Once you have contacted DiverseOT, we will schedule an initial call to discuss your needs and to determine if you are suitable for our support. If we feel our service is suitable for you, we will email further information about what we offer and our fees. If you would like to go ahead and book a session with us, please email us, and we will contact you to discuss where and when the session will take place and your options following the session.
We will email you a set of forms to SIGN and RETURN before your initial assessment session. These forms may be emailed or posted to us before your initial appointment.

Upon receipt of signed copies of the forms we have emailed to you, we will give you confirmation of the initial assessment date, time and venue. The initial assessment can take up to 90 mins.
Initial assessments can take place at home, workplace, public place of your choosing or a Kent Library. If this appointment is taking place at your home, you may have two therapists for the initial meeting due to a lone working policy. We will agree with you in advance which venue is most suitable for you. During the initial session, we will take a full background history from you (and other health professionals where appropriate). We use Triangle Star assessments to gather information about your life/needs, you will be asked to sign a consent form for this.

An initial assessment session includes a print out of the findings from our discussion and the agreed action plan which will be emailed to you within 2 weeks. You can then check you are happy with this and come back to us if you have any queries about it.
If you have any queries or would like amendments made to the document or action plan, we would be happy to discuss this. However, if we disagree clinically and professionally with suggested amendments, we reserve the right to state this in the document.
Clinical reports may be distributed at your request to employers, education staff and/or other professionals involved in your care. Consent will be sought for this prior to distribution. Consent for children (under 16) will be sought from parents. For older students (16+) consent will be sought from them as deemed appropriate.
If we feel that we lack sufficient information to provide a comprehensive and reflective report, and you decide against further assessment, we reserve the right to state this in our report.
Advice will be provided within the report, with signposting to any relevant, commercially available resources, as well as general and/or specific strategies.
This does NOT include specific therapy assessments or resources. If we feel you need specific assessments, these will be discussed with you and you can consider your options.

If therapy is recommended following the initial assessment, we will offer Occupational Therapy sessions tailored specifically to your needs to help you achieve the goals set on your action plan.

Frequency of therapy sessions will be agreed jointly. Sessions may be weekly, fortnightly, or monthly etc. depending on your needs, this will be reviewed regularly.

Each therapy session will last an hour; timings will be strictly adhered to due to the knock-on effect it will have with the clinicians’ other appointments. Longer appointments can be discussed if we feel this is suitable for your needs as often individuals find one hour is enough to enable them to fully process what is discussed. If longer sessions are deemed appropriate, you will be charged accordingly.

Where therapy sessions overrun by more than 15 minutes on a REGULAR basis, an additional hourly fee will be charged.

If you no longer require DiverseOT, you may end therapy sessions at any point without penalties.
Equally, if we feel that therapy sessions should come to an end (e.g. you meet your occupational goals and no longer need our input, you require specialist intervention or you do not engage with therapy sessions), we will raise this with you and suggest drawing therapy to a close. We aim to keep our interventions short-term.
You will be provided a short summary report following termination of therapy sessions

If we feel that we do not possess the appropriate skills, training or specialism to offer assessment or therapy to you, we will raise this with you and try to suggest alternative options.
Conflict of interest: If you are receiving input from KCHFT Autism service, we will not be able to offer you our service at the time you are receiving support from the NHS. This is because we are employed by KCHFT Autism Service and this would be a conflict of interest.

We will provide resources for all therapy sessions should they be needed and signpost you to suitable resources should we feel you would benefit them. These will be your responsibility and choice to purchase.

We will also attempt to signpost you to any free or downloadable resources that may help you.

Additional liaison meetings/telephone calls to others/letter writing will be charged at the hourly rate.
Parents/carers/ education staff may request additional resources, but these will also be charged for at the hourly rate for the length of time it takes to create them. (Please see payment and pricing).

We reserve the right to cancel an appointment with less than 24 hours’ notice, but we will contact you as soon as we know the session must be cancelled. No charges will be incurred if we cancel.
Please try to provide at least 24 hours’ notice if you need to cancel a session, although we do understand that this may not be possible in emergencies. In cases where we arrive at the session without prior notice of cancellation, we will charge for the session.
Any cancelled sessions will be rearranged at a time that is suitable for you and your therapist.

Prices are as follows:
Initial Assessment including full case history, formal (where appropriate) and informal assessment, verbal feedback and advice, assessment summary sheet and comprehensive assessment report: £200
Speech Therapy Session including target setting and targets sheet (initial session only), therapy, therapy resources, verbal feedback, written practice sheet, one set of practice resources and a final, completed targets sheet and summary report (following final session): £75 per session
Telephone / Video Consultation Session including discussion with parent/carer regarding child’s progress, explanation of what to work on next and provision of any speech resources needed: £40 per session
Additional Services such as letter writing, attendance at meetings, additional resource making are charged at the hourly rate of: £80 per hour (final cost is dependent on time taken, e.g. a letter taking 15 minutes to write would cost £20).
Invoices will be sent via email after each session (assessment or therapy). Payment is due within 5 days from the date of the session. Payment may be made via cash or bank transfer.
Late Payment policy: If I have not received payment by the end of the due date, I will issue a polite reminder. If I have still not received payment by the 7th day following the session, I reserve the right to make an additional 10% of session price charge, “Late Payment Fee.”
I reserve the right to refuse to release the assessment report, or to postpone the next therapy session, until payment is received
Fees will be reviewed from time to time and are subject to change. Any change will take effect from the beginning of the new academic term with at least a month’s notice given of any increase.

My first 10 miles of total travel for a session (i.e. up to 5 miles there, 5 miles return) is free of charge.​
To cover additional fuel and time costs, travel charges for return journeys over 10 miles will be charged at 45p per mile.

We do not attend homes where smoking takes place inside the house. Please inform us if anyone smokes in your house, and we will arrange an alternative location for the session. We reserve the right to leave a house immediately if it is apparent that smoking has taken place inside it; we will charge the full session fee in these circumstances.

We understand the importance of consent and will request consent regarding information sharing and correspondence. If there are any areas that you do not consent to, we will adhere strictly to your wishes. If lack of consent prevents us from working in the way that we feel is best for you, we can discuss the situation and try to decide upon alternative options. You will be requested to sign a consent form prior to commencing therapy.

With your signed consent, email will be used for correspondence and to send information, summaries of sessions, reports, and invoices. Please be aware that email is not a 100% secure method of communication. Documents containing sensitive or easily identifiable information will be password protected and saved in Printed Document Format (PDF). A separate email will be sent with the password to the email containing the report.

As practicing professional clinicians, we are bound by standards within the HCPC (Health and Care Professions Council) rights to practice, and as members of the RCOT (Royal College of Occupational Therapists), to uphold strict confidentiality of information gathered through the therapy process.
We adhere to the Caldicott Principles of only sharing information when it is absolutely necessary and may share this information if we feel there is a significant danger or safeguarding issue. Wherever possible, we will seek consent to share this information unless doing so will create more harm. In the event of a safeguarding concern with children, we have a legal obligation to share information with relevant professionals in line with the Safeguarding Children’s Act 2004.

In accordance with the Data Protection Act 2018 and GDPR, we are bound to process your data with your informed consent. We do not use any information for marketing purposes and will only share information with those whom you specify in your consent form.

Any digital information we keep related to you is password protected, and paper-based information will be scanned and stored electronically. Paper documentation will then be shredded. We will liaise by email and telephone unless you have not consented to this. Please be aware that, as with any digital service, security may be at risk of hacking. We try to use minimal personal identifiable information in digital communications i.e. first name or initials only. We also request you confirm with us when you have received reports that contain more sensitive and detailed information. The Royal College of Occupational Therapists advises us that written or digital records are kept until the child young person’s 25th birthday. Please be aware that WhatsApp and Zoom are not considered to be highly secure.

We are registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) as a Data Controller. You can view our ICO registration online. You may apply in writing to access a copy of your notes or to request modifications of any inaccuracies. These requests will be dealt with within 30 days. For further information, please refer to our Privacy Policy. You have the right to change your consent to data sharing, either verbally or written, and therapeutic intervention at any point.

The consent form includes permission to share information with relevant professionals. These usually include education staff, GPs, social workers and other health professionals. Being able to share information allows for a joined-up approach to supporting you.