Overview and catchment areas
The Spires Cleft Centre is one of nine specialist units in England and is a twin-site centre, providing care for all children with a cleft lip and / or palate born within two catchment areas: Oxford and Salisbury. These cover:
| Oxford Centre catchment area | Salisbury Centre catchment area |
|---|---|
| Aylesbury | Basingstoke |
| Basingstoke | Chichester |
| Milton Keynes | Dorchester |
| Oxford | Guernsey |
| Reading | Isle of Wight |
| Slough | Portsmouth |
| Swindon | Southampton |
We aim to work together with people born with a cleft lip and / or palate and their families to provide the highest possible standard of care. This care will start once your child has been diagnosed with a cleft lip and / or palate (often during pregnancy or when they are a newborn) and will continue into adulthood.
The service also provides for individuals with nasal speech caused by non-cleft velopharyngeal (palate) dysfunction; usually referred by speech and language therapy or the Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) department.
The Oxford team is based at the John Radcliffe Hospital and also holds a variety of clinics across the Oxford catchment area, including at the Great Western Hospital in Swindon, Wexham Park Hospital in Slough, West Berkshire Community Hospital in Newbury and Milton Keynes University Hospital in Milton Keynes. See Oxford centre – find and contact us for more information.
The Salisbury team is based at Salisbury District Hospital. All clinics are held here but we also offer some outreach clinics at St Mary’s Hospital, Isle of Wight. See Salisbury centre – find and contact us for more information.
Who is in the cleft team?
We are a multidisciplinary team of specialist clinicians who work closely together.
The team is made up of:
- Clinical nurse specialists
- Clinical psychologists
- Orthodontists
- Restorative dentists
- Plastic / cleft surgeons
- Maxillofacial surgeons
- Speech and language therapists
- Administration staff
- Clinical geneticists
- Audiologists
- Ear, nose and throat consultants
We also work closely with ward and theatre staff, as well as your local healthcare team (including health visitors, GPs and community paediatricians).
To find out more, see our multidisciplinary team.
Our clinics
We hold a wide variety of multidisciplinary clinics, including:
- Toddler clinics
- Review clinics
- Surgical clinics
- Palatal investigation clinics
For more information, see Oxford clinics and Salisbury clinics.