Changes to Wiltshire's speech and language therapy service aim to cut down waiting times by working closely with parents, with the aim of creating new speech and language therapy jobs in the area over time.

Last week, This Is Wiltshire reported that NHS Wiltshire would be changing how speech and language therapy is provided in the county. Whilst before there were three different providers, from now Wiltshire Community Health services will be the sole provider for the area. Maddy Ferrari, assistant director at NHS Wiltshire, said that this will allow therapy to be delivered consistently across the county.

The new service is start this summer. All personnel currently in speech and language therapy jobs in Wiltshire will transfer to the Wiltshire Community Health Services, with full protection of their pay and conditions. Mrs Ferrari says that in time, they hope to recruit more qualified therapists to the service to help make further reductions to waiting times and offer more training to teachers, parents and nursery staff on how to supplement therapy on a day to day basis.

"The waiting list for therapy is unacceptably long" said Mrs Ferrari. "There are between 200 to 300 children waiting for several months. The new service will work more collaboratively with parents and education professionals and deliver more timely assessment and support."