The Innovation category winner named last week at Scotland’s Health Awards is ‘an incredible example of truly transformative thinking from the workforce,’ says an NHS Scotland partner

The Children's Speech and Language Therapy (SLT) Team at NHS Forth Valley was singled out for praise twice at the Edinburgh Corn Exchange gathering on Thursday.

In the only double win of the night, the team also claimed the Tackling Health Inequalities Award for its progressive, inclusive approach to supporting local children with difficulties in communication, including speech sounds, language, and social interaction.

Formal NHS Scotland partner InnoScot Health believes this recognition is hugely deserved, and should be considered a shining example of innovation in action.

Its Head of Innovation Robert Rea stating: “People often think of innovation as an entirely new product or service, but just as often it can mean applying a creative mindset to an existing approach.

“In this case, it was shifting the focus of care for better results. The Children's Speech and Language Therapy (SLT) Team at NHS Forth Valley has produced a significant improvement by embedding therapists in schools and nurseries across Clackmannanshire, Falkirk, and Stirling.

“This represents an incredible example of transformative thinking from the workforce, and better use of resource in providing services, advice, and support across the Forth Valley area. In essence, exactly what we need at a challenging time.”

He added: “We’ve worked with the team before, so know just how much hard work is put in and how much potential is there. Their two awards are testament to fulfilling that promise.”

SLT Coordinator in NHS Forth Valley, Louisa McGuire said: “We’ve really just become a part of the team within the nurseries and the schools, and I think that in itself has taken away a barrier for some families who maybe didn’t want to access help before.”

Health Awards judges noted that the Children’s SLT Service had “reimagined traditional care by moving from clinic-based care to an embedded, school-centred model, with therapists now working directly with schools and nurseries”.

It was concluded that the “their bold redesign has reduced waiting times, improved literacy and empowered teachers and families”.

Judges also agreed that the “innovative approach breaks down barriers for disadvantaged children, cutting waiting times, improving literacy” and has “reduced exclusions and empowered communities”.

InnoScot Health previously worked with the Children’s SLT team at NHS Forth Valley on a resource pack called Colourful Semantics which helps children to develop spoken and written language skills.

The pack comprises ready-made session plans for teachers and other clinicians to follow, as well as vocabulary pictures, cue cards, sentence planners and worksheets. By coding sentences using colour, symbols and signs within a sentence, it assists children to build better structured sentences, ultimately supporting language improvement.

InnoScot Health helped to identify, and negotiate with, a publisher, successfully concluding an agreement, and is delighted to see the team going on to achieve further success.

The Awards — hosted by The Scotsman in partnership with NHS Scotland and The Scottish Government for a second year — were attended by over 500 guests from across Scotland.

At the Corn Exchange, Scotland’s Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care, Neil Gray paid tribute to “the incredible commitment, innovation, professionalism, and care and compassion that you all deliver in your local systems and help to spread across the National Health Service”.