How to Commission a Speech and Language Therapist for Your School: A Step-by-Step Guide
Most schools arrive at this decision the same way. The NHS waiting list is long, the SEND register is growing, two EHCPs specify speech and language provision you can’t currently deliver, and somebody asks in a leadership meeting whether you could just buy in a therapist.
You can. Schools across the country do, and it’s more flexible and less expensive than most leadership teams expect. But the schools that get real value from it are the ones that treat it as a commissioning decision rather than a purchase, and work through the steps below before they sign anything.
This guide is written for Headteachers, SENCos and school business managers making that decision for the first time.
Step one: work out what you’re actually buying
The most common mistake is starting with days and cost rather than need. Before you speak to any provider, gather four things.
- Statutory obligations: how many EHCPs specify speech and language therapy, and exactly what does Section F say? Quantified provision (a number of sessions, a named frequency) is a legal commitment. You need to be able to meet it.
- Identified need beyond EHCPs: how many pupils are on your SEND register with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN), and how many more are on your watch list?
- Staff capability: how confident are your teachers and teaching assistants in delivering communication strategies day to day? A school with strong staff knowledge needs a different service model from one starting out.
- What’s already in place: what does your local NHS service provide, how often, and where are the gaps? Commissioned provision should fill gaps, not duplicate what you already receive.
That exercise usually takes an afternoon and it changes the conversation entirely. It also gives you the evidence you’ll need if a parent or the local authority asks how you arrived at your provision.
Step two: choose a service model
There’s no standard package, and a good provider will build around what you found in step one. In practice most schools use one of these.
- Regular commissioned days: a therapist in school for a fixed day each week or fortnight, carrying a caseload, working with staff and attending meetings. This is the most common model and the one that builds staff capability fastest.
- Termly blocks: a set number of days per term, often used by smaller schools or those with a lower caseload. Some schools buy as little as two days a term.
- Assessment-led: a burst of assessment capacity at the start of the year for a new intake or for annual reviews, with follow-up therapy commissioned once needs are clear.
- Training-led: where the need is broad rather than deep, whole-staff training and a communication-friendly environment programme can reach more pupils than individual therapy would.
- Multidisciplinary: where pupils have needs spanning communication, sensory processing and emotional regulation, a combined speech and language therapy, occupational therapy and psychology input avoids three separate providers writing three unconnected plans.
Most schools blend these. A regular weekly day with a top-up block in September for a new intake is a common and sensible pattern.
Step three: run the checks
This is the step that gets skipped, and it’s the one that protects you.
If you choose to partner with London Speech Therapy, we handle all of this for you. We automatically manage every reassurance check, compliance requirement, and cover arrangement listed below, so your school’s leadership team doesn’t have the administrative burden. If you’d like to skip the paperwork and discuss your school’s needs today, email enquiries@londonspeechtherapy.co.uk or call 020 3475 2189.
- Registration with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC). This is a legal requirement to practise as a Speech and Language Therapist in the UK, and the register is public and free to search. Ask for registration numbers and check them.
- Membership of the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (RCSLT), which indicates ongoing professional development and access to clinical guidance.
- Enhanced DBS certificates for the child workforce, and how the provider handles DBS for any cover therapist.
- Professional indemnity and public liability insurance, with current certificates.
- Safeguarding: how the provider’s staff will follow your safeguarding policy, who they report to, and whether they’ve completed your induction.
- Cover arrangements: what happens when your therapist is ill or leaves. A provider that can only offer one named individual is a single point of failure for provision you may be legally required to deliver.
- Supervision: who clinically supervises the therapist working in your school. Independent practice without supervision is a quality risk.
Step four: agree the practical detail before term starts
Almost every problem in the first term comes from something in this list not being agreed in advance.
- Hours: a typical commissioned day runs from around 8.30am to 4.00pm, which lets the therapist catch staff before school and attend after-school meetings.
- What the day includes: assessment, individual and group therapy, staff and parent training, report writing, resource preparation, and attendance at Team Around the Child meetings and annual reviews. Report writing and admin take real time, and a provider who claims otherwise is quietly planning to do it badly.
- Space: a therapist needs a consistent, reasonably quiet room. A corridor table is not a therapy space, and it will limit what you get.
- Data and systems: how assessments, notes and reports are stored, who has access, and how this fits your data protection obligations.
- Term dates and INSET: how missed days are handled and whether they’re reimbursed or rescheduled.
- Review points: agree now when you’ll review the arrangement, and what you’ll look at. A mid-year and end-of-year review is standard.
Step five: know what a good first term looks like
By the end of the first term you should reasonably expect a clear picture of need across the pupils referred, assessment reports for those who needed them, therapy underway for priority pupils, and at least some staff training delivered. You should also expect your therapist to have become a familiar presence to staff rather than a visitor.
What you shouldn’t expect is transformation. Communication development takes time, and any provider promising guaranteed outcomes in a term is overselling. What good looks like at this stage is clarity, momentum and staff who feel better equipped than they did in September.
A note on funding
Schools fund commissioned therapy from a combination of the notional SEND budget, EHCP top-up funding, and in some cases Pupil Premium where the provision addresses a disadvantage-linked need. Where provision is arranged centrally, some local authorities commission speech and language therapy across a group of schools, which can be more cost-effective than each school contracting separately. Our article on integrating private speech and language therapy into your school budget covers the funding routes in more detail.
| London Speech Therapy works with schools across London, Kent and Essex, from two days a term to several days a week, with a multidisciplinary team covering speech and language therapy, occupational therapy and psychology. If you’re weighing this up, email enquiries@londonspeechtherapy.co.uk or call 020 3475 2189 and we’ll arrange a visit. |
