Terms & Conditions

TERMS & CONDITIONS 2023

These Terms & Conditions set out the expectations for the client and the Therapist. They govern the contract between the family and the Therapist and ensure that both parties are protected in the unlikely event that a disagreement occurs.

Please read the Terms & Conditions and contact Let’s Verbalise if you have any questions.

A) Initial Consultation (Assessment):

1. You will receive an email confirming the details of your child’s first appointment including date, time, location and fee. You will also be sent a pre-consultation Case History to complete and Terms & Conditions to be signed. Both documents must be returned to the Therapist prior to or at the first appointment.
2. At the end of the Initial Consultation, the Therapist will explain whether your child requires further speech and language therapy support. This may be further assessment, or therapy.
3. The Therapist will let you know whether they or a colleague have the correct skills and experience to meet your child’s needs.
4. Other professionals will be signposted to you if necessary.
5. Sessions can take place at our practice in Sheffield (S118AU), in your home or at your child’s educational establishment.

B) Further Sessions:

1. Your child must have attended an Initial Consultation before commencing therapy. This enables an appropriate intervention plan to be established.
2. Therapy sessions can be arranged in your home, at our practice and/or within your child’s educational setting.
3. Therapy appointments will be agreed and booked in advance. Several sessions at the point of booking will be agreed.
4. The need for further sessions will be reviewed at the end of each block of sessions.
5. Therapy sessions last up to an hour unless agreed otherwise. This hour may include direct work with your child, discussion of progress, demonstration/explanation of follow-up activities with parents and/or education staff and writing-up of notes.
6. No fee will be charged for time spent planning outside of the therapy sessions.
7. Liaison fees will be charged for phone calls or discussions lasting over 30 minutes.

C) Fees:

1. Initial Consultation: £95 + mileage (see Section G)
   This includes case history, formal and informal assessment as required and parental discussion and advice.

2. Initial Consultation Summary (optional): £15
   This is an optional written summary, briefly outlining the findings of the initial consultation and recommendations.
   

3. Pay As You Go sessions: £80 + mileage (see Section G)

• Sessions can be delivered at our practice, in your home or education environment. · This includes targets which are set and evaluated on an ongoing basis and will be shared with parents/carers. These can be shared with the team around the child with parental consent.
• A session normally lasts between 45 minutes to one hour. This is time spent with the child and parents or teachers.
• The fee also includes time spent outside the consultation in preparation of material, planning, and liaising with parents and professionals.
• It is often difficult to estimate the exact number of sessions of therapy that will be necessary. It is usual practice to offer 6 pre-agreed treatment sessions, with an opportunity to review management options with you at the end of that period.
• Therapy is usually effective but cannot be guaranteed.
• Parents are free to withdraw their child from therapy at any time. Equally, if the therapist feels that therapy is at any time not being effective, then they will discuss this with you and may recommend that it stops.

5. School or Home Programme writing: £80 per hour

Programmes of activities and resources can be written for home and for school. These will include targets, rationales and specific therapy activities that can be carried out by supporting adults.

6. Report writing: from £80 per hour (NB: prices are approximate – detailed quotes will be provided upon request)

• Short Summary Report – approx. 1 hour report writing – from £80

These reports provide a summary of skills, needs and recommendations, an overview of therapeutic input.

• Detailed Assessment Reports – approx. 3 hours report writing – from £240
• These reports include detailed analysis of formal assessments, strengths and areas of need and client specific recommendation They can also include Education Health and Care Plan (EHCP) recommendations.
• Before the assessment begins, the Therapist will advise on the number of assessment sessions required and an estimate of report writing costs.
• Formal assessments are standardised and objective. Findings may differ from the expectations of parents/carers and may not tell you anything new.
• Your agreement will be sought prior to the SLT undertaking any additional work that will incur further fees e.g. meeting attendance, letter writing etc.

D) Fee Changes:

1. Fees are subject to annual increases from 1 April each year.
2. Existing clients will be given 6 weeks’ notice of any changes in fees

E) Payment Terms:

1. Invoices will be issued at the end of each month via email.
2. Invoices must be paid within 10 days of the invoice date.
3. Preferred method of payment is via bank transfer to the account written at the bottom of the invoices.
4. Cash or cheque payments are also accepted.

F) Non-Payment:

The following process will apply in the event of non-payment:

1. You will be contacted to remind you that payment is overdue.
2. If an invoice is not paid within 7 days thereafter, you will receive written notice that therapy is suspended pending payment in full
3. If payment is not received in full within 7 days of therapy being suspended, Let’s Verbalise reserves the right to refer the matter to a solicitor and to commence legal action.

G) Travel:

1. Mileage is charged for each therapy session at 55p per mile. This will be charged to and from our S11 therapy base
2. Travel times and mileage are calculated using Google maps 4. All journeys are calculated from the S11 therapy base.

H) Cancellations:

1. If the Therapist needs to cancel an appointment, they will let you know as soon as possible and reschedule the appointment. Let’s Verbalise understands that there may be certain situations (such as illness or family circumstances) which mean that you need to cancel an appointment at short notice.
2. If you do need to cancel an appointment please contact the Therapist as soon as possible, copying in the email address info@letsverbalise.com
3. Any cancellations within 24 hours’ notice, will be charged in full or at the Director’s discretion.
4. The fee will be charged if the Therapist turns up be it at the home or school/nursery and the client is unavailable due to being, as examples, on a school trip, show rehearsals and/or other extra-curricular activities.
5. The Invoice payer must inform us of any cancellations.

I) Non-Attendance:

1. The full session fee will apply in the event of non-attendance. Non-attendance includes if you are not in when the Therapist comes to an appointment at your home and/or if your child is not within their educational setting when the Therapist attends an arranged visit.
2. It is your responsibility to inform the Therapist if your child is not going to be at school or nursery for a session.

J) Clinic Sessions:

1. Let’s Verbalise practice base is: Sharrow Head House, 364 Sharrow Lane, Sheffield S11 8AU.
2. Let’s Verbalise cannot be held responsible for any injury or property damage that occurs when visiting.

K) Resources:

1. Unless otherwise agreed the cost of any resources provided to you are included in the session fees. 2. A copy of resources for school or nurseries can also be provided at no extra charge.
2. Further copies can be provided at additional cost (price given on enquiry).

L) Data Protection: Please see Privacy Policy

1. Let’s Verbalise Ltd is registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). The Data Controller is Hannah McDiarmid nee Jones. Our ICO Registration Reference is: ZA192762.
2. All client details, case notes and correspondence will be stored securely and treated confidentially according to General Data Protection Regulations and the Data Protection Act 1988.
3. Information is stored on a secure electronic system called “WriteUpp”. Reports and programmes are password protected.
4. Any paper based confidential information is stored securely in accordance with General Data Protection Regulations and the Data Protection Act 1988.
5. In accordance with law, all records will be kept securely until your child is 25 years old. After this time all records relating to your child will be destroyed.
6. 6. For further information please refer to the Let’s Verbalise Ltd Privacy Policy which will be emailed to you when confirming your initial appointment.

M) Safeguarding:

1. All Therapists working for Let’s Verbalise are required to have Enhanced DBS Checks.
2. Clients may see the SLT’s DBS Enhanced Disclosure at any time.
3. In the event of a safeguarding concern, where your child or another person is at risk of harm, the SLTs have a legal obligation to share that information with relevant professionals in line with the Safeguarding Children’s Act 2004.

N) Liaison with other professionals:

1. To offer the best service to your child it is often important for the Therapist to liaise with other professionals involved in their care.
2. This may include people such as NHS Speech and Language Therapists, school/nursery staff, your GP or other medical/educational staff.
3. Liaison will only take place following parental consent to do so.

O) Working Hours & Availability:

1. The Practice Manager, Andrea Cooper, works Monday to Friday. Client Coordinator, Ellie Smith, works Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.
2. Therapists work with us on a part-time and full-time basis and will ensure their working days are known to you.
3. Therapists can be contacted by email or phone and aim to respond by their next working day.
4. Any urgent enquiries, concerns or questions should be sent to Andrea and Ellie at info@letsverbalise.com

P) Use Of Video:

1. Some assessment and therapy techniques may involve the use of video to record your child playing with you or to monitor progress throughout therapy blocks.
2. The videos are temporarily stored on a password protected tablet. Once the video has been used as needed in therapy it will be deleted. No copies will be retained.
3. If the Therapist would like to use any videos for teaching or training purposes, further consent to the signature below, will be obtained.

Q) Electronic Communication:

1. Email is not a 100% secure method of communication. With your consent, it will be used for correspondence and to send letters, reports and other documents.
2. Documents will be password protected and/or saved in Printed Document Format (PDF). 3. Correspondence via email to other professionals will be copied to you as necessary. 4. Within emails to professionals, your child will be referred to by their initials only.

S) Complaints:

1. In the unlikely event that you are not satisfied with this service please discuss any complaints or concerns you have with your therapist in the first instance, as they may be easily resolved through discussion.
2. If matters are not resolved, please contact the Directors, Hannah & Katie, at info@letsverbalise.com
3. If Let’s Verbalise are unable to resolve the difficulty, then please contact the Association of Speech and Language Therapists in Independent Practice at www.helpwithtalking.com