Jane Chapman

Jane Chapman, Speech and Language Therapist, Joint Lead for Children’s Services, Your Healthcare CiC, Kingston

“I have worked in the NHS for 37 years across four different community services, including Tower Hamlets and Wandsworth.  I’ve been in Kingston since 1990. I currently lead (with Carmel Brady) the Children’s Speech and Language Therapy Service in Kingston, through Your Healthcare CIC. Your Healthcare is a social enterprise and therefore a not-for-profit organisation.  This has given us the freedom to invest in services according to where the needs are at any given time.  We have been supported in this with a strong working relationship with our CCG commissioner, who was proactive in encouraging us to redesign our service in the last few years.

Our independently led team approach means that all team members share a core set of values which puts the children and families at the centre of what we do.  Whilst we are responsible and accountable for how public money is spent, we are not constrained by systems, rather, we design the processes to best meet the needs of our population.  We have a very good working relationship with our partners in education and social care through Achieving for Children and we respect and value each other’s skills. My clinical role on the autism diagnostic team is an aspect of my job I love. I’m with parents when they are being told life changing news about their child. I am proud of the fact that I’m part of a multi-disciplinary team that shares the diagnosis in a way that celebrates the child’s strengths as well as their needs and is aware of all the support that is available across the borough, which helps parents feel supported.”