Making a referral to our speech and language therapy service
Eating, drinking and swallowing difficulties
If you are worried about a child or young person’s eating, drinking and/or swallowing skills, please speak to your child’s health visitor or GP in the first instance. Referrals for eating, drinking and/or swallowing difficulties will only be accepted from a health professional, for example GP, health visitor, paediatrician, dietician etc. Check our referral guidelines for more information. If you are a health professional and need to refer for eating, drinking and swallowing concerns complete this CYP SLT referral form.
Speech, language and communication difficulties
Before making a referral
We have updated how referrals to the Speech & Language Therapy Service are made. To make sure your referral is appropriate and can be accepted, you must:
- Check the SLT Service referral guidelines to confirm the child or young person meets our criteria. If you are unsure if they meet the criteria and would like to discuss:
- Parents/ carers and early years or health professionals can contact our advice line on (01923) 470680 Option 3, Option 1 and leave a message for a member of our team to call you back
- Schools can use their link email address to liaise with a therapist
- Complete all required pre‑referral actions listed in the guidelines (for example, using recommended strategies from our webinars or completing the speech screen). The referral form will ask for details of what you have completed and the impact of these.
Referrals will not be accepted if these steps have not been completed.
Who should make a referral
- If the concerns are related to the child or young person’s eating, drinking or swallowing, the referral needs to be made by a health professional.
- If the child is under 2 years 6 months, the referral needs to be made by a health professional.
- If the child is 2 years 6 months or over, and has not started school yet, parents/carers should make the referral (if parents/carers need help in making a referral they can access support from their child’s setting or a health professional).
- For children or young people who are school aged, the school should make the referral (unless the child is being educated at home).
- For young people age 18-25 with a Hertfordshire EHCP, attending a Hertfordshire Further Education Setting/ College referrals should be made by the Local Authority (SEN).
Top tips for making a successful referral:
- Provide evidence of the impact of the child or young person’s speech, language and communication needs (SLCN)
- Give lots of detail about the child or young person’s SLCN
- Provide evidence of universal/targeted advice that has already been implemented
- Check our ‘Areas we cannot accept referrals for’ (in our referral guidelines) to make sure your referral is appropriate
Referral form
If you are a parent/carer or you are completing a self-referral please complete this referral form.
If you are an education or health professional, please complete this referral form.
Making a referral to our occupational therapy service
All referrals sent to the service are triaged by a therapist based on the information provided to decide whether an assessment appointment will be offered.
All referrals are to be made via the CYP occupational therapy referral form (including the Sensory Service). HCT do not accept paper referrals. GPs can continue to refer into CYP Therapies Services using either the Digital Referral form, Ardens or DXS.
If you have any queries or experience any issues when making a referral, please contact the Children's referral hub:
01923 470680 Option 2 or hct.cypspecialistservices@nhs.net.
Click here for referral guidelines
Pre-school children
Should you have concerns regarding your child’s independence in aspects of daily living such as self-feeding, dressing and participating in play activities please speak to your Health Visitor or local Family Centre. They will often be able to provide you with advice on ways to support your child at home. Health visitors and other health professionals, such as your GP, can refer a child to the service.
School-aged children
If your child is in full-time school you should discuss any concerns you may have with your child’s teacher. Some children can be supported in their school without requiring a referral to the service. SENCos and other education professionals can refer a child to the service.
Referrals for Home Equipment and Adaptations
Referrals relating to home environmental issues can be made by parents and carers, as well as anyone involved with your child.
Children's occupational therapy housing hub - Information for parents and carers
Making a referral to our physiotherapy service
Your child will need a medical referral from an NHS health care professional to access this service, for example a paediatrician, health visitor, children’s nurse, occupational therapist, speech and language therapist or GP. Health professionals using SystmOne will be able to make an electronic referral.
Please note that children over eight-years-old with musculoskeletal (MSK) difficulties are usually seen by the Adult MSK service.
All referrals are to be made via the CYP Physiotherapy referral form. HCT do not accept paper referrals. GPs can continue to refer into CYP Therapies Services using either the Digital Referral form, Ardens or DXS.
If you have any queries or experience any issues when making a referral, please contact the Children's referral hub:
01923 470680 Option 2 or hct.cypspecialistservices@nhs.net.
Families and children and young people with long term conditions who have been seen by the children’s physiotherapy service for an episode of care and discharged, can self-refer back for further support via our advice line. For more information, please see our long-term conditions leaflet.
Technical help for completing the referral form
To avoid losing your progress, save your referral form as you go.
- Form time out — The form will time out after 60 minutes if you don’t save.
- Pop‑up message — If you see a message saying “form timeout: Your session has expired”, just click OK. This will let you carry on with your form.
- Saving your form — You can save your progress for up to 48 hours, but you must return on the same device (phone or computer) to finish it.
Having all the information ready before you start will make the process quicker and easier.
Contact us
If you have any queries, would like help completing the referral form or experience any issues, please contact the Children and Young People’s referral hub: 01923 470680 Option 2 or hct.cypspecialistservices@nhs.net
How we communicate with you
Our service primarily communicates via SMS. For more information go to how we contact you.
By submitting a referral form, you are confirming that the patient meets the acceptance criteria, and consent has been gained for the service to contact you (the referrer) regarding any information relating to the referral.
All referrals sent to the service are triaged by a member of the therapy team based on the information provided to decide whether an assessment appointment will be offered.
