The Symbol Trust

Symbol Trust is an independent registered charity which is affiliated to its parent company Symbol UK. Established in April 2003, the charity was set up by Tessa and Chris Duffy, husband and wife and co directors of Symbol UK.

The success of the company over the last decade in developing innovative models of speech and language therapy intervention, had led to the realisation that there existed a huge unmet need for new and pioneering work to be passed on to carers and health-care professionals outside of the scope of the company.

In addition, there were a growing number of individuals in need, seeking to access the company’s services with little or no means to pay for them. This more often led the company to provide its therapy services for free, but without the safety net in funding to afford to do so.

Therefore the creation of the Symbol Trust charity has been a huge boost for the many individuals and organizations seeking our unique brand of help.

Aims and Objectives

The Trust raises funds to:

• Develop and deliver new projects and activities of direct benefit to people with special needs and their families
• Provide access to existing services for clients in acute need and their families and careers
• Undertake research programs which will increase the knowledge base concerned with the needs of, and appropriate interventions for, adults and children with special needs
• Publish and disseminate information about models of best practice in improving the independence, communication, eating and drinking skills of people with special needs
• Develop and provide training programmes for health, education and social service practitioners, and parents and carers; which will share best practice and increase expertise and knowledge amongst those working with, and caring for, adults and children with special needs

The charity will support projects to help people with learning disabilities to fulfill their potential. We will also tackle the significant lack of awareness and understanding by professionals (and as a consequence new parents) of how much can be achieved by these children and adults if given the right support.

Background to Symbol (UK) Ltd

In 1995, Tessa Duffy set up an independent Speech and Language Therapy service within a not for profit organisation. By 1998, this service had grown in size and reputation to the point where it could stand-alone and it became a separate company, Symbol (UK) Ltd. Symbol has concentrated on recruiting high quality therapists and these therapists have moved the boundaries of what is now considered possible with some client groups. This commitment to quality has meant that we have often been asked to assist other organisations in new projects including the following:

• Working with the NSPCC and police to develop new protocols for interviewing vulnerable children and adults with learning disabilities in abuse cases
• Researching and piloting services for Young Offenders - demonstrating the level of learning disabilities that offenders have to cope with (i.e. communications problems)
• Designing and operating a service evaluation program to quality check special needs nursery facilities on behalf of a national charity