Children with Developmental Verbal Dyspraxia (DVD) may be missing out on specialist NHS Services
Children with Developmental Verbal Dyspraxia (DVD) may not be reaching their full potential due to a lack of specialist services in London, according to a consultation launched this week.
13 December 2024
CHILDREN WITH RARE SPEECH & LANGUAGE DISORDER
MAY BE MISSING OUT ON SPECIALIST NHS SERVICES
Children with Developmental Verbal Dyspraxia (DVD) may not be reaching their full potential due to a lack of specialist services in London, according to a consultation launched this week.
This relatively rare speech and language disorder can have long-term implications if children do not have the right therapy early on in childhood. A new service specific to their needs would, therefore, be in their best interests, as well as highly cost-effective for the NHS and local authorities.
NHS Ealing is running the consultation on behalf of the NHS in London. It offers pupils, parents and carers, health, education, speech and language professionals and the wider public the opportunity to have their say about proposals for future services.
It also seeks to understand what potential service users, providers and commissioners (NHS and local education authorities) would want from a new service.
The consultation follows the suspension in July 2007of a service run by the Royal Free Hampstead NHS Trust at the Nuffield Speech and Language Unit in Ealing. NHS Ealing then commissioned a review of the demand for specialist services for children with severe speech and language disorders in London.
Now it has developed six service options that could help to meet this need in future, with detailed input from a wide range of interested parties.
These options include building on a service currently delivered at the Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital (RNTNEH), while the London Specialised Commissioning Group determines longer-term future services for children with DVD.
The closing date for responses and submissions as part of the consultation is 5pm on 25 March 2011. This consultation document and supporting information is available on the NHS Ealing website
Media contact: Fiona Harcombe, NHS Ealing (primary care trust), 1 Armstrong Way, Southall, UB2 4SA. Telephone: 020 3313 9129. Fax: 020 3313 9174. Email: [email protected]
For more information see: Ealing website