Providing intensive therapy in schools for children with no identified provision

The provision of a speech and language therapy service to a school-age chil d with little home support and no identified provision for extra help in sc hool has always proved challenging to service providers and causes many sen ;ices to make hard choices in terms of best use of limited resources. These children commonly at stage three of the Code of Practice (Department for E ducation 1994) fall between two stools: a school which cannot provide extra help in order to carry out a speech and language therapy programme, and a speech and language therapy service which cannot effect change without back up in the home or school. In this paper a project which provides therapy p rogrammes to this group of children via a student clinical placements initi ative is reported. The project is discussed in terms of client outcomes dat a and offers suggestions as to how findings may be interpreted.