TreeHouse welcomes The Communication Trust's 2011 campaign highlighting children's communication needs

TreeHouse is delighted that The Communication Trust will be dedicating the year 2011 to managing and delivering a nationwide campaign focusing on the importance of developing children’s communication skills. TreeHouse is the national charity for autism education.

The Communication Trust is a coalition of 38 third sector, private and voluntary organisations, including TreeHouse, with a wealth of expertise in speech, language and communication.

The Communication Trust, founded by Afasic, BT, CDC (Council for Disabled Children) and I CAN, will be delivering this in collaboration with Jean Gross, the recently appointed Communication Champion.

The appointment of a Communication Champion and a ‘National Year’ were key recommendations in the 2008 Bercow Report on improving services for children with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN). This landmark review led to thousands of parents of children with SLCN reporting their sense of isolation and highlighted concerns around a lack of information on speech, language and communication. The 2011 campaign seeks to address these challenges and will look at routes to getting parents the information and support they need, when they need it. Over coming months the Trust will be working with parents, young people, partners and local staff to shape the campaign’s content and approaches.

Anita Kerwin-Nye, Director of The Communication Trust, comments; “Securing the ‘National Year’ is a campaigning triumph for the voluntary sector. We have fought tirelessly for this step change in supporting children and young people with SLCN. This campaign will draw on the best evidence base to support the 1.2 million children in the UK, approximately 3 in every class, who struggle to communicate.

“Our campaign will raise awareness of speech and language issues, provide all parents with basic information on children’s communication and signpost places of help and support. We will build on the Trust’s existing work and further support the children’s workforce working day-to-day with children and young people with SLCN.
“Every child should be able to communicate to the best of their potential and the Trust will recruit campaign partners that reflect the importance of speech, language and communication skills in school, in work, at home and in relationships.”

Anita continues, “The Communication Trust is underpinned by the expertise, breadth and depth of our members’ experience and by our partnerships with front line staff. Our network has grown rapidly to be one of the most effective examples of collaborative working in the voluntary sector, delivering real results time and time again for children, families and the children’s workforce.”

Jean Gross, Communication Champion, comments; “I’m delighted to be working with The Communication Trust on the ‘National Year’. The Trust’s members – both the well-known larger children’s organisations and the smaller organisations representing particular types of speech, language and communication need - have a huge range of collective experience and expertise. There is a passionate commitment amongst the consortium members to improve the lives of children and families who struggle to communicate. I believe no other agency is better placed, connected or prepared to make the ‘National Year’ a true success.

“As Communication Champion, my focus over the next few months is to work with and support commissioners in health and children’s services as they plan to meet the needs of local children and young people. The ‘National Year’ will complement this work, raising speech and language issues up the agenda and helping commissioners to engage with parents, children and young people on the issues that concern them.”

Linda Lascelles, Chief Executive of Afasic, comments; “As one of the founding members of The Communication Trust, Afasic are delighted that the Trust will be delivering the ‘National Year’. The need to raise awareness on this issue is very real, particularly for those vulnerable children and young people with speech and language impairments (SLI). Their families desperately need a route to information, support and guidance to enable access to services which meet their needs.”

The Communication Trust is dedicated to ensuring the entire 3 million strong children’s workforce has access to the best training and expertise to support all children’s communication needs. The ‘National Year’ will not only increase awareness of speech, language and communication needs in children, but will also generate demand for training and support. In its separate program of work, the Trust is developing and coordinating a range of initiatives to support front line staff including Communication HelpPoint, Speech, Language and Communication Framework (SLCF) and programmes targeted at specific parts of the workforce.

The Communication Trust Members:

Founders

Afasic
BT
Council for Disabled Children (CDC)
I CAN

Communication Consortium

1Voice
ACE Centre
ACE Centre North
Action For Children
Association for the Rehabilitation of Communication and Oral Skills (ACROS)
Auditory Verbal UK
Barnardo’s
British Stammering Association
Candle
CENMAC
Chailey Heritage Clinical Services
Communication Matters
Communications Forum
Contact a Family
DialogueLAB
Elklan
KIDS
Language for Learning
Mencap
MERU
NAPLIC
NAS
National Deaf Children Society (NDCS)
National Literacy Trust
Scope
Selective Mutism Information and Research Association (SMIRA)
Social Emotional Behavioural Difficulties Association (SEBDA)
St Catherine’s
Symbol UK
The Children’s Society
The Children's Trust
The Learning Partnership.com
The Makaton Charity
The Michael Palin Centre for Stammering Children
The Signalong Group
TreeHouse