Terms and Conditions Form

Following assessment & discussion with parents, the frequency of therapy sessions will be agreed on, jointly. Sessions may be weekly, fortnightly, monthly, etc. depending on the needs of the child.

All appointments are offered in the child’s home, nursery, pre-school, school or a combination of these settings. Ideally, sessions will take place in a quiet, familiar environment for the child with minimal distractions.

Once a child is being seen for therapy, they have priority for the available sessions each week. I will not expect children to take long breaks from therapy unless the need is indicated clinically. I try to be as flexible as possible, when booking appointments, to accommodate the needs of busy families.

As a parent of 4 children myself, I fully appreciate that sessions may have to be cancelled at short notice due to illness. I do not charge for cancelled sessions provided a valid reason is given. Likewise, I hope parents understand that there may be occasions when I have to cancel an appointment at short notice for similar reasons.

I am happy for parents to end my involvement with their child at any time, without penalties. Likewise, if there are valid reasons why I should not be seeing a child e.g. the child is too young to benefit from intervention or therapy is no longer indicated, I will be honest with parents and suggest drawing therapy to a close.

All clients are eligible for speech and language therapy within their local NHS trust. The Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists have clear guidelines about liaison between independent therapists and the local NHS service. It is against the law for the NHS to withdraw their services simply because a child has access to private therapy. Should a child be involved with an NHS therapist I will always inform them in writing of my involvement and attempt to work collaboratively. It is therefore useful to be informed if a child is seeing, or waiting to be seen by, an NHS therapist.

I will need to collect information about your child (and family) that is relevant to their therapy. Written notes will also be completed after each assessment/therapy session to inform ongoing intervention. All information held by me will be kept securely, in a locked filing cabinet. I will not disclose any information about your child without your written consent except where there are concerns regarding your child’s safety and/or wellbeing. It is good practice to share information about your child’s needs to professionals who are working with your child and you will be asked for your consent to do this. Occasionally it may be useful to record part of an assessment or therapy session; again this will not be done, or shared, without written consent; it will be stored in a secure file and it will be deleted as soon as it is no longer of therapeutic value.

Travel. Travel for domiciliary, school, and other visits is charged at 45p per mile from the therapist's base (Bedale) to the postcode of the therapy base, according to the AA route planner. A supplement may be charged for distances over 10 miles.

• Full assessment, advice, home work programme and report - £150
• Individual therapy sessions with ongoing home programme -£80
• Review of progress - £80

Fees are subject to annual review.

Payment is requested at the end of each session unless other arrangements have been agreed in advance. Payments can be made by cheque, cash or direct bank transfer. Therapy may be suspended if invoices are overdue, i.e. not paid within 10 days.

Signature of Therapist