Speech therapists: sharing out after-school sessions fairly

After-school hours are the scarcest time in a speech therapist's week, so treat them as a resource to share, not first come, first served. Count how many after-school sessions you really have, give them to the children who can't come at any other time, keep daytime slots for adults and younger children who aren't at school all day, and book each child's weekly session yourself so it stays theirs. Review the allocation at each new school year and whenever a child's therapy ends, so the hours go to whoever needs them next.

Children in regular therapy come every week, often for months. They can only come outside school hours, and so can their parents, who also have to leave work. That puts children's sessions on a few hours a day: late afternoon, early evening, and whichever half-day local schools finish early. Meanwhile, your mornings and early afternoons can stay half empty.

If those hours go to whoever calls first, a family with a flexible schedule can take a slot that a child with no other option desperately needs. A little planning makes the week fairer and fuller.

Write down, day by day, the sessions you can fit between the end of school and the time you stop. With 30-minute sessions and a few minutes between children, that's a limited number per day. Multiply by your working days and you know how many children can have an after-school slot each week. That number is your hard limit; the rest of your caseload needs to fit elsewhere.

Decide your own criteria and apply them the same way to every family. For example: children who can't come at any other time first; then children whose parents can bring them earlier on some days; then the rest. When a family can come at another time, even once in a while, offer that first and keep the after-school slot for someone who can't.

Once a child has a weekly slot, book it yourself from your calendar for the coming weeks, up to the next school holidays. Each booked slot is removed from your page, so no one else can take it. On Book, each type of session is a service with its own price and optional description, and you open slots for each at the length it takes; you can repeat slots every week on the weekdays you choose, until an end date.

Adults in rehabilitation, retired patients and people who work flexible hours can often come during the day. Open adult sessions and assessments in the morning and early afternoon, and say in their descriptions that they're daytime sessions. That keeps the after-school slots free for children and fills the quieter part of your day.

Slots of different services can overlap, and a booking on one doesn't block another service's slot at the same time. Open child sessions and adult sessions in separate periods rather than on top of each other.

School timetables and activities change at the start of the year and sometimes after the holidays. Plan a review at those points: which children continue, whose timetable has changed, who has finished therapy. Free after-school slots go to the next child waiting for one, not simply to the next person who opens your page.

For one-off changes, such as a school trip or illness, reschedule or cancel from your bookings list and let the family know yourself, since Book doesn't email them when you change a booking. The freed slot becomes available again on your page unless you rebook it for someone else.

New families usually start with an assessment. Make it its own service, open its slots at times that don't eat into your weekly after-school sessions, and say in the description how long it lasts and what to bring, such as a referral or prescription if you need one and school reports. Families book without an account and receive a confirmation email; you receive an email for each new booking.