Effective provision of AAC and EC interventions involve support from local services and specialised services working together in one pathway. Our team provides specialised Assistive Technology as part of these pathways and has a remit to support local service provision and commissioning.

Direct support of local services is through provision of our training and resources that aim to support AAC and EC interventions at a local level. We have a network of Local Links staff members who you can contact to discuss provision of these interventions in your local area.

We also work with local services and commissioners to support commissioning of the AAC and EC pathways.

South Yorkshire Assistive Technology Loan Bank (Children and Young People)

Our pilot managed loan bank for children and young people in South Yorkshire will be up and running very soon. We would like to invite anyone who wants to come and look at the potential equipment available, to visit the team on Thursday 14^th March 10am – 12pm. There will be the opportunity to explore what the equipment available can do. Please email Sally at sally.darley1@nhs.net to confirm your attendance.

The managed loan bank for children and young people in South Yorkshire will run as a project until December 2024, funded by South Yorkshire Integrated Care Board. Local teams (Sheffield, Barnsley, Rotherham and Doncaster) will be able to refer for a loan of equipment (up to three months). Local professionals will complete a request form detailing what they want to loan, the goal of the loan, how they will evaluate the loan and how they will seek funding if the loan is successful. Loans will be provided to enable assessment and to then enable funding to be sought via a different route e.g. Individual Funding Request.

Access to Electronic Assistive Technologies (EAT): Exploring local services and pathways to access technology for health and care in South Yorkshire

EAT Report

In 2023 the South Yorkshire Integrated Care Board commissioned work to explore the local pathways and services that support and provide electronic assistive technology for people who have health and care needs. The report is available to download here. The report recommended:

• Workforce development – embedding technical leads at all levels in each
  organisation or service-level provider to help establish the skills and
  knowledge of independence enhancing technologies that are required to
  support more equitable access to EAT.
• A regional equipment supply service – to support local services to be able to
  improve the specificity of their assessment and provide opportunities to
  people to experience EAT equipment that is currently unavailable, and therefore ‘unknown’.
• System-wide messaging about technology for independent control – to ensure people working across the system will benefit from regular and contemporary messaging about the technology to enhance independent control that is available in the region, and how it can be accessed.

South Yorkshire EAT Launch Event

In November 2023, the EAT report was launched and over 100 delegates from around South Yorkshire from a range of services supporting EAT attended a launch event hosted by the ICB.  The event was captured in these illustrations by Nifty Fox Creative.