FAQs
These questions have been based upon the enquiries we receive via social media, phone or email on a daily basis. The information here has been compiled by CLAPA with the help of Cleft Teams, the Adult Voices Council and CLAPA Peer Supporters.
Here we have collected together some of the most common questions we receive about cleft lip and palate from parents/carers of children with a cleft, as well as adults with a cleft. These FAQs are a work in progress and will be added to over time.
For more information on cleft lip and palate or the treatment pathway, check our Treatment section, or use our search page to look through the entire site.
If you have a question that isn’t answered anywhere on our site, get in touch with us or your Cleft Team.
Parents & Carers FAQ
The general Parents & Carers FAQ is currently in production – check back soon for more!
In the meantime, we have three FAQs for parents and carers about specific topics:
Here we’ve aimed to collect together all the questions about cleft surgery you may have forgotten to ask, or may not have known you had. There is also much more information in our Repair Surgery Section.
School Absences (along with a Sample Letter to Schools)
CLAPA receives many queries from parents of children with a cleft about how best to deal with the impact of medical/speech therapy appointments on school absences. We have asked Ros Gowers, Independent Education Social Worker, Oaktree Co-Operative, to answer some frequently asked questions.
It’s something you may not have thought about when considering how having a child with a cleft might affect you. Even though treatment is provided free of charge on the NHS, for many families the costs can be higher than they’d expected.
With this in mind, CLAPA has created a Financial Help Factsheet to help you to navigate the world of benefits, tax credits and grants that you may be entitled to in order to help you cover the costs of caring for your child. We hope this helps parents and carers to better understand what is available out there and how they can go about applying.
Please note: we can only offer information about what is available, we cannot give advice about how to applying for any of these benefits and grants. For this, we strongly suggest you contact your local Citizen’s Advice Bureau or an independent welfare rights agency. All the information listed in this factsheet was correct to the best of our knowledge as of March 2014. Please contact [email protected] if you have any questions, comments or suggestions related to this factsheet.
Adults FAQ
These questions have been based upon the enquiries we receive via social media, phone or email on a daily basis. This set of questions and answers have been compiled by CLAPA with the help of Cleft Teams, the Adult Voices Council and CLAPA Peer Contacts.
Please click this link to access our FAQs from our returning to Cleft Care pack, here you will find answers to some of the most common questions about cleft in adulthood.
Click here for the adult FAQs
To access any of our resources for adults please click here
The resources which are available are:
Cleft talk podcasts
Employment webinars
Research pages
Adult services
In any circumstance, do not feel afraid or ashamed to ask for help, whether this is from CLAPA or your Cleft Team. Get in touch with CLAPA directly, find a Peer Contact, or join our Facebook Group.