem. All say it will make it
worse. I have found that in London, for example, only 9% of referrals for speech and language
therapy go though GPs. Most come from schools and health visitors. Most disabled children are dealt with by community paediatricians not GPs. Most referrals to CAMHs services do not go through GPs. Children requiring community health services are largely invisible to GPs, so it seems unlikely they will be a commissioning priority.

39. I would like to see the Health and Social Care Bill recognise this, and explicitly require Clinical Commissioning Groups to delegate the commissioning of these services to an expert joint local authority and NHS children’s commissioning team, managing pooled budgets.

Every year a year of communication? Anita Kerwin-Nye, Director

2012-01-13T02:28:00.000-08:00

As we move on from the National Year of Communication The Communication Trust team are working hard to make sure that legacy of Hello is a strong one. While evaluation is starting in earnest on the impact of Hello it is clear that the work of the wonderful local champions, the efforts of the staff team, input from our funders and supporters and work across the Trust’s voluntary members have all combined in creating a wonderful focus on the importance of speech, language and communication skills for all children.

The Shine A Light Awards, Hello Heroes event and meetings between local co-ordinators and the Minister highlighted the inspiring work that has happened on the ground and the year was topped off by a CBE for Jean Gross as our wonderful Communication Champion. The Hello Journey showcases some of the year’s best bits!

The Year itself, the Champion, the progress we have seen in OFSTED, in early years and with the national curriculum were all proposals made 5 years ago by the Trust and as we look back at our original strategy we can be rightly proud – particularly of the way we have pulled together such an amazing cohort of talent and enthusiasm from the local to the national, across health, early years and education, across professionals, parents, children, young people and families and from the public, private and voluntary sector. Because, to quote Janet Cooper from Stoke Speaks Out , “communication is everybody’s business” and it is the Trust’s job to make sure everybody knows it!

But there is more to do.

As the Trust develops our next five year strategy we are ever mindful of the risks posed by cuts to services and system restructuring. We know that while policy may have moved forward, commissioning practice and the prioritisation of children’s speech, language and communication still need much work.

With education policy and school structures rapidly changing, The Communication Trust will be launching a schools campaign in 2012 to ensure that all schools are encouraged and supported to ensure that all children can reach their full potential. The work of the Hello heroes is not over yet and 2012 (and 2013, 14, 15 .....) will be another year of communication. And, to quote Mr Milliband, – bring it on!

The Hello journey - by Lynne Milford, Trust Press Officer

2011-12-09T06:09:00.000-08:00

What a year it’s been! Hello, the national year of communication, has exceeded all our expectations.

Run by The Communication Trust in partnership with Jean Gross, the Government’s Communication Champion, Hello set out to make children and young people’s communication development a priority in homes and schools across the country.

A particular focus has been on supporting children and young people with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN). It was John Bercow MPs Review of Services for Children and Young People (0-19) with Speech, Language and Communication Needs in 2008, which originally sparked off the national year.

Highlights of the year have included creating a network of 200 Hello local coordinators, smashing a Guinness World record book with I CAN’s Chatterbox Challenge event, disseminating to date 310,000 Hello resources and supporting the launch of a brand new CBeebies TV programme, Raa Raa the Noisy Lion.

In addition to this, 800 schools registered to take part in our No Pens Day Wednesday initiative, a brand new qualification was launched in conjunction with City and Guilds and the winners of the Shine a Light Hello awards were recently announced at a glitzy award ceremony hosted by TV and radio presenter, Vanessa Feltz.

From January to March 2012, the evaluation of the impact of Hello will take place. Information, resources and updates will continue to be available on our website. And we still want to find out about your excellent events and innovative practice by emailing enquiries@thecommunicationtrust.org.uk

A special thanks goes to BT and Pearson Assessment for their sponsorship of Hello and long term commitment to the cause. And thank to you for your contribution however big or small it might have been. We simply couldn’t have made the year such a success without your input.

For more information, download our Hello journey document here (http://www.hello.org.uk/media/9374/hello_journey_-_december_2011.pdf)

For information on the qualification click here (http://www.thecommunicationtrust.org.uk/qualifications )

Make TV time, talk time! - by Lynne Milford, Press Officer

2011-10-31T08:44:00.001-07:00

According to an article in the Daily Mail today (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2054950/Passive-TV-watching-harm-babies-speech.html), ‘passive’ television watching – leaving the television playing when you’re not really watching - is as dangerous for children as passive smoking.

Experts at the American Academy of Paediatrics said parents are more likely to use television or a computer to keep children occupied, but they revealed watching TV interferes with the amount of time children and parents spend interacting and can also interfere with a child’s ability to learn from play. The Communication Trust strongly believe that spending time speaking and listening to your child is vital for developing their communication skills. However, that does not mean that you cannot turn TV and other forms of technology into communication opportunities.

Earlier in the year, as part of the Hello campaign (national year of communication), we were involved in the development and launch of Raa Raa The Noisy Lion. Raa Raa is a show on CBeebies that supports the development of speech and language through rhyme and rhythm. We developed some top tips for making the most of your television time. These include making sure children watch programmes that are age appropriate, encouraging your child to ask and answer questions relating to the programme and if you let your children watch TV, watch it with them as much as possible.

To see Raa Raa’s top ten telly tips, click here (http://www.hello.org.uk/media/2946/raa_raa_top_tips_for_tv.pdf)

To find out more about Raa Raa, click here (http://www.raaraathenoisylion.com/) and you can also download Raa Raa resources for parents and practitioners here (http://www.hello.org.uk/resources/resources/resources-for-parents/raa-raa-the-noisy-lion.aspx)

Charity praises supporters for successful campaign - Lynne Milford, Press Officer

2011-10-24T07:46:00.000-07:00

For the 200 delegates, it was a chance to network, meet old friends and make new connections in the world of speech and language therapy.

For the visiting MPs and Ministers, it was a chance to see what the Hello campaign is all about and to meet people who work with children with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN).

But most importantly, it was a chance for The Communication Trust to say a huge thank you to everyone who had supported the event, produced resources and generally raised the profile of the issue.

Event sponsor Annette Brooke MP hit the nail on the head when she said the purpose of the event was celebration. She said: “I was excited by what would happen during the year and the Hello campaign has been an amazing success. So many children were missing out on achieving their full potential in life for a host of reasons. We are here to highlight and celebrate the amazing work that has gone on and I would like to congratulate all the people involved in that.”

The highlight of the event was a presentation by 18-year-old Ben Morfey from Plymouth. Ben has quadriplegic cerebral palsy and cannot speak, but gave his presentation with the aid of the electronic communication aid which he uses to speak. He explained about his life, how he enjoys sending text messages to his family and attending Dame Hannah Rogers School for children with physical and learning difficulties.

Communication Champion Jean Gross spoke about the events she has toured the country to visit. This began in February when she found herself in Sheffield city centre with the Lord Mayor, Director of Children’s Services, the elected member for Children, children and their parents doing ‘Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes’ for the Chatterbox Challenge World Record attempt.

Children and Families Minister Sarah Teather MP told the gathering she had tried to make speech, language and communication needs a core policy. She said: “An enormous amount has been achieved by people in this room, laying the building blocks for work we can do in future.”
There are just two months left in the national year of communication but many changes have been made in the world of speech, language and communication and the Trust will be planning how to make Hello’s legacy long-lasting.

For more information about the remaining themes of Hello visit our website www.hello.org.uk

In the right place at the right time! - Lynne Milford, Press and PR Officer

2011-10-20T08:45:00.000-07:00

I’ve managed to join The Communication Trust at a very exciting time. I’m the new press officer and I’ve arrived the week of a big parliamentary event to celebrate Hello, the National Year of Communication. There may only be two months left until the campaign ends, but there’s still plenty to do in evaluating its success and preparing its legacy for next year. This is where I hope to be heavily involved. It would be totally pointless to have had such a fantastic year encouraging parents, schools and children to focus on communication and raising awareness of children with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN), and not to build on it for the future. I’ve always been the kind of person who likes to look to the future and move things forward.

For me, communicating has never been a problem. Some people would say I talk too much, others say they love to hear my north-eastern accent (I’m from Durham), but I’ve never really had a problem getting my point across. Communicating, whether in speaking, writing or reading, has always comes as second nature to me. I find it baffling that some children grow up in a world where there are unable to communicate properly and cannot get the help they need. It must be incredibly frustrating for them. I take it for granted that I will be able to find the right words to express my point, and on the rare occasions I can’t it is annoying. Imagine what it must be like to never be able to find the right words? Or not to be able to say them even if you do know them?

So, that’s why I’m delighted to have joined The Communication Trust at a point where it is so able to influence the agenda. Yes, it’s going to be hard work, but with the help of our consortium, MPs, local co-ordinators, teachers and parents all working together we can keep this issue in a prominent place on the local and national agenda and we can make it easier to identify and help those children who so desperately need it. I’m looking forward to using my communication skills to make sure that no child ever has to struggle along unable to understand the world around them, that parents are fully equipped to know if their child has problems and how they can help, and that teachers and healthcare professionals are able to provide the help and support which is required.

Hopefully I can use my communication skills – my ability to speak, write and most importantly to listen – to make sure that children and parents can get whatever help they need. So for once in my life, I feel like I’ve arrived in the right place at the right time, somewhere I can really make a difference. So watch this space...

No Pens Day Wednesday - guest slot, Jean Gross, Communication Champion

2011-10-03T02:42:00.000-07:00

Last week about a quarter of a million children and young people took part in the Hello campaign’s No Pens Day Wednesday, which seems to have really hit the spot with teachers.

I was lucky enough to visit St Joseph’s Primary School in Camden, where overnight a time machine had arrived in the playground. Covered in silver foil and cordoned off, it had a huge clock with backwards numbers, a 0-9 number pad, a Blue Peter-type control console and – best of all- a calendar with Wednesday 28th September marked with a cross and the words ‘St Joseph’s School, Earth’ scrawled across the page.

The local community policewoman came down to check for health and safety, while the children came out in class groups to explore and talk about the machine. The oldest children discussed what year they might want to go back (or forward) to. One girl said 9/11, so ‘We could stop it happening’. A child in a younger class suggested that maybe if you pressed a number on the number pad you would become that age – ‘You’d be six..or nine...’

Others speculated about where the machine might have come from. ‘I think it came from the sky’ (and ‘I think the teachers made it’), while the teachers encouraged speculative language and modelled exciting vocabulary.

Then each class used the time machine as a stimulus for no-pens activities. In Reception the creative areas had been set out with foil and glitter and boxes for the children to use. Older groups planned and made their own robots and time machines in design and technology.

In Year 6 children took part in an extended improvisation about life in the year 3011, when the world was ruled by orang-utans. One activity was group work to plan a talking brochure for a school in this new world. They had to choose a name for their school and its vision statement, then use their bodies to create a still image for the front cover of the prospectus. Later they recorded the images using camera and sound, and went on to work on the inside pages.

In another class I watched a maths lesson. Children worked in groups, each child holding a number on a card. No-one was allowed to show their card to each other. The task was to arrange themselves into a line with their numbers in size order, by asking each other questions – ‘Has your number got three digits?’ and so on.

The day made me very aware of the problems of acoustics in classrooms. Children all talking in groups makes quite a buzz, so they had to focus hard to listen to each other. Many classrooms aren’t designed for talk. Many twenty-first century workplaces are. Interesting?

There’s no doubt the day was full-on for the teachers, without those moments when everyone is writing quietly. But those I spoke to said they loved the day, despite the challenges. So did many other schools across the country, according to some of the Twitter conversations we picked up.

We have been asked if No Pens Day will happen again. Any school that wants to can still take part, of course – many have chosen their own Wednesday (or Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday...) later on in the year. The guidance and lesson plans are still available at http://www.hello.org.uk/. But I also hope the day will become an annual fixture in the education calendar, to remind us all that communication skills are vital for today’s learners, and that over a million children in the UK have speech, language and communication needs that are often misidentified, misunderstood - or missed altogether.

Supporting early identification – we have won the argument but devil in the detail, Anita Kerwin-Nye, Director

2011-09-14T03:01:00.000-07:00

The Communication Trust is delighted that our lobbying efforts over the last 5 years have been rewarded with such strong mentions for speech, language and communication (SLC) in the Foundations Years Strategy and Healthy Child Programme and across work on reducing social inequalities. While it easy to take these successes for granted there has, as lead researchers have noted, been a substantive shift in recognition of the importance of early SLC skills for school readiness and best life outcomes.

Particularly pleasing is the focus on early identification (and with this early intervention). On Monday, the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists hosted a roundtable of therapists, researchers, the Trust and the Communication Champion to start to put the ‘meat on the bones’ of what early identification should look like. With the government committed to assessment at age 2 and ½ we have a real chance to build on the best of what is already working to further improve the system.

As a starting point the group identified the following as the 10 potential characteristics of effective early identification programme for a community – be that a single nursery setting or an entire county.

What do people think? What is missing? What matters most? Does it matter what screening tool is used? Do we need a screening tool at all? Which staff most likely to do this? The Trust will be doing more work on early identification over coming months so please do share your thinking as we probably have a once in a generation chance to influence so really positive developments.

What matters in early identification?

1. Staff who are appropriately skilled and trained to undertake observational assessment

2. Observational and ongoing assessment, undertaken in conjunction with the family and other carers

3. Coverage of full age range – 0 to 2 as well as at 2 and 5 year progress check, and coverage not only of the early years but in the primary or secondary school – recognising that children may have slipped through the net , and that children’s needs can change.

4. Provide for ongoing monitoring – for example between 2 and 5 , rather than just being used at fixed points

5. Be capable of picking up children with comprehension problems as well as speech and language

6. Be capable of distinguishing English as an additional language from speech, language and communication needs (SLCN)

7. Be differentiated to meet the needs of families from different groups and cultures

8. Assess the context for the child’s language learning – parent-child interaction and the home learning environment - as well as the child’s developmental level

9. Lead to action to address any needs identified

10. Be consistent, so that a child would be entitled to high quality progress checks wherever they live

2011-09-05T01:57:00.000-07:00

What makes a grown up and (fairly) level headed woman bash her head on a desk? I’ll tell you – the third call of the day to a major utility provider. A problem with billing should have been a two minute call. Instead I had to work my way through multiple choice machine questions and key in my account number before I could speak to a real person. Then the real person really had not got a grip on either my accent (English southern) requiring three attempts at spelling my surname and struggled to pick up the exasperated (but still polite) tone in my voice. Then the phone cut out (maybe they HAD got the tone). Then ringing to complain I got stuck in a loop of referrals between people and machines and hold tones. Cue one dent in desk.

I'm not alone. The Guardian reports that Brian Evans of Bristol attempted to make an appointment using an automated system for an eye appointment only to find that the system did not get his, not so broad, accent. The Guardian then did an, oh so ‘funny’, investigation ringing up phone lines with a range of accents and a lisp.

Except it’s not a joke is it. If I struggled – being fairly articulate and confident - and all the systems tested by the Guardian failed, then how accessible are these services for those who struggle with speech, language or communication? How do voice recognition systems work for people who stammer or use AAC? How can people with SLI navigate systems that use complex language or business jargon and where even the real people that you get through to struggle to be understood? It’s not on.

There have been several attempts at creating a Communication Charter or Kitemark for organisations that are ‘communication friendly’ and work in Scotland is quite advanced on developing a culture where it’s as unacceptable to deny access on grounds of communication as it would be to put a flight of stairs into a public building with no ramp. We need to get there too. It would save me buying a new desk.

To question or not to question, that IS the question! - Alison Marrs, Professional Advisor

2011-08-26T08:07:00.000-07:00

I recently saw my friend’s 18 month old son Marley and he called my water bottle, ‘more’. This confirmed to me how children link what they hear to what they see. Naturally my friend would ask Marley, ‘more?’ when offering him water and he now thinks water is called, ‘more’.

Adults do need to think about how we use questions therefore.
If a child’s not developed an understanding of what an object or concept is, then, just as Marley did, they’ll link a question they hear, to what they see. If every time they hold a banana, and an adult says, ‘What’s that?, they may think a banana’s called a ‘What’s that?’

The use of questions and their impact during interactions between parents and children (often referred to as ‘parent-child communication’ or ‘parent-child interaction’) has been studied widely. Parents naturally ask questions and give commands when there is silence or when their child is not saying anything. Parents naturally try to create a conversation this way.

Unknown to many though, research has shown that frequent parental use of directive and corrective statements (e.g. questions and command giving) has been shown to link with delays in children's language development. Of course we all naturally ask questions of our children, but if we do it too often it can have an effect.

From such research, professional’s advice to parents is often to ‘follow their child’s lead’ and to, ‘Question less and comment more’. This involves:

· Watching what they are doing (silently)
· Waiting for them to communicate (either by them doing something such as pointing/looking at an object or by saying something)
· Responding to this communication (for example, by also pointing then naming an object, looking at what their child looks at and naming it, copying what their child says or adding one or two more words to this.)

This can be particularly useful for young children who are developing language or who have difficulty learning language i.e. children with a delay in their language development or those with a persistent speech, language and communication need (SLCN). It’s often these children who are silent, creating the natural instinct in their parents to want to take the lead with questions and commands.

However often these children don’t understand questions and commands, need extra time to process what they’ve heard and need extra time to respond. If parents and adults question children less and comment more, it can support their language to develop.

So – are adults not meant to ask questions at all?
The research mentioned above indicates that frequent direction and commands to children can have an impact as opposed to occasional direction and commands.

Some questions are asked to test children’s knowledge by wanting a one-word factual answer e.g. ‘What’s that?’, but other questions which are open-ended, can lead to getting longer answers from children.

Research into the use of open-ended questions with school children, that start with phrases such as, ‘I wonder if...?, ‘What could we do....?, Can you find a way to.....?’ has shown these questions to be useful for learning, encouraging children to think, develop creative thinking and problem solving skills.These type of questions allow children to use the knowledge they have to come up with an answer rather than worrying about getting the answer right. Children’s answers can reveal a lot about their knowledge in comparison to when they are being asked the answer to a closed, testing questions such as, ‘What is the capital of France?’

There are different types of questions and as adults we just have to be careful about when and how we use them.

The breakdown of society? - Anita Kerwin-Nye, Director

2011-08-11T04:18:00.000-07:00

I am not so glib as to suggest that my partner leaving me trapped at home on Saturday by taking car seat and pram led directly to riots on the streets but it did leave me wondering about the importance of communication skills, and real human interaction, in building resilient communities.

What’s the link? Well I had a range of chores that I planned to do with children and baby in and around the local town. When the option of leaving the home was removed, because carrying a wiggly heavy baby 2 miles in your arms is not a good idea, I did them all online.

The food shopping was delivered courtesy of the local shop’s national website. I uploaded photos to a national store to get them printed rather than taking the memory stick to the local photo shop. I emailed thank you cards for the christening rather than writing them out and taking them to the post office. I sent my flowers to via the web rather than picking them up from the florist and popping around to the neighbour who had helped during a recent family emergency.

So my spoken contact for the day was limited to my children (lovely) and my partner (raised voices – less lovely - but forgiven now) and a delivery man. Yes I made a few phone calls but that interaction that comes from being out and about – chatting to the woman on checkout, whinging with fellow customers in the post office about the length of the queues, taking half an hour to wax lyrical about the beautiful flowers with a fellow enthusiast – were all lost.

Online everything is great. I love my smartphone. I am a child (well less child) of the internet and my children treat it as a normal part of their life. But balance is everything. Just one day without real people to eyeball and talk to made me twitchy but I can also see how easy it would be to slip into a world where everything was done with the click of the mouse. Talking matters. Face time matters (and not just as an iPhone application). Remembering not to drive off with the car seat in your car matters (and won’t I can assure you happen again!).

Farewell blog - Cara Evans, Operations Director

2011-08-09T03:17:00.000-07:00

So the time has come to take my ever increasing bump off home and prepare myself for the next adventure. As many of you will have seen from my last day in the office and at the last consortium meeting it's quite an emotional time for me, for a number of reasons.

Firstly, one of the main reasons I took the job at The Communication Trust was my very strong belief in the power of the third sector. It has been so wonderful to see the SLCN sector come together in the past four years and speak with one voice. I would particular like to thank I CAN for hosting the Trust so far. I know as the only full time member of staff in the first year the Trust would not have been able to deliver so much without the help of I CAN. Each consortium members bring its own unique perspective, skills and expertise to the Trust and we are working so well because of that continued support. I do hope that we continue to work successfully in partnership as that is our core strength.

Secondly, I have been introduced to a whole new sector and learnt so much about speech, language and communication. As a parent I hope to transfer that knowledge into practice! I have been amazed by the passion and determination of many speech, language therapists, not least the ones I work with closely. Their desire to help children and young people is phenomenal and has been an inspiration to me.

Lastly, but by no means least I have been so lucky to work directly with some wonderful people. I can honestly say in my nearly 20 years of working I have never had such a hard working team. I know many of you see the quantity and quality of what we produce but from only 14 (not all full time) people is simply amazing. I shall miss them more than words can say and am looking forward to working with them again in a few months time. So farewell for now and I will keep you updated on my next adventure.

Charity cuts or charity growth - Anita Kerwin-Nye, Director

2011-08-02T08:07:00.000-07:00

Shock news today – Councils cutting charity funding with more than 2,000 charities sacking staff and closing services with those working with the young and disabled worst hit. For those of us working in the sector the shock is that it is only 2,000 as horror stories of contract cuts have been circulating for the last year.

Does it matter? In the scheme of things the £110 million at risk in the report http://falseeconomy.org.uk/ is small fry compared to wider cuts in public service spending. If cutting charity money saves public sector staff maybe, if it saves an experienced SLT or an excellent advisory teacher, that is a good thing?

Except that so many of the charities being affected are, like so many third sector bodies, the ones that focus on the most vulnerable. The niche groups. Those requiring specialist help. Those who are too expensive, too difficult, too marginalised for the state sector to reach.

The picture is still unclear. Alongside these cuts the ‘market’ is, as I have written before, opening up in ways that we could never have expected and some third sector bodies are preparing for an increase in income or moving further into public sector delivery. Under ‘Any Qualified Provider’ a range of voluntary organisations are gearing up to compete for public sector contracts which into the future may include speech and language therapy provision. In Lincolnshire the Council is considering moving all schools into academies supported by one charity and last week saw the announcement that a new charity will take forward the Achievement for All programme working with schools to improve outcomes for children with SEN (including speech, language and communication needs (SLCN)).

So what's role for charities into the future? What is the real picture? Trust members - has your local income gone up or down? Are you gearing up for bigger things or are your services at risk? For public sector staff – are charities a blessing picking up the needs that you cannot or a drain taking resources away from where you need it? Can the not-for-profit ethos be protected or will we see a rise in ‘for profit’ provision to support children with SLCN? And most of all how will we ensure that the needs of the most vulnerable, and often the most disenfranchised, are best met.

The debate is being had – are you in or out? Laura Smith, Media and Campaign Manager

2011-07-29T02:09:00.000-07:00

As a media professional, I know the importance of the phrase ‘if a debate is being had it's better to be in it than out and watching from the sidelines’. Media work is tough - you cannot ‘manage’ or ‘control’ the message but it is our job to frame the debate in the best way possible.

Yesterday, a piece on the BBC Today Programme (which has over 1 million listeners a day) set the pace for the news agenda. This has continued today with stories in the Daily Mail and the Daily Telegraph.

Journalists have been drawn to Frank Fields MP, the Government’s poverty czar, anecdotal comments that some children start school unable to say their name or even unaware that they have a name. We are talking about a small minority of children but experts like Jean Gross, Communication Champion, and other head teachers have said ‘sadly it does happen’.

Neil Wilson, a Head teacher of a federation of schools in Manchester, was brave enough to put his voice out there and say “This is the Holy Grail of breaking barriers of underachievement and disaffection”. And by ‘this’ he means improving children’s communication skills.

It's our job (and I mean the collective we) to broaden the debate out. To ensure that messages come through that communication underpins everything else, that we are not talking about one ‘homogenous’ group of children and importantly that the solutions are out there and great work is being done on the ground. Jean did this very well in yesterday Today’s Programme – you can listen again here.

The Communication Trust represents 40 voluntary and community organisations with expertise in speech, language and communication. Many of the children and young people we represent have a long term communication need that has absolutely nothing to do with social and environmental factors. They need specialist help at the right time and deserve greater understanding from society.

However, we also advocate for those children with delayed language and this is a large group - 50% in some areas of social deprivation. They are important because this is about children’s life chances and with the right help they can catch up with their peers. Our consortium understands more than most how challenging life is if you struggle to communicate and no child should do so needlessly.

This is why the Hello campaign (national year of communication) is working to help both groups of children and to make communication a priority for all. We have developed posters, top tips leaflets, ‘ages and stages’ booklets for parents and professionals that are all available free at www.hello.org.uk/resources

Within our consortium help lines are available (such as Afasic’s and I CAN’s enquiry service) and the British Stammering Association’s facebook page is an excellent example of support and advice that can be provided to others. If you haven’t – take a moment to find out more about our consortium here.

So I ask you to add your voice to the mix. Comment on newspaper articles, write your own blog, post up your thoughts on Facebook or Twitter and talk to others because that what’s the media does – it starts a conversation and then we need to fill it.

Raising expectations but not meeting needs?

2011-07-21T01:52:00.000-07:00

I have been asked several times over the last year if now is really the right time to be running a major awareness raising campaign. With cuts to services rife and ongoing confusion on health and education structures some have asked if it is fair to raise awareness of speech, langauge and communication needs (SLCN) when there may be a dearth of local services to refer families to.

The current risk to service provision concerns the Trust and our members greatly. Not only do we back RCSLT’s Giving Voice Campaign, the private and public lobbying from the voluntary sector locally and nationally is one of the best defences against cuts.

But the idea of not running Hello just because there are cuts to provision is not something we could entertain. Part of the reason that it is so easy to cut SEN services is because, unless you are a parent of a child with a specific language impairment, the general public just don’t get it. I know I am such a parent.

More importantly though to suggest that we should not try everything we can to identify a child’s SLCN because we would be raising expectations of services that might not be there is, to my mind, not fulfilling our obligation to children. Firstly families should rightly expect a service and should be supported to agitate for same. Secondly there are many things that parents and the universal workforce can do to support both typical communication development and to help a child with SLCN that can be put into place immediately. This does not negate the need for specialist help for those that need it but rather recognises that provision is the sum of input from many professionals.

Most importantly the early identification of needs is one of the single most important aspects in mitigating the impact of SLCN and regardless of service provision the ‘naming’ of a problem that many parents know is there but can’t quite put their finger on is liberating – even if it is the start of a long and sometimes difficult journey.

So yes – now is the right time to raise awareness, to make sure families are not alone and to ensure the public know why communication matters. And this year with Hello, and next year and the year after, and until the job is done, the Trust will be making sure that no child with SLCN feels alone.

Speech and language everywhere - Anita Kerwin-Nye, Director

2011-07-06T07:07:00.000-07:00

What a great first day back from maternity leave. A meeting with the Minister to discuss the SEN Green Paper and the brilliant new research piece from Rousltone et al on unequivocal link between speech and language and achievement.

The Roulstone article opens with a summary of speech, language and communication / needs (SLC/N) in the policy world and as I read it I realised how very far we have come in the last five years. When starting as Director of Communications at I CAN I was struck by how little speech and language featured in policy. At best it was in an SEN ghetto and even there a poor relation. There were some wonderful advocates of speaking and listening within curriculum and early years but they were lone voices in an agenda dominated by reading and writing.

The work I started then built on efforts of many before and pushed forward an agenda of collaboration that has led the success we see now.

I wouldn’t quite say speech and language is the ubiquitous issue de jour but I’d argue that we have hit the target I set to place speaking and listening in the same ball park as childhood obesity. And, with much respect to my very dear colleagues in autism and dyslexia, we are closer to having specific language impairment and other SLC/N as recognised in policy and trade press terms as those equally important conditions – a challenge I took on at the launch of The Communication Trust at the Cinnamon Club.

Policy shift is one thing – and the increase in both quality and number of media mentions is another win – but key is what happens on the ground. Our work on raising awareness has undoubtedly contributed to investment in the frontline from Every Child a Talker (ECAT), the Bercow Review and the resulting Action Plan and our efforts mean that many new central initiatives support speech and language locally. I hear much from parents and professionals how the work of the Trust and our partners, the Communication Champion and Hello has helped them save and shape frontline services by providing a spotlight on SLC/N and supporting their local advocacy efforts.

But we are entering difficult times. We have won much ground but the task now is to keep moving forward when the easiest thing to do would be to fall back. So there are new challenges to set, old partners to pull closer and new ones to seek out. So here is to the first day back and to the first day of the next five years.

Please click here to view information about the Roulestone Research, this links to the Latest News section on the Hello website and is the article titled: Reading and talking to children at home makes starting school easier

Shine a Light – Annie Broadbent, Press Officer

2011-06-30T03:26:00.000-07:00

Everyone likes a bit of recognition. Even the ones who shy away from the spotlight can’t deny that being acknowledged for something you have achieved gives you a little warm glow inside.

What with it being the national year of communication and all, it makes sense to use this time to bring to light those special individuals and teams who have really run the extra mile to support children’s communication development. So often those people go unheard and unappreciated and therefore the work they do and the impact it has also gets left in the shadows.

This is perhaps the underlying significance of the awards. They not only celebrate the individuals and the work they do, but they shine a light on the issue of communication itself. One of the ongoing struggles for those working within the sector of children’s education and development, is the invisibility of communication difficulties. Speech, language and communications needs are not always manifested in some form of physical disability, in fact a lot of the time they are manifested in silence. More to the point, the development of a child’s communication skills is often presumed to develop as naturally as walking, making it a tough job for people to know what to look out for.

These awards are not only a chance for young people, employers, multi-agency teams and many more to get the recognition they deserve, but it’s also an opportunity for them to really help send a vital message out there to those with less experience in children’s communication development. Highlighting the best practice out there is a positive and encouraging way of turning the invisible into the visible. It breaks it down, makes it tangible, evident, and provides a foundation on which others can work from. We hope these awards are inspiring and motivating, not only to those who are already doing fantastic work with children’s communication, but also to those who don’t understand the issue so well.

It makes me think back to those uncontrollable moments in school of shoving your hand up desperately, when the teacher asks a question that you know, only you, know the answer to. They are quite often the only moments when the rest of the class listens. Of course this analogy is not like for like in every detail, and it might have been just me who did that, but I suppose the key thing to take from it, is that level of excitement and pride one feels when they want to show off, and also the legacy that that excitement and pride can leave for others to take on and develop.

This is a chance to stop, look at what you and people around you are doing to support children’s communication, shout about it, share your pride and ultimately spread the word – children’s communication development is fundamental to their happiness and future development and we are all responsible in some way or another for making sure no child is left out or left behind.

Children's Chatter - Wendy Lee, Professional Director

2011-06-28T03:15:00.000-07:00

I am on a train travelling from London to Leeds. I do this a lot and usually get a phenomenal amount of work done on my travels. In my carriage are around 12 children with their teachers. The children are fairly young, but are full of talk; asking questions in long and complicated sentences, talking together with short spurts of questions, comments, interjected the whole time with laughter and the occasional reminder from one of the teachers to keep the noise down to an acceptable level.

Honestly, on a different day, I might find it a bit irritating, trying to get on with work with this clamour as a backdrop, but today I can’t help be impressed with their typical language development (sad, but true). You can almost hear the cogs whirling round as the children talk, as they manipulate language to work out how to find out about complicated situations they have seen, sharing their views, opinions and experiences, seeking clarification from their teachers. You can feel the personality of these youngsters coming through.

The thing is, this situation is one that for children with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN) find extremely challenging – to join in with quick fire conversations, with the banter and turn taking, knowing when to listen and when to interrupt, being able to say the right thing to the teacher and the right thing to friends, to be clear in their speech and tell entertaining and understandable tales of their adventures, to share likes and dislikes, best bits and worst bits – to ask “are we nearly there yet.....”

Tomorrow I will be talking to some children with SLCN, some have pretty obvious speech difficulties, though in others it's more subtle. They can come across as maybe a little younger than their years, maybe a little slower to respond and not as able to construct the free flowing conversations as their typically developing peers.

As part of the Hello campaign, we want to raise awareness of children with SLCN and to ensure they are in the forefront of the minds of local and national leaders. We are in challenging times at the coal face of children’s services, so it seems even more important to highlight the fundamental importance of speech and language. As part of the campaign we are asking everyone to write to their MP and to their local council.

We have provided all the information you need to do this in our You’re the Voice resource. Download it today and spread the word at www.hello.org.uk/resources.

Exciting times - Cara Evans, Operations Director

2011-06-22T01:59:00.000-07:00

As I approach the 29th week of my pregnancy it's time to start thinking practically about the little one's arrival's. It's strange, part of me feels like the anticipation just before Christmas, birthday and other exciting events all rolled into one - I'm so excited I feel I might pop (well I literally might!!). Don't worry I shan't dwell on that bit. The other half of me is quietly terrified. It feels like the night before going to the dentist - you should know I am scared stiff of the dentist!!

But I'm thinking of what kind of mum I will be, there are so many things we need to do. I see all the government policies involving parents and representing parent choice, all I want to do is make sure she is ok!!

I was lucky enough to go on a well deserved holiday a few weeks back with my partner and I observed many parents communicating with their children, it's what happens when you work at the Trust! One incident stuck in my head, two families at the dinner table, one having brought lots of books and games for their children, father asking his son what he thought of the journey and what did he want to do tomorrow, mum playing with her daughter. Contrast to family number two, a set of 3/4 year old twins, dummies in mouths watching a DVD at the dinner table (I so wanted to give them a copy of Small talk). But who am I to judge, difficult choices to make every day. I just hope I make the right ones!!

Guest slot, National Literacy Trust

2011-06-14T08:31:00.000-07:00

This Father’s Day, the National Literacy Trust is launching a brand new Dads section to its recently launched and highly popular http://www.talktoyourbaby.org.uk/ website, dedicated to helping new dads communicate more with their young children.

Jonathan Douglas, Director of the National Literacy Trust comments:
“Each year around 500,000 men become dads for the first time. It’s brand new territory for most men but babies don’t come with instruction manuals like cars and phones and many new dads lack the support networks that new mums have. So we’ve tried to create a place where new dads can find out advice about one of the most important aspects of their new baby’s development.”

The newly launched section which encourages new dads to incorporate ‘TLC’ (Talking, Listening and Communicating) into their everyday life with their new baby is being endorsed by the Fatherhood Institute for the way it encourages dads to play a central role in a crucial part of their child’s future development.

Please click here to read the full press release.

Latest blog from Anita Kerwin-Nye, Director

2011-06-10T08:42:00.000-07:00

As a life-long volunteer, charity worker and passionate advocate of the third sector, friends are surprised when I roll my eyes at the Prime Minister’s/Health Secretary’s/Education Secretary’s/Environment Secretary’s (delete depending on which proposal is currently under discussion) enthusiastic endorsement of the charity sector to run public services.

Is it because I don’t believe the third sector should run public sector provision? Of course not-many Trust members run non maintained special schools and other outstanding specialist provision contracted by the state. The Trust itself wins government contracts and is working with members on winning more.

Do I agree with the public sector unions that charities taking over contracts put public sector workers out of jobs? Well, of course, there is an inevitability that if a charity wins a local contract that public sector staff may lose roles- but equally many public sector staff find employment in the voluntary sector and many charity workers are being laid off as local public sector provision pulls back charity grants to save staff posts. I don’t care who the employer is as long as people are skilled for the job and there is enough money to commission services (and of course this latter is a much bigger risk to public services than charity contracts).

Am I concerned about the changing face of the voluntary sector? Maybe a bit – care must be taken to maintain our campaigning work because, despite the protests of MPs like Charlie Elphicke, this work has always and will always be an essential part of charity work and one of our best routes to supporting our users. The Trust itself is an example of how public funding in some areas is no barrier to effective change in policy.

The worry that the ‘publicisation’ of charities is there – but that only applies to relatively small number of contract driven charities who dominate the ACEVO and NCVO debates. There will always be thousands of small, national and local, volunteer engaging charities picking up those that are failed by public funded services and who will never get any government money. Many of the Trust’s smaller members provide excellent volunteer run family support programmes that take little or no public funding.

My key concern is that such statements are at best uninformed and at worst deliberately disingenuous. Yes the voluntary sector will pick up some of the work but the proportion that it does will be tiny compared to the private sector who already receive billions to run public services and are circling for even more. And even the term voluntary sector is not accurate because there are charities who will plough funding from contacts back into core mission and then there are those corporates who will, legally I should stress, set up special purpose vehicles that sound all warm and fluffy or partner with voluntary sector partners to win bids and then cream off profits.

My personal views on the use of market forces to improve public services are still forming – that there is a role for charities is for me quite clear. Just let’s not pretend that this will be more than it is and let’s really understand what our USP and added value is before we warmly welcome any more Minister announcements.

Latest blog from Anita Kerwin-Nye, Director

2011-05-26T06:11:00.000-07:00

Oh come on – now the Guardian says that bottle feeding mothers are responsible for an increased risk of their child having Behavioural , Social and Emotional Disorders. Leaving aside irritation that, having reviewed all the articles on the subject, it is the always the mother who chooses to give their child the bottle (are fathers somehow absolved from making decisions about their child by the British media) it brought home to me again that the line between supporting parents with good information and making them feel bad for their, often well intentioned, decisions is a thin one.

Both the Trust and our members aim to get the best possible guidance and support to families - and I think that the wonderful range of materials that are coming out under the Hello campaign and the services available from the charities that we work with exemplify this.

But it's easy to get it wrong. Being a parent of any child is hard – being a parent of a child with a disability or additional need is even harder. Guilt weights heavily on parents of children with SLCN and so many parents blame themselves . Organisations or experts that add to these pressures through careless words, that often expose their own subtle prejudices of how things should be, cause great pain.

Inevitably journalists, MPs and especially parents themselves want to know what it is that parents can do better. But for every thing that parents can do better (and heaven knows for me there is a long list) there are a hundred things that parents are doing brilliantly. And it is that point that we need to make because parenting is not one choice – tv or no tv; forward facing pram or parent facing pram; bottle or breast – it is a hundred choices. There is no one magic bullet and the things that we know make the biggest difference to the outcomes of any child – class, income and parent education – are still areas that we struggle to find the right words over and struggle even more to find the right solutions for (note the angst that Field’s and Allen’s reports on childhood outcomes created when they attempted to tackle these issues).

So for me – I'm giving Josh his next bottle in a few hours. Following his tummy time, baby massage, ten minutes in front of the TV while I wash up and a push around the block in his parent facing buggy while he looks at pictures on my IPhone. I’m leaving guilt aside for a while and replacing it with love – and as I do that it occurs to me that maybe there is a magic bullet after all.

A little brave lion - Andrew Ball, Campaign Director

2011-05-16T06:39:00.000-07:00

I recently had to take my 3 year old son to our local Accident and Emergency department. We’re lucky that our local hospital has a separate emergency department for children with a nice waiting room with a handful of toys (mostly broken), a vending machine (full of healthy sweets, chocolate and fizzy drinks) and a nice big widescreen TV (to help while away the hours waiting).

To my surprise, whoever run this children’s A&E had decided that it was appropriate to have the EastEnders omnibus edition showing on the television...

When I arrived there were two young parents with their kids already waiting to be seen – a father and son and a mother and daughter. The young father was content for his 18 month old son to play with the toys whilst he concentrated on his BlackBerry. In the 20 minutes we were waiting there, the only thing that the father said to his son was "I'm watching you" (while he clearly was playing with his phone) and “sit down, and watch that”.

Meanwhile, the young mum was watching the television with her 4 year old daughter. After a few minutes the daughter turned to her mum and said "I love Cat and the baby..."! Now I know that ‘cat’ and ‘baby’ are probably two of the first words that children learn but surely they should never be used by a 4 year in relation to a story line involving cot death, kidnapping and who knows what else. Tom and Jerry never covered those issues.

All this was very timely I thought given the launch last week of Raa Raa the Noisy Lion and our recent surveys about parents attitudes towards watching TV with their children. My son ended up being admitted to hospital overnight which meant that I got to watch the first episode of Raa Raa with him – and he loved it. We’ve watched each subsequent episode at least a further 3 times thanks to the BBC iPlayer so that’s at least one very happy viewer!

So, if you’re a parent of a young child and are wondering what to watch together or if you manage a children’s A&E department with a TV and are wondering what to show on it, may I suggest Raa Raa the Noisy Lion. It’s so much better than EastEnders - and far more realistic!

P.S. My son made a full recovery...

Check out what Essex are doing - Linda Rooney, Local Advisor

2011-05-09T09:07:00.000-07:00

Here are just some of the activities and programmes being undertaken by Speech and Language Therapists, Early Years and Education colleagues around Essex.

- In Southend-on-Sea there has been a "Big Hello" event at the Thorpe Greenway school
- A supermarket treasure hunt is being organised for 31st May-3rd June
- A "Communication Champion Setting" Quality Mark event will be held on the 22nd June
- Look out for the "Speech on the Beach"event on 10th August
- In October there will be an event to highlight the monthly theme -"not just words" - exploring alternative and augmentative methods of communication.

The Early Years Specialist Teaching Team will be showcasing the impact from the Inclusion Development Programme (IDP), Speech, Language and Communication Needs, facilitated by their participation in the East Region cross Local Authority IDP Impact Projects 2010-2011.

Makaton " taster sessions" will be offered to childcare practitioners throughout 2011 and Makaton resources have been purchased for loan through the Early Years Library.

Multiple copies of the I CAN resources "Babbling Babies " and "Toddler Talk" have also been included in to the Early Years Resource Library for loan to all Early Years practitioners.

The area SENCO team is busy monitoring the relevant websites and is e-mailing copies of all relevant downloadable resources to all 650 pre-school settings in Essex as and when they come on line.

The pre-school team is planning conferences and workshops on the use of picture communication systems within pre-school settings.

The Early Years consultants will continue to promote the National Year throughout the summer with "Walk and Talk " materials utilising providers and festivals.

To round the year off, the Speech and Language Therapists and Early Years Team will be devising "Seasonal Gifts" with a communication theme.

All great news for children and young people in Essex - working for a better quality of life.

Hello Essex, Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire - Linda Rooney, Local Advisor

2011-05-03T03:25:00.000-07:00

Well, it’s one month now since I took myself out of retirement and stepped forward to have a go at doing something for children that need help with their speech, language and communication.

I have been busy in Essex, Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire, as a local regional advisor, asking people to take action for the National Year of Communication - Hello campaign. This is more than a national campaign - as with communication - it’s everybody’s business. It’s not a “top- down initiative - it’s about spreading the word and making change happen in local settings. So, I have been establishing networks between local practitioners, providing resources, offering advice, capturing good practice and sharing ideas.

And......there are some great things going on out there!

From a “Big Hello” event to “speech on the beach”; from the purchase and sharing of essential communication resources for practitioners to “walk and talk” activities in the park! From conferences to celebrate the National Year (including the use of alternative and augmentative systems of communication) to the establishment of steering groups to ensure that the initiative is sustained - it is all happening in the region!!

So, hopefully, by the end of my placement I will have been able to help the Hello campaign be the national and local success it absolutely needs to be!!

Baby Blog 1 - Anita Kerwin-Nye, Director

2011-04-26T05:24:00.000-07:00

As Director of The Communication Trust I’d like to think my commitment to the cause is pretty clear. However, I feel that I have gone above and beyond in demonstrating my commitment to the issue by conspiring to have my latest child on the 1 March – day one of Talk to Your Baby month and a key date in the National Year of Communication.

Do I talk to my baby? Of course. My first word was naturally ‘Hello’ and baby Joshua gets much input daily - from a terrible rendition of Twinkle Twinkle to long treatises on the state of the British media and the pros and cons of the Royal Wedding. We have just started baby signing (thank you to all those who sent us wonderful resources) and speaking to the baby was a factor in our pram choice (that and I liked the colour orange.)

We tick all the boxes for model parents (we even turn the TV off sometimes and we are not giving him a Nintendo DS until he is at least a year) and we encourage lots of talking time with grandparents and siblings.

But talking is the relatively easy bit. Maybe the month should have been titled ‘listen to your baby’ because, as the mother of two pre-teen girls as well as a new born, I think this is where the real challenge is.

From day one Joshua has communicated with us. The little piggy grunts from his first minutes as he tried to find dinner and the little whimpers of satisfaction when the search was successful – a pattern of noises repeated at every feed. The cry that means ‘wind me now and I am about to vomit on your shoulder’ is totally different to the command to ‘change my nappy’. And, reflecting the fact that sounds are not the only way to communicate, we have responded to his facial grimaces (many and varied) and his range of wiggles and hand shakes (lots of wiggling hands means 'watch out I am about to fill my nappy' and one arm above his ahead means 'I am doing my final pre sleep stretch').

All this and he is only six weeks old. So much to hear and to understand already.
As parents it is essential to be an effective listener. Not only does it avoid many problems from an early age - very messy giving Joshua a feed when he was making nappy changing signals - modelling good listening skills is key to helping our children develop their own ability to listen. I have always thought listening (and with it understanding) is the poor relation when considering speech and language ability. It is much harder to spot effective listening - everyone knows their child’s first word but few would recall the first word that their child heard and understood.

So – we are listening to Joshua carefully and doing all we can to help develop his own skills. Lots of reading, rhymes and different sounds against limited background noise to help him refine his listening and lots of fun listening games (www.literacytrust.org.uk has some good ideas). I am watching like a hawk for evidence of his the first word that he hears and understands and we will celebrate this on a par with his first spoken word – anyone want to make a prediction as to what it might be?

You can’t teach an old dog new tricks? Well – you can actually! - Alison Marrs, Hello Advisor

2011-04-18T08:57:00.000-07:00

So – this is my first blog....ever! When I started this post (March 7th) I told myself I was going to blog weekly. But I didn’t. It was on my list of things to do. I didn’t do it. I joined Twitter and Tweeted. I kept saying I was going to do a blog...and guess what? I didn’t.

I avoided it because I thought I didn’t know what I was doing, because I thought it would take up too much time, because I thought it was too late to start.

Then:
• I spoke to Robin at work about her blog and got inspired (heard other’s stories)
• I got sent the link to The Communication Trust’s blogs (had a template to follow)
• I had a meeting with colleagues on how to blog (information given)
• I heard about the aims of the blogs and how my viewpoint counts (given confidence and understanding of the aim)
• I blocked out the time in my diary to sit down and do this (organised myself!)
• I changed my attitude from ‘I can’t’ to ‘I can’ (no pun/plug intended there!) and from ‘It is too late’ to ‘Just do it!’

And? Well, I realised how easy it is to have something on your ‘to-do’ list and do nothing and yet every day I am asking people to take action for Hello.

So – I know what it is like! But if you can just make the time to have a look, then I have been so impressed by The Communication Trust and the Hello resources, which will save you time in the long run once you start using them. Look at the website www.hello.org.uk. This has it all – other’s stories/Hello event ideas, planning templates to use, information on the campaign and to share, a calendar to download to help with organising time!

I have crossed ‘blogging’ off my to-do list and it wasn’t even that painful!

80% less 100% delivery - Cara Evans, Operations Director

2011-03-14T09:23:00.000-07:00

As some of you may have read, The Communication Trust has recently learned that we have funding for another two years. Happy days! Now the real work begins... We have 80% less funding than we had hoped for our national year programme of work – whilst on the face of it is the cut is disappointing, the reality is that it could have been far worse.

We have though secured more for our core programme of work than we have done over recent years, which means that the combination of funding for the two programmes is roughly the same as that which we received for the current financial year. This presents us with two challenges. Firstly, managing everyone’s expectations regarding the national year as we will not be making the huge media splash that many people were hoping for. That said, the level of local support that we are seeing is amazing - our recent regional events saw 600 local practitioners coming to share their ideas. What was even more amazing was that some of those that attended and contributed to the events didn't even know if they had jobs from April. Money can't buy that type of commitment.

Secondly, we need to continue to offer value for money whilst ensuring that we keep to our core principle of ensuring that our consortium partners receive the higher percent of our funding. This means everyone we work with needs to ensure that they offer the most cost effective service without affecting quality. This is a challenge indeed but one which the sector knows all too well how to overcome as it something it has always had to do. I have no doubt our partners will work with us to deliver an impactful programme of work with all the funding we have available.

One final point this. This is the first time since the Trust was founded that we have our funding agreed before we start the programme of work, which makes planning and budgeting that much easier! Here’s to an exciting year.

Seeing the wood through the trees - Eve Wagg, Programme Manager

2011-03-08T06:59:00.000-08:00

The regional briefing events have now finished. Phew. In 2 months we transformed a seed of thought into an organised roadshow of 5 regional events to brief local ‘movers and shakers’ on how they can help execute Hello across the country.

Hello isn’t a top down initiative, we want to enthuse, support, guide and help local leads to spread the word and make change happen in their local settings. This way we can reach the most amount of children, parents and young people.

Now wise people often say there is no ‘I’ in Team. This is very true. Without an exceptionally hard working, committed and slightly mad team these events wouldn’t have happened. In brief we...
- Reached 592 practitioners across the country in 21 days
- Distributed over 6,100 Hello materials and many more from our consortium and sponsors
- Heard from 9 Local Authorities about their local initiatives
- Confirmed 102 communication leads
- Met with 127 representatives from a possible 152 top tier local authorities, along with many schools, colleges, universities and other individual settings.

This is not to mention the fun we had along the way. Other highlights included...
- Rating premier inns and conference sandwiches
- Tea and winegums
- Eating far too many Percy pigs on long train journeys
- Trying not to hit people with our banners as we squeezed onto the 5:42 to Leeds
- Completing the crossword
- Packing, unpacking, repacking hundreds and hundreds of cardboard boxes.

So thank you to everyone who attended, showed their support and helped out at these events. Now we can finally see the wood through the trees and start putting plans into practice. Not to mention catch up on some sleep.

If you would like to nominate yourself as your local communication lead please contact me at ewagg@thecommunicationtrust.org.uk

Alternatively please email me if you can help... 9 across ‘Worried a new team's endlessly lousy (7) ’

A ‘royal’ start to the National Year of Communication - Laura Smith, Media and Campaign Manager

2011-01-09T06:26:00.000-08:00

This weekend I finally got to see the Kings Speech (out in cinemas now), which according to a steward at Shepherds Bush has been sold out across London in a way he ‘has never seen before’.

Considering the anticipation, vast amounts of publicity and perfect timing to the national year of communication, I was not disappointed.

In fact, I was hugely moved. Moved not only by the content of this film, which shows one man (who happens to be a King in waiting) and his journey to come to terms with his communication difficulties, but by seeing first hand the audience reaction to the film.

The Kings Speech shows how King George VI, who has a stammer, finds techniques to express himself with support from his speech therapist. You cringe at his humiliation, laugh out loud as his sense of humour, are touched by the support of his wife and are moved to tears when he finds his voice and ultimately respect from the people around him.

I could see the audience – from young to old and from a range of backgrounds – experiencing a ‘light bulb’ moment that many of us realised many moons ago. That if you find communication hard, you find life hard; that communication difficulties can affect anyone (even the Monarchy) and that this issue had then - as it does today - low levels of public recognition.

January’s theme for Hello – national year of communication is ‘Don’t take communication for granted’. We could not ask for a better way to start the year than with a film that captures the public interest and inspires the media to look at the impact of communication difficulties.

It provides a great platform for the cause – the more people who can go and see it and then blog, ‘tweet’ or facebook about it – the better. We are delighted that the British Stammering Association and the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists, in particular, are benefiting directly from the close association to the story.

A mass media opportunity like this film is a blessing. Happy New Year and Happy Hello!

First phase of Hello website goes live - Nicola Matthews, Marketing Manager

2010-12-20T09:50:00.000-08:00

It's been very busy times at The Communication Trust recently getting things ready for Hello, the 2011 national year of communication.

We have been working on new publications to help increase the understanding of speech, language and communication needs, developing posters for primary and secondary schools, and writing 'Ages and Stages' booklets to give guidance on if the child in your care is on the right track with their communication. And this is just a few of the free publications and resources we are going to provide next year.

The Hello website will be a portal for information about the campaign and be the main way to order and download the publications above. It will show how you can get involved in the campaign, activities that are happening in your area and share the stories of people who work in this field.

The first part of the website went live today, which is very exciting! So if you go to www.hello.org.uk you will be able to view the brand new home page and the first section which explains what the campaign is, why it is needed and who is behind it. Please bookmark the site and more information will be uploaded shortly and the whole site will be ready next month.

The above is just a few of the things going on right now, watch this space for further updates.

Fingers crossed for our World of Difference Applicants! Mark Beagan, Partnerships Manager

2010-11-23T02:01:00.000-08:00

Reminiscent of that classic 80s children program, we recently asked the question “Why Don’t You”....get involved in the Hello campaign and the national year of communication in 2011.

Now, there are at least four members of The Communication Trust team that will have no idea what I’m talking about. The rest of us, however, can complete, with ease, the following theme tune...."Why Don't You Just Switch Off Your Television Set And Go Out And Do Something....?".

What I’m trying to say, in a very roundabout way, is that we’d like to say a big THANK YOU to Alison, Linda, Annie and Robin, who have all applied to Vodafone’s ‘World of Difference’ scheme to support the Hello campaign next year! They’ve stepped forward to say they ‘want to do something’ for children that need help with their speech, language and communication in 2011.

Best of luck with your applications!

The power of the third sector - Wendy Lee, Professional Director

2010-11-15T07:18:00.000-08:00

Since joining the third sector, I have had a strong and consistent message from our director Anita Kerwin-Nye regarding the unique expertise and position of the third sector. As a long term public sector professional, I felt the need to question this assertion; my feelings overwhelmingly told me that practitioners at the coal face make the difference – they really do! They have the expertise, the knowledge, the skills...

....though there is something missing.

In the public sector, there are amazing leaders and managers communicating the issue, networking, supporting their staff; who still manage, despite having the weight of the NHS machine on their shoulders, to have children and families at their heart. There are amazing practitioners, working with children, gifted in skills and expertise.

As a public sector worker, I spend time trying to avoid the constraints within which I found myself working, bending or working around rules (I confess – I didn’t go to the mandatory fire lectures on how to get sick people out of hospitals or the one on how to fit a cannualar). I spent a lot of time arguing with people about systems that didn’t work, a lot of time persuading, negotiating...I was told on more than one occasion that I was “difficult!” Hard to believe, I know!

What is missing for public sector workers is time and freedom. This is where the third sector comes into its own; it is not constrained by systems to ration, narrow or pigeon hole.

The third sector can and does employ a range of individuals with a range of expertise, not only in speech, language and communication needs, but in managing projects, partners, marketing, press and public affairs...collaborative working at its best.

They have a national perspective with strategic and policy expertise enabling them to knock on the door of MPs and say – think about this – it will make a difference – here’s the evidence – this is how it can work.

For practitioners the day job is providing a service, working with children and families. For the third sector, the day job is to listen to grass roots workers and families and to try and make the situation easier, smoother – better for children, families and for practitioners.

Anita said at our parliamentary event that the Hello campaign would not have happened without the third sector. She is absolutely right. She also said that the expertise needed was in that room – and for me, this is the key.

The Hello campaign is much more than a national campaign – as with communication, it is everybody’s business. People in that room were professionals, third sector, businesses, politicians, families and children – it is the combined and collaborative efforts of all that will turn the campaign into the national and local success it absolutely needs to be.

Start spreading the news - Andrew Ball, Campaign Director

2010-11-05T08:00:00.000-07:00

It’s 3 weeks since we launched Hello at the House of Commons and it’s really starting to feel real now – even more so now that we have launched our first stakeholder communication pack (which you can download from www.thecommunicationtrust.org.uk/hello).

The communication pack is something that we’re going to issue on a monthly basis and add to as we go through the campaign. We hope that this first edition gives you lots of information about what we are trying to achieve and answers some of those burning questions you may have had – though it falls short of some of the harder questions in life like where do babies come from, what are we all doing here or how the hell is Wagner still in X Factor. If you have any suggestions on what we might include in future editions then please do let us know – you can e-mail the campaign team via hello@thecommunicationtrust.org.uk.

To quote Frank Sinatra: “doobe doobe doobe doo”. Sorry, wrong quote. Meant to say: “start spreading the news”. The more we can get people talking about Hello, blogging about Hello, e-mailing, tweeting, facebooking (sorry dictionary corner but I think I just made that verb up) or presenting about Hello the better. So please use the communication pack to help us get this out there – in many cases you just need to cut and paste, though it would be even better if you can put your own stamp on things.

Pixie donates song to anti-bullying

2010-11-03T03:41:00.000-07:00

Pixie Lott has donated her song Get Weak to a bullying charity to raise awareness about the issue, it has been announced.

The song will become the anthem for Beatbullying's Big March, a global online protest campaign.

The Big March is calling for a bullying review to work with victims, schools and the Government to tackle the issues of bullying, harassment and violence against children.

It is also asking the Government to create two new Bills - a School Safety Bill to make it against the law to hurt, harass or bully children in school, and a Cyber Bullying Bill to protect youngsters online.

Ms Lott said: "As an ambassador of Beatbullying I know that anyone can be a victim of bullying - it's not embarrassing!"

"Tall or short, skinny or big, they always find something to pick at. Don't let them win. If you're determined to make it, you can and you will."

The song is available for free download for a limited period from the Beatbullying website - www.beatbullying.org

Vodafone’s ‘World of Difference 2010’ - Mark Beagan, Partnerships Manager

2010-10-29T02:58:00.000-07:00

Would you or someone you know like to take two months out to help make a huge success of the Hello campaign?

The Vodafone Foundation ‘World of Difference 2010’ programme is now open for applications until the 23rd November 2010 – so get your application in quick!‘World of Difference’ offers 500 people the chance to work for a UK-based charity for two months from March 2011, and get paid for your time.

The Communication Trust is calling for people to apply to help deliver the Hello Campaign. Perhaps you are a speech and language professional, teacher or parent? There are lots of ways that you can take part, from helping to deliver the campaign in your local region to working at our office in central London.

Interested? Then what are you waiting for?

We are particularly interested in people with a background and experience in:
speech, language and communication (such as a Speech and Language Therapist); project management; press and public relations; social media campaigns; evaluation; and participation (i.e. consultation and user engagement).

Applicants must be 18+ and be able to work full time for two months to support the Hello campaign. All placements must start in March 2011.

Talk to us today about how you can help Hello to improve the lives of children with communication difficulties. Call 020 7 843 2557 to find out more or email mbeagan@thecommunicationtrust.org.uk

Round-up of the Comprehensive Spending Review - David Hare, The Whitehouse Consultancy Ltd

2010-10-26T02:39:00.001-07:00

Below, David Hare from The WhiteHouse Consultancy, gives a summary of last week's announcements regarding the Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR).

The CSR has been unveiled today and as predicted has made over £70 billion of real terms cuts over the period 2011-12 to 2014-15. The biggest winners from the CSR were health and international development – technically protected from cuts – but education also suffered less significant reductions than feared.

The budget of the Deptartment for Education will be down by 3.4% over the period, with schools budgets protected and a 12% reduction in other areas to allow this. Part of this reduction will come from rationalising or ending all centrally directed programmes, though what that means in practice remains unclear, particularly as the Government has committed to a national campaign to support families with multiple problems get the help that they need, suggesting some national programmes will be created.

The Pupil Premium will be introduced, Sure Start services will be maintained and extra Health Visitors will be recruited.

The main development for Special Educational Needs (SEN) is the announcement that children with SEN/disabilities will receive a personalised budget, though no information on how and when that will happen accompanied this announcement.

Local government will be forced to absorb significant cuts, suffering a substantial 27% reduction in real terms, though with far greater room for manoeuvre coming through the abolition of ring fencing in all but two areas. This extra flexibility is designed to help Local Authorities balance the books, but local government funding for services is likely to be highly constrained for several years. This will inevitably lead to a reduction in the number of contracts available for the voluntary sector, though for those contracts that do emerge, there is likely to be an extension of tariff payment mechanisms and payment by results and also a central government guarantee that a certain percentage of services must be delivered by the voluntary and independent sectors.

£470m will be made available to the voluntary sector to develop capacity, with some £100m being made available to support troubled voluntary agencies who deliver public services to keep that service going.

As Whitehouse has indicated for some time, the CSR has not set out every line of cuts that will be made by Departments; it has instead merely given Departmental allocations along with a few headline points as to what will go (and, also, what they have decided to retain). In some ways the more important announcements will come next month when all Departments set out their business plans to 2014-15, plans that will include more information on what has been cut.

Today is International Stammering Day

2010-10-22T05:13:00.000-07:00

Working in the Third Sector, you don’t get too many perks, but last night I was lucky enough to attend the British Premiere of The Kings Speech. All thanks to the British Stammering Association.

It featured Colin Firth as King George VI, who had a stammer from an early age. The film focused mainly on the relationship with his self taught Australian Speech therapist, Lionel Logue. What struck me most about the film was the skill and determination of Lionel to help the King, it really showed the impact that a Speech Therapist can make.

Secondly, you could see close up the frustrations of the King, played expertly by Mr Firth. I do hope they award him an Oscar!

It has given me pause for thought on International Stammering Awareness Day about the frustrations that many children and young people have. I hope this film, and all the activity today, makes some people think about the challenges that many people face on a day to day basis in being able to communicate.

As for my perks the Stammering community have now given me the opportunity to meet Michael Palin and be quite close to Colin Firth so I consider myself a very lucky person indeed!

Hello – nice to meet you!

2010-10-22T03:58:00.000-07:00

On Monday (18 October), we unveiled Hello as the name for the national year at an event at the House of Commons attended by Sarah Teather, Minister of State for Children and Families, and about 150 of the most important people in the world of speech, language and communication.

It was great to finally be able to talk publically about the campaign and introduce people to some of the activities that they can expect to see during next year.

Whilst the event was of great importance to us, the unveiling of Hello wasn’t the most significant event in Parliament last week. That honour went to The Chancellor’s speech announcing the outcomes of the Governments spending review. The national year is not immune to the cuts that the Department for Education must find and we should know by the start of December what the implications of the spending review are on the funding that had been set aside for the national year.

Regardless of that, we continue to plan for the launch of Hello to the wider public in second half of January though naturally we will need to respond accordingly to whatever news we hear on funding in December.

Some of you may know the origins of the word Hello. According to the internet (which is never wrong is it?!) the word hello was first used as a telephone greeting by Thomas Edison – the story goes that he expressed his surprise with a misheard “Hullo”. So, how appropriate then that our friends at BT (who co-founded The Communication Trust in 2007 along with I CAN, Afasic and the Council for Disabled Children) should generously agree to extend their support for this cause by supporting Hello.

We have worked hard over recent months to plan and develop the national year - reducing our costs as we’ve gone along and preparing ourselves as best we can for a number of different funding scenarios. The support we have secured from BT together with the money that the voluntary sector is putting into the campaign shows how we are backing the national year - it’s now time for the Government to match our commitments to Hello with funding of its own.

To sign up for regular updates, log onto www.hello.org.uk.

What are the similarities between The Communication Trust and a concrete mixer? - Anita Kerwin-Nye, Director

2010-10-05T04:34:00.000-07:00

What goes into a concrete mixer is water, sand, cement and aggregate – very different raw materials that can do a very good job on their own right but which have limitations to their use and application (sounds a bit like Trust members).

What comes out of a concrete mixer is concrete – an extremely durable, versatile, flexible and long standing product that has many different and varied applications. It’s highly adaptable and, depending on the mix of raw materials, can be used for a broad range of jobs and applications.

The thing about a concrete mixer though is that once you’ve poured the raw ingredients in, you’ve got a small amount of time to get the job of mixing done and the concrete poured out of the mixer before it sets. Therefore it requires a high degree of skill to balance a highly volatile set of materials, that can go off at any time once they are mixed together, without ruining the end product (sounds a bit like the Trust).

The wonders of Twitter - Nicola Matthews, Marketing Manager

2010-09-28T01:56:00.000-07:00

A little while ago my director set up a twitter account for the Trust and asked me to look after it. Up until then I was completely faithful to facebook and hadn't even looked at twitter so it took me a little while to get used to it get used to a whole new language.

Now, I log on to twitter nearly everyday and think it's pretty incredible. Not only is it a great way to share information about the Trust (albeit in very short bite sized chunks) but I can also find out what our consortium members are up to, view helpful tips and sometimes rants from parents, see whats going on with young people who have communication difficulties and check out the odd celebrity!

I've also just found out about a new website, through the Childrens Trust Tadworth ( @childrens_trust) who are professional tweeters, that you can track how many times your tweet appears on someone else page, amazing! We've come up over 1,500 times in the last couple of weeks.

It is a incredibly powerful tool that I hope will be very useful to spreading our message, especially when it comes to the National Year of Speech, Language and Communication. So please have a look at our twitter page, @Comm_nTrust, and here's a few of my favourite tweeters:

@stammer
@Literacy_Trust
@guardian
@mydaddycooks
@theyouthoftoday
@AJSTalkingTots
@RevRunWisdom

Who needs awards - Cara Evans, Operations Director

2010-09-24T02:24:00.000-07:00

So I was all prepared to be enjoying a bacon sandwich and drinking a can of coke to nurse my hangover this morning after celebrating our win at the Third Sector Excellence Awards last night for Charity Partnership, but it wasn’t meant to be.

As I listened to the rest of the winners being announced it got me to thinking. Who needs awards, we know what we have achieved; we have brought many charities together, some of which previously would not have spoken to each other, we are shared costs, brought in an extra million pounds into the sector, over 60% of which has been distributed to the existing charities, raised the profile of the cause, proved that the third sector can collaborate effectively and most importantly made a different to families and children.

I was humbled by the words of the lifetime achievement award winner - the third sector looks at what the needs are and what we can do to help. That is why we do what we do, who needs awards, (but it would have been nice to win one!).

Learning another language - Andrew Ball, Campaign Director

2010-09-13T05:00:00.001-07:00

Somewhat depressingly the summer holidays are over for another year... I’ve just come back from a week in France with my wife and our 2 year old son.

I was pleasantly surprised at how well my A level French (which I’m legally obliged to point out that I failed) got me through – though to be honest it wasn’t as if I was trying to having any meaningful conversations with the locals, just ask for some wine (du vin) some bread (du pain) and some cheese (du Boison).

I’ve often heard Speech, Language and Communication Needs (SLCN) described as transporting someone into a foreign country where they don’t know the language – you’re still just as clever but your ability to understand and be understood is severely hampered. I find this a really helpful scenario to relate to this issue - a lot more so than some of the other descriptions the SLCN sector has used in recent times. Making SLCN more easily understood is one of the goals of the national year so if you have any examples of ways that you have achieved this then please do let us know.

I’m fortunate that my son’s ability to communicate appears to be developing typically – in fact I think he’s talking and understanding a lot more than he should do for his age (but that’s probably more a case of me showing early signs of being a pushy parent!). Whilst in France he learnt to say merci (thank you) and croissant (croissant) so at least if he follows in my footsteps and fails his French A level then he won’t go hungry.

‘Three strikes and you’re executed’ - Dave Mahon, Programme Manager

2010-08-31T03:34:00.000-07:00

A suggestion I read on the Treasury’s website inviting the public to make suggestions on spending cuts. The entry suggested that with a conviction for a third offence the person could be taken round the back of the court and justice dispensed. While this would undoubtedly save the state money the idea of executing three time shoplifters doesn’t sit particularly well with me. I think I would prefer to see the state save money by looking at the variety of factors that can contribute to offending and this includes issues around speech, language and communication needs.

The Trust’s youth justice programme is now entering a new phase as training will be delivered to frontline staff at YOTs across the country. The training helps staff to understand how communication needs can manifest themselves and how simple strategies can produce better outcomes for everyone.

This is not to say that if you understand the communication needs of young people youth crime will be eliminated, there are many, many different reasons why people offend. However, the number of young people in the youth justice system with communication needs is disproportionate to the general population so there is clearly an issue here to address.

An important part of all of our work is in the evaluation, about showing how the work we do is having a positive effect on the people it is aimed at, the youth justice workforce and ultimately the young people in their care in this case. We need to show more clearly the scale of the issue and identify gaps in service provision. We need to look at how young people are supported, how the training helps to change working practices and how it might affect YOT completion rates, attendance rates and breach of order rates.

As I mentioned, the communication needs of young people in the youth justice system are part of the broader issue but in the longer term we would hope that these needs are better recognised and that this recognition can have a positive effect on the lives of these young people.

For my money I would much rather see the state investing in prevention and helping young people to better understand the system they can find themselves a part of. Ignoring the needs of young offenders is unlikely to do anything in diverting them away from crime. As a society I hope we recognise that young offenders are not all ‘hooded wrong uns’ but young people that in many cases require support that may have been absent for most of their lives.

Awareness raising bad. Very bad. - Anita Kerwin-Nye, The Communication Trust

2010-08-16T07:31:00.000-07:00

Well, at least according to government. Many Trust members in receipt of Children and Young People’s Grant funding have received letters restricting any spend on communications, awareness and marketing activity, even if that was the point of the original grant. This is in line with wider government activity restricting communications spending and outlined guidance from the Treasury released weeks after the election, (please e-mail enquiries@thecommunicationtrust.org.uk to request a copy).

Of course there was a need to reign in communications spending – all governments spend an inordinate amount on untested and unevidenced marketing and campaigns and it genuinely pleasing to see the government restricting itself in this field (especially as recent experience showed how some government communications consultants daily fees are the equivalent of a consultant SLT for a week!)

But the guidance to voluntary organisations is a bit irritating and somewhat patronising. To say that we need ‘to make the most of very £1’ and to ‘prioritise funding to frontline staff’ is like teaching your grandmother to suck eggs (never really understood that phrase – can an expert in idiom and allegory please explain it to me!)

Many third sector bodies running communications activity also run frontline services. We know the reality that money spent on marketing and awareness raising is one less SLT or specialist teacher so we do not do it lightly.

So why do it at all?

First and foremost to get information to parents, children and young people and those that work with them. The single biggest complaint during the Bercow Review of speech, language and communication needs (SLCN) was that parents did not have the information that they needed when they needed it. This both delayed the help that they got – in a field where early intervention is crucial – and increased their sense of isolation. This was particularly true for parents of children with specific language impairment where the lack of awareness of the condition was heartbreaking as doctors told parents their 4 year old son with no speech would ‘grow out of it’.

Studies consistently show that voluntary sector organisations are often the first port of call for parents (or the first positive source of information) and Talking Point (the speech and language information services that will be the Powerhouse behind the national year) already gets 20,000 hits a year. Member helpline services get thousands of calls a year from desperate families and the marketing of member frontline services is really just another way of ensuring that families can learn about the help that is available from both voluntary and public sector.

The information includes how to better access local provision and how many Trust members provide services that help parents and families better understand what is available to them and how to make their way through the maze of services.

Secondly in an era when government is rightly focusing on the local national voluntary organisations in particular can help local staff share their good practice and learn more about what others are doing. This sharing of what works helps save money – reducing the need for the wheel to be invented again and again. A recent Trust workshop between teachers and SLTs left participants with improved skills and a range of additional techniques that they did not have to invent themselves.

Both the Trust and our members constantly review both the need for communications and awareness raising. We analyse the best ways to get to parents and balance on line and print materials with support for frontline staff who work directly with hard to reach families. We balance well placed national media articles with local services that put experts directly in contact with families at shopping centres, children’s centres and schools. We can track how our awareness raising has started to improve earlier access to services and reduced the isolation of families but we are never complacent. We know the value we need to squeeze from the £1.

Lastly communications activity allows the Trust and our members to keep families and those that work with them up to date on government policy. As Cameron sets out the call for real people to inform government policy and to take forward ‘big society’ with personal responsibility this is surely an essential part of our work. The Trust’s networks reach nearly all of the million families of children with SLCN and communications activity gives them a voice to responds to policy changes and funding decisions that affect them. They can and will tell the government when they have got it right and they will be a powerful voice when they think the government has got it wrong. Now what government would not want to fund that?

Keeping an eye on recent developments - Anita Kerwin-Nye, Director

2010-08-09T04:54:00.000-07:00

So I am a rubbish blogger. Official. Get too easily distracted by the day job and, over the last few months, been trying to figure out what new government policy means for children’s speech, language and communication.

Close to home strong lobbying has helped secure new government commitment to funding for the Northern Stammering Centre and regional expertise in Augmentative and Alternative Communication. While these vital specialist services run by Trust members are not out of the woods yet this is a good indication that the government recognises the need for such provision.

Likewise, selfishly, the government has confirmed the Trust funding for this year and has expressed sympathy and support for the aims and objectives of the National Year (waiting for the Spending Review to see how much makes the cut for 2011/12 funding).

But what about at a wider level? Strong interventions by the Special Educational Needs Consortium and several Trust members meant that the Academies Bill was passed with some commitments to protect resources for children and young people with SEN and a promise to assess the impact of academies on other schools in the area. Good outcomes but surely a little concerning that only the intervention of the voluntary sector ensured that these areas were even considered?

In our Minister, Sarah Teather MP, we have someone who recognises the importance of supporting children with SEN and disabilities and the specific importance of speech, language and communication (she did after all launch Make Chatter Matter for I CAN and put the 4th ‘r’ into the Lib Dem 4Rs review – we will forgive her for the fact that it stood for articulation as the sentiment was right!) She is launching an SEN Review, with a Green Paper in October, and has already met with the Trust on shaping content and structure.

This is promising news but, the launch of the NHS White Paper the week before we met the Minister shows that, when it wants, the Government can move swiftly on radical change. Yet in the field of SEN we need another review? Let us hope that the review is not an excuse for inaction. Government needs to take the learnings from Bercow, Lamb, Salt et al and must implement the promised actions from these, well evidenced, parent endorsed reports. Any new SEN Review must add value rather than detract from what we already know needs to happen to ensure better outcomes for children and young people with SLCN.

On the subject of reviews – there are many. The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) Review is welcome and provides an opportunity to both increase focus on early years language and look at mechanisms for early screening and assessment. There is much good in the EYFS and this review provides an opportunity for making it stronger (and simpler!). We are delighted that Dame Clare Tickell, CEO of one of the Trust members, is leading this review and that Jean Gross the Communication Champion is part of the advisory team.

Frank Field MP’s Poverty Review and Graham Allen MP’s Early Intervention Review both need a healthy dose of speech, language and communication expertise and the Trust will be inputting evidence of need and suggested approaches into both.
Separately, but needing clear links to all the work outlined above, there are plans for a Youth Justice Green Paper in the Autumn that has the opportunity to move forward how we meet the needs of the vulnerable young men and women in the youth justice system so many of whom have unmet SLCN or wider SEN.

But all these changes and reviews are small change compared to the big areas of mainstream education and the NHS. Both are being radically overhauled. Both are seeing changes in infrastructure, aims, objectives, funding and philosophy. Nobody really knows yet what this is going to look like. But we know for sure that posts are already being cut – stories from frontline staff suggest radical cuts to SLT and other specialists posts. And many of the changes will, if not explicitly then through their knock on effects, impact on the children that have additional needs. Take, for example, the cuts to the Building Schools for the Future programme – who would have benefitted most from schools with better access and acoustics? Central funding for Higher Level Teaching Assistants cut – who were they working with?

It is not that these changes do not bring opportunities – certainly there are some interesting possibilities for alternative and augmentative communication (AAC) within the Health White Paper and the new public health role of local authorities could play well to a recognition that speech, language and communication issues are a major public health issue.

But we need to be watchful – supportive when needed and challenging when appropriate. The world is moving quickly and we need to make sure that the 1 million plus children with speech, language and communication needs do not fall through the gaps.

So – the largest change in public sector provision in 50 years and a hundred reviews – maybe keeping an eye on that is an excuse for being behind with my blogs!

Tech Talk Troubles - Laura Smith, Media and Campaign Manager

2010-08-06T03:02:00.000-07:00

All publicity is good publicity, right? This week’s media coverage has got me thinking. Our Communication Champion, Jean Gross, recently suggested that anything can be used as an opportunity to develop children’s communication, even travelling on your summer holidays.

What did we see in the headlines? Technology stunts children’s language development. And that the nanny state is trying to take over. Hmmm

The truth is that it is too simplistic to suggest that any column inches on communication means the issue has ‘arrived’. What it means is that we are on the road and its getting bumpy.

Our issue is one that is misunderstood and taken for granted. But, it is even more than that. The underlying causes of communication difficulties, and how they manifest, give even the speech and language sector headaches articulating. So is it any wonder corners get cut in the media?

Too often we have seen messages meant to empower and support families instead becoming parent blaming and patronising. Should we worry as long as newspapers devote space to the subject?

Yes, we should. Parents aren’t the problem, but they are part of the solution.

They are the solution when they learn more about how to develop communication and spot a problem before it becomes a language delay. They are also the solution when information empowers them to secure the right service for their child with long-term needs.

The key in all of this is getting information that motivates you, not turns you off and makes you feel guilty or bad.

So, what is the solution? Cut out the media ‘middle men’? Getting information directly into the hands of families will help and is something the National Year of Communication is looking at.

However, we won’t give up on media work just because it is hard sometimes. It is in the media that debates are had and where attitudes are formed and expressed.

We will keep going until our issue has fully emerged. We are lucky to have passionate voices in the speech and language sector, such as Jean Gross, and we don’t give up easily.

We are the best! - Andrew Ball, Campaign Director

2010-07-30T07:27:00.000-07:00

Good news, The Communication Trust consortium has been shortlisted for a Third Sector Excellence Award. The Trust is a finalist in the Charity Partnerships category, which is for partnerships between two or more charities that have enabled the partners more effectively to deliver services, communicate, reach new groups or reduce costs.

The award period covers the past 12 months, a year in which amongst other achievements we increased our income by 148%, saw our membership grow by 27%, successfully lobbied for an increase in communication awareness training for the youth justice workforce, developed a number of speech, language and communication units for the Qualification and Curriculum Framework and successfully bid to run the national year of speech, language and communication. All these and more realised great benefits for our members and more importantly for many of the millions of children and young people that struggle to communicate.

Being shortlisted is great external recognition and endorsement for the hard work of everyone involved with the consortium and in particular for the drive, vision and leadership shown by Anita Kerwin Nye to bring the consortium together and to keep it together. The Communication Trust is all about collaboration: we believe that working collectively and in partnership delivers the right results.

So, although we are delighted to have been shortlisted, we would also like to congratulate the other nominees (the Better Banking Coalition, Macmillan Cancer Support & Citizen’s Advice, Navca, the NCVO & the Public Law Project and St Mungo’s & Marie Curie Cancer Care) as partnership working in our sector is not an easy thing to do but it is an essential thing to do if we are going to deliver the change that our respective beneficiaries rely on us achieving – perhaps now more than ever.

Communicating about communication – easy right? – Laura Smith, Media and Campaigns Manager

2010-07-19T06:53:00.000-07:00

Daniel Boorstin once said ‘Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some hire public relations officers.’ It has always been ironic to me that my chosen profession - public relations– suffers from complete and utter misunderstanding amongst the wider public.

On saying I work in PR, I immediately get ‘So you are a spin doctor?’ or jealous exclamations of ‘I watched Ab Fab, wish I went out partying with celebs’. Erm, so do I!

PR is defined as ‘the practice of building mutual understanding and creating a dialogue between an organisation and its stakeholders’. Oooh fancy! Fundamentally it is about communication – the currency of the 21st century world. And whilst many can consign PR to celebrities, products and crisis management (BP anyone?), it is so so much more than that.

The irony increases that the thing I am passionate about ‘PR’ing’ is the overlooked, misunderstood and taken for granted subject of supporting children’s speech, language and communication needs. In the UK today, 2.7 million children are living with some form of communication difficulty. This can affect them severely and for life.

I am constantly reading about ‘children’s behavioural difficulties’, ‘youth reoffending rates rising’ or ‘young people lacking basic skills in the workplace’. The consequences of not supporting children’s communication are played out in front of us on a daily basis. But the fundamental link that ‘communication equals life chances’ has not yet permeated the public consciousness.

Why not? Because it is too simple to suggest communication is important? Too obvious to support parents and professionals in this area? Well, sometimes we need to shine a light on the simple things in life. Chatter really does matter. This is why 2011 will be a National Year of Speech, Language and Communication.

This year will not be a PR exercise based on column inches; it will be about affecting real change for thousands of children and families. It will be about listening to others and getting information directly into the hands of those who need it.

So to come back to Mr Boorstein’s quote – all children are born with great potential, children with communication difficulties can, with support and understanding, achieve greatness and too many are currently suffering in silence. Creating a seismic shift in the way this issue is understood really would be ‘absolutely fabulous’.

Want to find out more? Got a view on how we do it? Let us know at enquiries@thecommunicationtrust.org.uk.

Austerity we know what it means now let’s make it work - Guest slot, Cara Evans, Operations Director

2010-07-16T02:36:00.000-07:00

I have to say if I see austerity in one more magazine article or on a newspaper article I may scream. We get it, we all need to tighten are belts, make the pennies go futher. I totally agree with that. What I want to see now is action not just talk. At the Trust we have been cost saving since day one, not only that we are building the capacity of our partners.

As you know The Communication Trust is a coalition. Having worked in the voluntary sector for 15 years there is nothing more depressing than seeing new charities set up when ones already exist and are doing a good job. Just having additional overhead costs that don’t need to exist is simply wrong. Don’t get me wrong if there is a need for an additional charity that meets the needs to the users I have no argument.

So how does a our coalition work? The Trust and its partners have a common aim, to help children and young people who need support with their communication. We employ a very small core team, for every project we assess what we can achieve within the core team, and when we need extra support we turn to our partners and commission them, identifying who has the best expertise to get the job done, paying them a fair rate. We share accommodation with one of founders, thus sharing overheads costs. We have jointly tendered and won contracts. We share marketing and publication costs.

We have built a considerable amount of trust in our members to ensure we have their interests at heart, but ultimately it is using the best resources in the most efficient way to help the children and their families who need it most.

Something to Shout About - Guest slot, Andrew Ball, Campaign Manager

2010-06-25T06:47:00.000-07:00

After months of anticipation the waiting is over. Over the coming weeks the country will witness the public humiliation of 11 individuals, as they gloriously fail to make a name for themselves in the full glare of millions of people. Anyway, enough of Big Brother – the World Cup is here and in my book that is a very good thing.

Whether or not you like football, I can guarantee that at some point during the tournament you will be drawn into the drama and excitement of watching England win the World Cup for the first time in 44 years (yes you did really just read that – and depending on when you logged on that prediction will be appear either prophetic or pathetic). There will be twists and turns along the way – injuries, upsets, even the odd missed penalty –but one thing’s for sure the tournament will get the country talking. And that’s part of the joy of the World Cup and other similar events that create widespread interest (even Big Brother for some bizarre reason) – they give us something to talk about.

Getting the public talking is one thing we want the national year to do next year. Talking about and realising the vital role that communication plays in everything we do. Because you’re reading this you’re probably already switched on to the notion that communication is the fundamental life skill – what we (as in everyone that works in this field) need to do next year is join forces to spread this message as far and as wide as we possibly can. So, ask not just what can the national year do for me but what can I do for the national year (to paraphrase badly!).

Guest slot, Eve Wagg, Programme Manager

2010-06-08T02:53:00.000-07:00

Why on earth would you be interested in what I have to say?

This I feel should very much be your sentiment as you embark on reading my first blog as Programme Manger at The Communication Trust. I'll give it to you; I'm not very interesting, or witty or astute. I moan...a bit. I talk...a lot. I also enjoy the sound of my own voice. But the one (ok I am being slightly dramatic here) thing that is genuinely interesting about my existence now is my involvement in the Trust.

I have come from a stint in the "not so glitzy and glamorous" event world. Don't get me wrong, it was a lot of fun with parties, networking and live events. But, it showed me the variety and complexity of skills needed to succeed in the world that many people are not lucky enough to pick up through life, education and relationships.

Assimilating into different environments, understanding social nuances and being able to express and articulate yourself are fundamental skills that ensure a happy and successful future. Many of the children and young people we work to support are unable to do these things for a variety of reasons. They face challenges at every corner. During my role as an Event Manager the importance and sophistication of communication has never been so apparent. These skills you are not born with. It is the Trust's role to ensure everyone understands how they as a parent, teacher, friend or grandparent can assist in this vital journey.

As I read and attempted to sign 'Aliens Love Underpants' to my nephew this morning I realised what a vital role we play in this narrative. I very much look forward to ensuring everyone has access to the information they need to help every child reach their full potential.

So on that note, I'll stop talking, which as you know I do a lot, and leave you with a great short nursery rhyme to sing and sign to your nephew/niece/daughter/son/grandson/granddaughter/friend/student/neighbour (please delete as necessary). Please click here http://www.makaton.org/khxc/gbu0-prodshow/free-macdonald.html

Guest slot, Dave Mahon, Programme Manager

2010-06-02T04:31:00.000-07:00

I’m all talk...

...and language...

...and communication now.

Hi, I’m Dave Mahon and I’m two months into my role as Programme Manager at The Communications Trust (TCT).

I’ve spent the last ten years working in the local government field, at the Electoral Commission for six and a half years and the National Association of Local Councils for three and a half. Both jobs were challenging in their own way and provided me with many exciting opportunities, the highlight being nine days monitoring elections in Georgia. However, after ten years I felt due for a change and due a new challenge. I’ve found both!

My knowledge of speech, language and communication needs (SLCN) was basic before I joined the TCT but the range of needs, the effort that goes into supporting young people and the gaps that still exist has been eye opening. Presently I am overseeing our youth justice programme which is focusing on raising awareness of SLCN across the youth justice system, providing awareness training and developing networks to enable youth justice workers to access information and share experiences. Having met and spoken to people across the youth justice system I am greatly encouraged by their dedication in what are often very challenging roles. It is also encouraging to see that the importance of recognising SLCNs is already a key issue for many across the youth justice system.

Research suggests that at least 60% of young people in the youth justice system have communication needs compared to 10% in the general population. I’m no mathematician but these figures should be a cause for concern. Over half the young people in the youth justice system may not easily understand what is being said to them or may struggle to be understood, this can cause problems around their behaviour, affect their confidence and influence their relationships with other people. Where a greater understanding of these needs exists strategies can be put in place to help the young person and help build better relationships with youth justice staff. We would hope that in the longer term this could have a positive effect on reoffending by young people as their needs are better recognised and catered for at all junctures of the system.

Check out the new Sentence Trouble website, join the forum and let’s start talking more about how we can support young people in the youth justice system. www.sentencetrouble.info

A well kept secret... - Guest slot, Wendy Lee, Professional Director

2010-05-24T02:37:00.000-07:00

I’ve had the privilege of working with some pretty remarkable individuals over the past 20+ years in my job as an SLT. Though I have worked with some brilliant, wonderful colleagues (present company very much included), the most amazing individuals (by quite a long way – sorry guys) are children with SLCN.

Without exception, these children have been amazing... Incredible...Remarkable... wonderful (look up amazing in a thesaurus and you will get the idea).

They live in a world where pretty much every aspect of life depends on their ability to understand and to talk. For many, just listening to the language filling the air around them is a challenge. These children are often judged, misunderstood or just missed! ... and often they can’t let people know.... Frustrating really doesn’t cover it!!

Walk yourself through your average day without the ability to talk and you get a flavour...
My job as a practising SLT meant that I got to work with these children - and it is really hard work (for them, not me). For many, I saw them develop, talk more, express themselves, make friends – I saw the anxiety that sits over many of these children dissipate. What an amazing thing!

For other children it meant a tougher route, a more difficult challenge and the acceptance that this was always going to be difficult – that they would always need to work harder than the child next to them to get to the same place and despite monumental effort may never get to that place – and that very few people around them would really “get” that.

I’d love for this well kept secret to be shared – for everyone to “get” SLCN, for these kids to be understood, no longer misjudged, misinterpreted or missed, for people to feel, as I do that they are amazing, wonderful.....you get the picture.

Communication is really important – yes, really it is - Guest slot, Lisa Morgan, Professional Director

2010-05-19T04:12:00.001-07:00

Generally speaking, I like soap box opportunities, so writing a blog seemed a gift. However, it has been remarkably difficult but I couldn’t work out why. Just north of Market Harborough, it dawned. Usually, when I step up and start rambling, there are other people there. Admittedly, many drift off along the way, but there are always other people there. Writing this on my own, as if I’m talking to people who aren’t here, is, quite frankly, weird. However, it does lead into what I wanted to say in the first place…

Through work, I’m well-versed and completely committed to communication being important for many reasons –expressing needs, learning, social and emotional development and so on. But I’m having a bit of a renaissance about how truly vital communication is to our relationships, our belonging and just pure enjoyment. Everywhere I go, I see people linking with others through talking about stuff - sharing, with others, through communicating. For some people, though, communication causes challenges which makes that sharing, that belonging, that enjoyment way more difficult.

We have a favourite family joke. From confused beginnings it now contains the key elements of a joke - makes sense, has an ending and is funny (ish). Their joy as my children tell it over again, reminds me, in a tiny way, of how we must not undervalue the importance of communication as something enjoyable, which makes us in touch and helps us belong. It’s so vital that everyone can have the skills they need and the opportunities they want to do just that. It doesn’t mean that all the other functions and roles of language become less important, just that we need to continue expressing from a giant pile of soap boxes that for everyone, for many reasons, communication is really, really important –it really is.

P.S.
‘Why did the banana go to the doctor?’
‘I don’t know, why did the banana go to the Doctor?’
‘Because it wasn’t peeling very well!’

Diamond Lights - Guest slot, Andrew Ball, Campaign Director

2010-05-10T02:01:00.000-07:00

This week marks my 10th anniversary of joining the voluntary sector. In that time I’ve been fortunate to have met some very remarkable people (and some pretty unremarkable ones too) but probably none more so than the parents and professionals working to support children who need help to communicate. As anyone that has ever volunteered, worked for or supported a charity will tell you, personal experience is one of the most important reasons why they give their time and support to their chosen cause.

Since I joined The Communication Trust it’s become very clear that for a long time so much of the great work that goes on in the children’s communication sector is a result of the passion and dedication of a small number of individuals – most of whom have firsthand experience of the struggle that they, their children or children close to them have faced because of some form of speech, language and communication need. What’s more, this relatively small band of people have faced the uphill task of creating a better understanding of this issue without the media spotlight or glare of publicity that many other causes have benefited from at various times over recent decades – despite this being an issue that impacts on more lives in the UK than most of the big cause célèbres we could all name.

Help, however, is now at hand with the fast approaching national year of ENTER WORKING TITLE OF CHOICE HERE! This awareness campaign will shine a big, bright light on our sector and build on recent successes in emerging this cause. The national year will increase broad understanding of how children’s communication skills should be developing , what the effects are of speech, language and communication needs and what local services parents and children need in order to make a real difference to such needs. If you have anything in particular that you would like to see happen during the national year then please do get in touch – you can tells us your views at enquiries@thecommunicationtrust.org.uk .

You always remember the good ones - Guest slot, Nicola Matthews, Project Executive

2010-05-04T04:24:00.000-07:00

I work at The Communication Trust and do a little bit of everything and anything! I have a number of friends who are primary school teachers and thought, since I work for a charity whose one of their main audiences is teachers, I would go and watch one of them in action and get a taste of their day to day life.

So the other week I went to visit my friend Nikk (or Miss Dimes to the children) in her classroom and got to spend the morning watching her teach a bunch of very active and enthusiastic 5 and 6 year olds.

And it as brilliant, I watched the children being tested on the vocab they had been learning, helped out with one of the groups doing an maths addition activity and spoke to some of the other teachers in the school. But most importantly I got to see firsthand the impact a teacher can have on a child’s life. These children hung on every word Nikk said, they were incredibly engaged with the activities she was giving them and were so well behaved.

I’m sure when these children are older, in 20, 30 years time they will look back at their school years and will remember Miss Dimes. I still remember the name of my Year 2 teacher; Mrs Moulsham who read us Charlotte’s Web and had the most amazing cage for the class hamsters! In fact, I remember all the names of the teachers who taught lessons which I actually enjoyed going to and learnt something from. Which goes to show you always remember the good teachers.

Slow Communication

2010-04-27T04:11:00.001-07:00

Ok. I admit it. I am an appalling blogger. It has been two months since my last blog. This is bad.

In part my position is defensible – I’ve been too busy to blog! The Communication Trust has won the contract to run a mass awareness and information campaign around speech, language and communication in 2011 and we are extending our secondary and youth justice work. Future blogs will share the detail but to get involved subscribe to our newsletter by e-mailing enquiries@thecommunicationtrust.org.uk.

However the title of this blog does not refer to the speed of my blogging. I have also been on holiday for nearly three weeks. Bliss. First real break for too long. And it was a real break. I turned off my mobile phone, unplugged the internet (took me a while to figure out how to do that) and relied on good old fashioned methods of communication. Talking, reading, drawing, listening (to my children a lot – did you know Miley Cyrus was just not cool any more – I do now) and sometimes just enjoying being quiet and watching (a good tactic when faced with moody eleven year old whose body language speaks volumes but who is refusing to talk).

It was this absence of continual information, of the bombardment that technology can bring that created the best possible rest. Don’t get me wrong I live glued to my mobile phone – texting and calls are an essential part of my job and social life, Skype is the best way to get gossip and don’t even get me on to online shopping. But it was nice to stop. However, it was also harder than I thought to switch back to ‘slow’ communication.

Reading a book to get a recipe rather than taking the first one that comes up on Google (which is probably why my cooking is so dodgy); removing games and DVDs from the kids in the car so we had to sing (badly) or talk (or shout) – these things while leading to good results, were a challenge to do. Maybe I am just rubbish at using technology appropriately and am alone in my over reliance on it at the cost of wider communication skills - but I don’t think so. I love face to face discussions; long chats on the phone; reading – and I am skilled at these things. But it was still hard for me to break the technology habits.

Now if I find it hard to revert to these ‘old fashioned’ methods of communication and this technology is new to me (relatively – I did not use a computer until I was 25) how much harder will the next generation find it – immersed as they are in it from birth. My primary school aged kids are adept at Skype, MSN, texting, gaming etc. and DVDs (downloads actually) are indeed a great babysitter.

Leaving aside the Daily Mail cries of bad parenting is it not time for a debate on how we should be preparing and supporting young people for this world of mass communication – without the hysteria and blame. The next generations will have a range of methods of communicating that we have not even considered yet. They will be able to communicate faster, with more people and receive more information than we were able to at their age. How wonderful for them – how exciting. Maybe ‘slow communication’ will become extinct? Maybe we will start to value even more those that can still communicate face to face? Maybe skills will diminish so all spoken language becomes an anachronism?

But for now, before we leap into the brave new world of Cybermen (downloaded too many Doctor Who episodes clearly), let us just start with embracing and accepting this new technology is here and working with young people to help them develop the broadest range of ways to communicate.

And for me – a healthy reminder that pulling the plug is a welcome break. Now back to the emails!

A tardis in reverse - guest slot from Norbert Lieckfeldt, Chief Executive of the British Stammering Association

2010-04-19T04:12:00.000-07:00

The British Stammering Association is the UK’s national association on all aspects of stammering. Founded over thirty years ago, we are the place where adults who stammer, parent of stammering children and anyone else interested in the subject join forces to provide information, campaign for changes in services and raise awareness of the problems affecting people who stammer of all ages. Stammering affects about 5-7% of pre-school children, and about 1% of the school-age and adult population – that is about 720,000 people in the UK.

Our Information and Support Service is operating a telephone helpline, 0845 603 2001, and our website http://www.stammering.org/ is the most comprehensive web-based source of information on all aspects of stammering. The helpline sends out 2,500 information packs each year, and the website is accessed by 14,000 individual users every month. We have recently started Facebook and twitter campaigns as well.

We have developed detailed strategies for supporting children who stammer in the school setting – something which will be shortly freely available on a dedicated website at http://www.stammeringineducation.net/.

Our pre-school projects and campaigns are based on the recognition that early intervention can prevent a lifetime of stammering – and that far too many children still slip through the net when a brief, therapeutic intervention at the age of 3 or 4 might have resolved the problem of stammering completely. We have recently developed criteria for a model of service delivery for pre-school dysfluency and have tested this successfully in six pilot trusts – more children were referred, they were referred at a younger age, but successful intervention was quicker so they were discharged more quickly and thus there was no detrimental impact on the services for other children with SLCN; we are hoping to be able to roll this out across the country, possibly with some input from the Better Communication Research Programme.

So why “a tardis in reverse”, though? We are a relatively small charity, led by people who stammer, with a modest income and a small staff team. This was the phrase one of our members once used to describe us – we are “much bigger on the outside than on the inside”.

Saving time, money and avoiding disaster - guest slot

2010-03-23T10:13:00.001-07:00

This week's blog is by Cara Evans, Deputy Director at The Communication Trust:

I started at the Trust almost at inception and with my most esteemed colleagues I have developed the governance, working principles and structure at the Trust. Through this blog I want to explain the values and impact of good project management. Now I know if I had included that as my title I would have turned you off at the first hurdle. I ask you to bear with me so that you too can save time and avoid disaster in all that you do!

Someone recently almost referred to me as JUST a project manager and quickly corrected herself. I will be bold in my next statement but very confident it is correct. The Trust would not have been as successful in such a short space of time without good project management principles at its very core. Simply we make sure that everything the Trust does is delivered on time, on budget and to an agreed quality. It is all very good having creative ideas but they need to be delivered. It is essentially very simple, but requires a certain skill set and knowledge to do this with charm and finesse. Good project managers are in short supply and seriously undervalued in the third sector in my experience (having worked for 15 years for 10 charities).

Let me ask a question would you ask a project manager to assess a child with speech, language and communication needs and suggest ways to support that child and their family. I think not, so why are we asking these experts to manage a project.

So what is project management and why is it so important. Essentially you follow a simple path ; you decide what you want to do, why, you agree how it can be delivered, who is involved and why, when does it needs to be done and how much will it cost. You plan and monitor, you get on with it, job done! Ok there are a few more things you need to consider and this is a very short list but you get the idea.

I say to all you project managers out there don’t let anyone call you JUST a project manager, stand proud of your skills and expertise and show them how it’s done!

Start of a social movement?...

2010-01-18T06:02:00.000-08:00

I like this. Not because it is a particularly good joke (I am more of a Clare in the Community girl myself) but because it shows the issue has arrived. Well, at least that the issue has left the station.

The Communication Trust has, as a core strategic objective, the development of social movement to claim communication as a right. Social movement is a grand term, much written upon (Google Tily to get a sense of the theory). But in essence a social movement is a major vehicle for ordinary people's participation in public politics. For recent examples ‘think green’ or ‘drop the debt’. Ordinary people mobilised, often by the third sector, to take action and become ‘we’ rather than ‘they’. When communication skills becomes the ‘third pint in the pub’ issue; when Jeremy Kyle invites parents of children with SLCN onto his show; when 10 000 turn up outside Westminster with ‘communicate by right’ banners then we will know we are getting there. Bad comic strips jokes are a good start.

Seeing communication as the 21st century life skill, and knowing as we do how many children do not have the skills or support that they need, how could we want anything less than a movement to make change. Social movement brings policy change and funding and changes attitudes. And we need all three – now. The National Year should help give us a push but the work of the Trust, Trust members and now the Champion have certainly created the media interest that will help form the basis of such of the movement that we aspire to.

Not all of this media coverage has been helpful. Little upset to find out that my desire for materials things (handbags in my case) and working motherhood is apparently the reason for my daughter’s challenges with phonics (thank you Guardian - really the Guardian??!!). And SLTs as elocutionists for the middle classes? (Evening Standard – slightly less surprise there). But some has been wonderful. The recent Times and Independent pieces really outline well the challenges some children face. And the emerging debate is one to be captured and developed (read for example the Observer piece in defence of computer games).

So. A good start. Let’s keep up the momentum. And if my view of emerging the issue is an Eastenders character with specific language impairment falling in love with their speech and language therapist (yes I know it is unprofessional but it is Eastenders right) then what is yours?

New Year's Resolution

2010-01-04T07:07:00.000-08:00

I love New Year. A chance to make lots of new promises to be a better and improved person. I have been told that, apparently, resolving to buy myself one new handbag a month is not an appropriate resolution so have settled instead for another gym membership (this time one that I intend to use because I have also been told that buying a gym membership in January and only going once in September is, apparently, a very expensive way to do one step class).

More importantly two resolutions that might actually matter.
1) To blog weekly and not require my team to beat me over head to write something
2) To champion the third sector as a significant force for change in children’s lives

In my defence 1 has sometimes not happened because I have been busy doing 2.

Some of you have commented on the recent Third Sector debate that I took part in which looked at whether, given the recession, the sector should be more professional (implicit in this that we should be more like corporate institutions like, say, banks).

This reminded me of a recent ceremony I attended at a top rated London business school where the Dean expressed his pleasure that the students who were studying for their Masters in Voluntary Sector management had so many opportunities to learn about ‘real life’ (seriously that is what he said) from fellow post graduates undertaking study in banking, finance and corporate administration who, after all, have the expertise and business skills that charities so desperately need (seriously he said that too!).

It is also true that some charities could do with say, more support with commercial skills or with finance and legal matters. But, hey, is that not true of some corporate and public sector bodies too (or did I misunderstand the stories that dominated the press in 2009?).

The third sector is professional. We are complicit sometimes in defining professional in terms that private, and sometimes public sector, bodies value e.g. slick branding; reducing costs; increasing profit; efficiencies, market domination, staff with letters after their name etc. Not that these things do not matter to charities (indeed as anyone who has run a successful charity on a shoe string and no cash flow knows points 2 and 3 are core skills for any successful charity CEO). But when we define professionalism it should be in terms of our outcomes for our beneficiaries. It should be about our effectiveness and our values.

The Communication Trust's membership is full of organisations bursting with clever, able professionals delivering excellent services to some of the most vulnerable children and young people in society. Trust members employ some of the most qualified and experienced speech and language therapists and specialist teachers in the country (putting to rest another common misconception that the third sector has limited expertise – a regular challenge from public sector unions in recent months).

Trust members drove the campaigning that led to the Bercow Review and the Better Communication Action Plan. The third sector can lobby for improved public sector services and for more resources to flow to local provision in a way that front line public sector staff will always be challenged to (as one PCT employed SLT told me recently – “we know that the provision is not good enough post-11 but if we say so we criticise our employer but if you say it they might not cut posts”).

Trust members run outstanding (OFSTED says so) non maintained special schools. Thousands of parents get their first, and sometimes only, advice, information and support from voluntary organisations.

And, for so many children with the most severe and complex speech, language and communication needs it is often Trust members who provide the vital lifeline when working through the maze of public sector provision. This often draws on the experiences and expertise of, often voluntary and ‘unqualified’, parents who have been there themselves (which makes a lie of the common myth that professional only means paid staff and that expert can only mean a degree).

Are the third sector better than corporate providers? Yes sometimes. Are we better than public sector provision? Yes sometimes. Could we learn from both the corporate and public sector? Yes and we should strive to do so.

Celebrating the strengths, expertise and professionalism of the third sector should not be seen as putting down corporate and public sector colleagues. No sector, private, public or third, has the monopoly on good work or effective outcomes and it will take collaboration to get the best possible results for children and their families.

I believe that the third sector has something special to give so for 2010 I resolve to be the sector’s biggest cheerleader.

Something slightly easier to do than a weekly trip to the gym.

2009-11-25T02:38:00.000-08:00

Ok – so good intentions but it has now been two weeks since my last blog. In my defence it was my birthday last week. Not that I was off partying – instead I was in Southport delivering a session at the Youth Justice Board Convention.

Sad thought it may be it was indeed a birthday treat. Delivered in conjunction with RCSLT the session launched ‘Sentence Trouble’ – a logo fest of a publication, developed by The Communication Trust with support from too may partners to list without offending someone by missing them off. Remember I am on a word count limit!

My birthday was doubly blessed by a present from Ed Balls. Much as I would love to say that the Secretary of State sent me a personal card and thoughtful gift the truth is actually even more exciting. In the Lords last week the government announced that The Communication Trust will be funded to roll out screening and training to every setting within the secure estate and all YOTs.

This is great news and reflects the work that many have been doing to raise awareness of the disproportionate numbers of young people with SEN amongst those young people who offend. Jenny Talbot, Jane McKenzie, Diz Minnitt, Professor Karen Bryan, Professor John Rack – and so many more have led the way and I am delighted that they will all be informing the rollout of our 2010 programme.

Sentence Trouble (a project ably managed by the Trust’s Andrew Ball – who also won the internal competition to come up with the best name and, yes, I am still bitter about that) includes the sad but enlightening story of a young man given an ASBO which stated that he could not travel on a ‘motorised vehicle’. He had ridden an electric scooter not realising that this was what motorised meant. When you consider that the Home Secretary recently called for a greater focus on ensuring that those breaching anti-social behaviour orders be prosecuted the need for ensuring that a young person actually understands their ASBO becomes even clearer.

Copies of Sentence Trouble are now winging their way out to front line staff (I am assuming that there is no postal strike this week) and the Trust is gearing up for next steps.

And as for birthday presents Mr Secretary of State – I’ll forgive the lack of a card if next year you give me a three year funding contract!

2009-11-03T05:16:00.000-08:00

We are the Champions

Slapped wrist for me. Blogs are supposed to be contemporary and it’s been 3 weeks since my last one. Must try harder!

Big news in the world of The Communication Trust is the announcement of the Communication Champion. Jean Gross is a terrific appointment to the post and is well known to the Trust through her role as Director of Every Child A Chance Trust.

To champion the cause is a massive task. To balance the all children component with the SEN aspects. To reach the general public and the specialist commissioners of services. Where should the Communication Champion focus their efforts? Worth remembering that the voluntary sector proposed the role as a route to having someone ‘on the inside’ who could join up health, education and children’s services (and justice, social services etc.) both at central and local government level. While Jean is independent of government she is nevertheless a government appointment and I suspect that the third sector will be, like me, hoping that she uses that to ensure that we get the same drive for this work from the rest of government that we have seen from DCSF.

Jean though is not alone in her task. She may hold the formal Champion title but the sector has been championing the cause for years and will do so as long as it takes to ensure all children get the services and support that they need. I am regularly struck by how dedicated and focused people are in their pursuit of the cause and our own champions do us proud.

Linda Lascelles, CEO of Afasic, was recently recognised by RCSLT with an Honorary Fellowship for her work championing both the cause and SLTs. As was Katie Clarke, founder and Chair of 1 Voice who has championed the cause of isolated families across the UK who use AAC.

NDCS pulled off the most amazing piece of campaigning through their ‘Sounds Good’ campaign and have ensured that new schools will have good acoustics. Their championing of this cause will support all children who struggle with communication (and those teachers who struggle to get heard in class – reports this week that that there has been a substantial rise in teachers who have ‘industrial injuries’ to their voices!).

And we have lots of celebs who champion the cause for us too. Michael Palin has long championed the cause of stammering with the centre that bears his name. Pictured here with the Trust’s own Cara Evans (a big fan who would not leave the event until she had a picture with Michael even if that meant pushing me pushing in front of Secretary of State to get the shot!) Michael draws on the experiences of his father to speak with a passion and humour about the challenges faced by young people who stammer.

Paul McCartney recently bought a word on I CANs Adopt A Word site and Stephen Fry caused a Twitter storm when he tweeted about his word adoption and championed the cause of young people who struggle to find their own words.

Most of all though I think the best champions that we have, the most powerful advocates for the cause, are the young people themselves. I was moved to tears by the Michael Palin Centre’s DVD. Aimed at teachers this DVD is delivered by and through the stories and experiences of young people who stammer. The tears were not of sympathy or through the ‘aaah’ factor – though the main narrator is a star of children’s tv waiting to happen. But rather the lump in my throat was a reflection of the power and impact of a young person being supported and empowered to tell it how it is.

So we welcome our Communication Champion and look forward to working with her. And as a sector we will continue to champion the cause and rope in celebrities to help us (is it wrong to want David Tenant to take an interest in speech and language??) But most of all, my vision, 11 million young champions with an almighty voice – with that we could change the world.

A word after a word after a word ....

2009-10-09T09:20:00.000-07:00

Thanks for all of your positive comments on the blog. Apparently though they have been a bit long as the ideal blog length is 400 words so I am aiming to be less verbose. The painful task of limiting myself to 400 words made me consider a comment made recently by a colleague that 800 words won’t get you a job. They were reflecting on the fact that many young men do not have the range of words necessary to get a job or remain employed.

Lots of the young people served by the Trust do not have, or cannot use, the words that they need. Many may know the words but physically struggle to express them; others may not be able to apply the right words in social scenarios; some may not be able to bring the right word to mind and still others may choose not to say any words at all.[1]

This is such a loss because words are wonderful. You can shout them, whisper them, write them, sign them, enjoy them. Thanks to I CAN you can even adopt them.[2]

Some people can taste words – an article in the press this week described a man with synaesthesia, a neurological disorder in which one sense is experienced as if it were perceived by another. The word treacle tasted awful but computer tasted of popcorn. For him what his partner was called could literally be the difference between sweet things or a sour ending.

Words are constantly evolving – teenagers are at the forefront of developing new words – noob, mwah,meh[3] - and this evolution is to be celebrated. It is not just teenagers though – my daughter, struggling to remember the right word, asked if we could have the coldiator on[4]. What words have entered your family lexicon?

Words can be funny, they can be sweet, they can be rude. A colleague caused much consternation when she programmed swear words, at a young person’s request, into their ‘talk box’. Why should a teenager needing AAC not have the same range of words as his peers?

Words are powerful. They can start a revolution and end a war. The more words we have access to the better we are able to express our wants, to explain the subtleties of our opinions and to create links with others.

For me the best word is also one of the shortest. No. The ability to choose, and to be able to express that choice, is a fundamental part of being human. Imagine being trapped in a world where you literally cannot say no – the strength and importance of being able to express that simple two letter word quickly becomes apparent.

For the Communication Trust ensuring that every child can express the words that they need to be understood, and can understand the words that are said to them, is an essential part of what we do.

Because, to paraphrase my favourite saying, a word after a word after a word is not just a sentence - it is power.

[1] For an outline of all the ways that young people can be denied their words see The Communication Trust’s “Explaining SLCN”
[2] http://www.adoptaword.org.uk/

[3] A newbie, a kiss, a sound of disapproval

[4] Henceforth the name of mummy’s car air conditioning

Coming out of the SEN ghetto

2009-09-18T03:51:00.000-07:00

Many readers of this blog may have seen the recent article on The Communication Trust that appeared in Third Sector magazine, please click here to view article.

Friends have responded with varying degrees of amusement and astonishment at my admission in the article that sometimes charities don’t play together nicely. Interestingly as many have commented on the description of the Trust as a disability coalition – those who know our work have long stopped seeing us in this way.

It is true that many members of the Trust represent particular disability groups. Many more have SEN and disability as a core part of their work. But significant numbers of the Trust’s members are running programmes that support speech, language and communication for all children.

Moreover much of the Trust’s funding is invested in universal services. The Communication Trust is developing and delivering programmes of work that exist to support all children and these services are delivered through mainstream schools, pre-school provision and services such as health visiting.

Why would organisations with the interests of children with special educational needs or impairments be interested in developing services for all children? This question is of particular interest for me as I today reviewed the interesting Manifesto for Literacy released by the National Literacy Trust (please click here to view the manifesto). The NLT are to be applauded for their excellent work, and their call for the government’s Better Communication Action Plan to be implemented in full reflects the Communication Trust position. The Manifesto particularly supports the universal aspects of the plan – most notably:
· Speech, language and communication to be prioritised by all Children’s Centres and health visitors, as the primary focus for measuring every child’s progress
· All parents to receive information which emphasises the importance of speech, language and communication to all children through the Healthy Child Programme

But that the NLT manifesto then goes on to express concern that Action Plan will revert to an Special Educational Needs (SEN) agenda at the cost of this wider universal programme is intriguing. Implicit in this concern is that the agenda of disability organisations is somehow very different to the concerns of other children’s organisations. In the field of speech and language I see this false divide starting to crumble.
For The Communication Trust the SEN agenda includes the development of universal services that better promote and support speech, language and communication skills for the entire generation of children and young people that are growing up in this age of communication. The aspects of the Action Plan highlighted above were proposed by impairment based organisations – many of who already provide such information to parents and children’s centres. Why would disability/SEN groups pursue this universal services agenda?

Firstly the majority of children and young people with speech, language and communication needs will be in mainstream pre –school and education settings. Many won’t be statemented and lots won’t even be on supporting programmes such as school action. A focus on creating excellent universal services that are communication supportive and that have staff able to identify and support typical communication development will better help include those children who find speech, language and communication difficult. It is not good enough to have all children services that really are ‘all children except children with SEN’.

Secondly we are conscious of research that says that significant numbers of children enter primary school with language skills behind their age. This research is reflected back to us by heads and teachers – some identifying 50% and upwards of their class having some language delay with clear links between communication difficulties and social exclusion. Building better universal services with stronger speech, language and communication components will help these children to achieve and attain. Building on this strong universal foundation with targeted programmes, such as the ‘A Chance to Talk’ (www.communicationtrust.org.uk) initiative that The Communication Trust is supporting, will help these children catch up. Supporting these children is a social justice issue and the quest for social justice is a principle at the centre of being for most disability groups. The extension of this principle to children who are disadvantaged by circumstances other than impairment is not such a stretch. Pragmatically, there is much overlap between approaches to helping children with moderate language impairment and those with language delay and resource planning for one group must take into account the needs of the other.

Lastly The Communication Trust wants all children to have the very best communication skills possible. When did you last see a job advert that did not need effective communication skills? Barely a week goes by without the CBI or a major employer bemoaning lack of communication skills in graduates and school leavers. Speech and language underpins attainment in literacy and numeracy but also is the key facet of conflict resolution, problem solving, self awareness, social and emotional well being and in the development of character and self. Many of the approaches that support children with significant challenges with speech, language and communication can be adapted and transferred to support all children. Vocabulary building techniques; social communication exercises; listening games; visual cues; the use of signs -these SEN developed programmes all have resonance for children whatever their starting point or ability.

So yes – the Trust has a large number of disability charities and does of course look at how best to ensure that those who need additional support get the targeted and specialist help that they need. This is a vital part of the SEN agenda. But excellent personalised specialised support must be underpinned by excellent and inclusive universal provision. In recognising and promoting the fact speech, language and children is an all children issue the Communication Trust has developed a programme of work that is ground breaking in breaking down the false walls between SEN/disability services and universal provision.

As the voluntary sector representation on the group taking forward the Better Communication Action Plan The Communication Trust has long advocated that the Plan must, in both its principles and its practice, be about speech, language and communication for all children. We will continue to do so and will add the NLT manifesto to the wealth of evidence from our members and partners to support this position.

So yes, The Communication Trust is a disability coalition. Proud to be so. We are also an all children organisation that believes that all really must mean all – Better Communication matters for every child.

Collaboration, coalition and competition

2009-09-07T04:44:00.000-07:00

I have been looking at entering The Communication Trust into the latest spate of third sector competitions under the ‘partnership’ award categories. The Communication Trust is a coalition organisation – a group of not-for-profit organisations that have decided to collaborate in pursuit of a common cause – and partnership runs through everything that we do.

When talking to friends about my job those outside the sector I take it for granted that such joint working is the norm - after all charities, (from the Latin Caritas meaning love), are all sweetness do-gooding altruistic bodies. However, friends who have spent their life working in charities tend to suck through their teeth and ask how I cope with the other “c” word – competition.

That charities compete is the non spoken truth of the voluntary sector. Like corporates we compete for money, for PR, for profile and even for clients. Unlike much of the private sector many charities are also driven by passion for their cause, their users, and their beliefs – a passion that can fuel aggressive business strategies epitomised in the Chair of a major national charity recently declaring their intent to wipe the competition off the playing field.

Competition is not per se bad. It can spur organisations on to achieve more for their users. But all charities should, from time to time, consider whether they may achieve more by making their competitors their partners (or, and I have rarely met a charity that has admitted this, consider whether one of their competitiors may be better placed then they to pursue their cause).

Two years ago members of The Communication Trust took such a moment for reflection and decided that collaboration was an essential next step in pursuit of their individual missions. While making the decision was the first step the road to a functional coalition is pathed with challenges. Several Trust members represent impairment specific missions; autism, stammering, specific language difficulties, learning difficulties, hearing impairment; others have an interest social exclusion and poverty; still others have a mission to promote particular approaches or interventions and some come with a wider interest in education and employment. Some are small volunteer run bodies – some are £100 million corporations. These differences in size, mission, style and philosophies compound the challenges faced by competing organisations attempting to collaborate in a market place where funding is ever tighter.

And yet the Trust has succeeded. There are over 30 members of the coalition and the numbers are growing. How has this happened?

In truth taking the first step to decide to collaborate was key. Many Trust members had not had good working relationships and it took courage from these CEOs to reach out – this bold leadership from the CEOs of I CAN, Afasic and other early members of the Trust set a positive model.

The next step was agreeing a common enemy. As many of 10% of children have significant speech, language and communication needs, linked to range of different impairments; in some parts of the country 40-50% of children are entering schools with poor language skills, often linked to social disadvantage; still others do not have the skills for employment and further education. Tackling this time bomb became a common purpose for Trust members and that action was needed fast provided the imperative for shared action.

However even with this common purpose joint working is in practice difficult. Sometimes very difficult. With early support from VCS Engage, the Trust explored models of working and based on early experience I created a guide to good practice in coalition which appears alongside some really useful advice on coalition working that can be found at http://www.vcsengage.org.uk/publications.aspx. Two years on much of this advice remains; starting with something small (we started with developing a leaflet with a shared definition of the problem) be honest, have a strong leader and be informed by evidence and users. I would now add the need to balance sensible process with pragmatic practice – the voluntary sector temptation is to develop complex rules and flow charts for joint working and, while some process is important, the tendency to sit in a room and engage in what a mentor once branded ‘semantical joggerpokery’ about whether a rule should read ‘could’ or ‘will’, must be tempered by some real work.

It is on this last point I am most proud of what the Trust has achieved. We have sensible rules and processes (helped in a large point by adopting a PRINCE 2 approach with an excellent project manager), we work together well (but are never complacent - joint working is a dynamic process), but most of all we have increased the range and quality of services available to children and young people who find communication difficult. As well as our own work we have, through our joint working, pushed and supported the government to take forward a £50 million action plan that will ensure better communication for many children in the years to come. Competition remains between members and between causes but this is tempered by another driver – ambition. We have achieved much with and for children but we are ambitious to achieve so much more and together we will.