Ever since my days in the NHS I, like many others, have gone above and beyond for the children I work with and their families. When you have a huge caseload quite simply this is impossible as, even with absolute flexibility, there are a finite number of hours in each day however I always made sure that the families I worked with knew I was contactable and would always get back to them.
About five years what I noticed, however, was that as a parent my concerns with regards to my own children peaked when they were sleeping and this coincided with the time when I’d receive the vast majority of my referral emails.
I have previously worked with high profile families across the world in Moscow; Goa; Abu Dhabi; Muscat; Dubai; Doha; Abuja and Geneva and 5 years ago I began to offer what I call a “beck and call” / VIP service to a select number of families whereby I am available to discuss a families concerns pretty much 24/7 and provide effective intervention no matter where they are based.
Outside of the maximum 3 VIP families I work with in this way I also provide intervention and monitoring to up to 3 UK based families at a time. I feel I’m in a very privileged position to be able to work in this way and be very much part of a child’s family when I provide such a unique service.
The other aspect of my work is the thorough Speech & Language assessment of children who’s parents are appealing either their Statement of Educational Needs (Wales) or Education Health Care Plan (England) Speech & Language Therapy provision or school placement. Each week I cover 1000-1500 miles visiting and assessing children in their current school placements across the UK and I attend 2-3 SEN Tribunals per month as an expert witness.