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Innovation and partnership: the voluntary sector contribution
1I CAN: The National Educational Charity for Children with Speech and Language Difficulties, London.
Summary
I CAN developed innovative speech and language therapy services by integrating education and therapy. These new models demonstrate effective collaboration across voluntary, statutory, and private sectors for children's benefit.
Area of Science:
- Speech and Language Therapy
- Educational Psychology
- Collaborative Service Models
Background:
- I CAN has extensive experience integrating education and speech and language therapy.
- Pioneering new collaborative working approaches for children's benefit is a key focus.
- Existing services have laid the groundwork for innovative models.
Purpose of the Study:
- To describe three novel collaborative services for children.
- To evaluate the effectiveness of these new service models.
- To highlight the benefits of inter-sectoral collaboration in therapy provision.
Main Methods:
- Description of three distinct service models: Specialist Nurseries, Teach Speech (videoconferencing pilot), and Secondary School Language Resources.
- Reporting on studies evaluating the effectiveness of selected services.
- Analysis of collaboration between voluntary, statutory, and private sectors.
Main Results:
- Specialist nurseries provide integrated education and therapy.
- Teach Speech successfully utilized videoconferencing for primary-aged children.
- Secondary School Language Resources established support within mainstream settings.
- All described services demonstrated effective cross-sectoral collaboration.
Conclusions:
- The described services represent effective, innovative approaches to speech and language therapy.
- Collaboration between voluntary, statutory, and private sectors yields significant benefits for children.
- These models offer a scalable framework for improving therapeutic and educational outcomes.