SPEECH AND LANGUAGE THERAPY CENTRES
Speech Therapy Centres: Batches, Fees and Therapist Capacity
A father calls about his three-year-old who is not yet talking, wants to start soon, and asks how many sessions it will take. Your desk improvises an answer. Two months on, the family is off the books and the Saturday morning slot remains empty. The business needs a better answer than improvisation.
Our work covers slot design, fees and package terms, therapist time and pay, parent communication routines and growth choices. We do not advise on therapy methods, diagnosis or any promise of progress. Your speech-language pathologists and the relevant councils decide what is clinically appropriate.
Discuss your priorities ↗COMMON CHALLENGES
The pressures
we often see.
- 01Demand clusters on after-school and weekend slots, so therapists are overbooked at those times and half-empty on weekday mornings.
- 02Parents ask how many sessions are needed, and without a careful written answer staff either overpromise or lose the family to a competitor with a clearer story.
- 03Some centres sell packages, some bill per session, and the mix creates confusion about who has paid ahead and who owes.
- 04Therapists spend unpaid time on parent calls, session notes and home-programme sheets, which is rarely counted when setting pay or fees.
- 05Group sessions, school visits and online work are tried without costing them, so the owner cannot say which formats earn more.
OUR FOCUS AREAS
Where the work
usually starts.
- 01Weekly slot grid by therapist, showing the peak after-school bands and the idle mornings.
- 02Intake call script that explains the process, the fee structure and the review point without promising an outcome.
- 03Package versus per-session families, with balance due and next payment date.
- 04Therapist time split between direct sessions, notes and parent communication.
- 05Group, school-visit and online session costing against one-to-one sessions.
- 06Attendance record by family and the reasons given for missed sessions.
- 07Home-programme material costs and who prepares them.
- 08A monthly review of utilisation, collections, drop-offs and therapist retention.
START THIS WEEK
Things you can do
before you call anyone.
- List the ten most recent first-call enquiries and what the desk told each. Compare the answers. If they differ, agree one short script with your lead therapist and use it from tomorrow.
- Add up the weekly hours therapists spend on parent calls and notes. Ask each to estimate. Compare with their paid hours. The gap is cost your fees may not be covering.
- Hypothetical example: a therapist with 30 session slots a week fills 22 and spends 6 hours on notes and calls. If you pay for 40 hours, only about 55 percent of paid time is billable. Look at the pricing and the schedule together.
A PRACTICAL ENGAGEMENT
Start with the priorities
that matter most.
We begin by understanding how your business runs today, find the gaps, and agree the scope in writing. Recommendations are shaped around your team, your resources and your goals.
- A slot-and-capacity sheet by therapist with a rule for peak hours.
- An intake script and a plain-language fee and package sheet for parents.
- A therapist time and pay review template including non-session hours.
- A session format costing comparison for one-to-one, group and online work.
Not the right fit when: A complaint about a child's therapy, a qualification query or a row with a school should go to your lead clinician, the council or a lawyer. Pricing and slots are not the cure.
Explore a business audit ↗LET’S MOVE YOUR BUSINESS FORWARD
