Augmentative Communication Service

The service has been identified by NHS England as one of 13 services nationwide offering this service. This will include assessments for devices, provision of equipment and training, maintenance and support.

Referrals to the service should be made using our referral form.

Children may be referred to this service for further assessment where:

• A need for AAC has been identified but further investigation is required to select appropriate hardware, software, access and mounting options.
• There has already been a successful in-depth trial within the local service. We may offer remote appointments to further assess the referral. This would still require family and the local team to attend as well as videos to support to referral.

The following eligibility and prioritisation criteria are taken from the NHS service specification.

Please see the video for more information about our service https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1I_HdG6S4U

An individual who would access a specialist AAC service would have both of the following:

• a severe or complex communication difficulty associated with a range of physical, cognitive, learning, or sensory deficits
• a clear discrepancy between their level of understanding and their ability to speak

In addition, an individual must:

• be able to understand the purpose of a communication aid
• have developed beyond cause and effect understanding
• have experience of using low tech AAC which is insufficient to enable them to realise their communicative potential.

We do not accept referrals if the individual:

• has pre-verbal communication skills
• has not yet achieved cause and effect understanding
• has impaired cognitive abilities that would prevent them from retaining information on how to use equipment

Please note prioritisation is given to those:

• with a rapidly degenerative condition, for example motor neurone disease (MND), and efforts will be made to ensure these patients are assessed and / or provided with equipment as soon as is practically possible.
• who currently have a communication aid which is no longer functional or is significantly unreliable and does not meet their communication needs.
• facing a transition to a new sector, school, college or workplace environment or currently in rehabilitation provision
• who are at risk of developing significant psychological or challenging behaviour as a consequence of their inability to communicate without a communication aid

We prioritise paediatric referrals (up until age 18 years old) from within the Greater London Area.

We may consider referrals from further afield, depending on capacity. Please contact the team to discuss.

Our standard assessment takes place over two or three appointments. In some cases it may be possible to complete the process more quickly, depending on the complexity of the case and the amount of information provided at referral.

Appointments will generally include a Speech and Language Therapist, an Occupational Therapist and an Assistive Technologist.

An initial appointment will be arranged with the full team at which we will meet with the child and family to identify what assessments or investigations are required. The team then work/play with the child to complete any remaining aspects of the assessment. Parents/Carers are present throughout all parts of the assessment. At the end of the assessment, the child, parents/carers, local team and specialist team members meet together to discuss findings and conclusions.

Where appropriate, our team is able to provide communication aids on loan for approximately six weeks, with mounting solutions put in place to allow children to access them in their preferred seating systems. We will agree targets with the family and local team for the duration of this loan. An evaluation appointment will be arranged to observe and discuss progress made during the loan period. Where a child meets all aspects of the Service Specification, a device will be purchased and provided on long-term loan, with a review appointment scheduled annually.

Where children do not meet criteria for this part of the service, it may be possible to arrange an appointment in our Developmental Communication Service to address more general questions about assessment, language understanding, cognition.

This would always be done in consultation with the child’s family and local team.

Augmentative Communication Service:

Telephone: 0207 405 9200 extension number 5293