Roadmap to joining the Trainee Section

Joining CLEFT has been one of the most rewarding things I’ve done since starting my masters degree in speech and language therapy. The process was easy, and my informal interview was more like brainstorming and sharing ideas with Shonnelly! We then met again to work out logistics - Shonnelly was able to put me in touch with Marie (SLT and CLEFT vice chair), allowing us to organise a podcast and talk with UCL masters students. Being part of the trainee team has allowed me to share my knowledge of speech and language therapy with a range of professionals and meet the wider CLEFT charity on our yearly away day.

If you are a Trainee in any of the areas of cleft care interested in getting more involved, we would love to here from you. If you would like to apply to join the Trainee Section, please take the first step and complete the application form which you can find by clicking the form below:

Apply to join the Trainee Section

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Keeping In Touch

In addition to contacting you with administration information such as when setting up a gift or volunteering, we'd love to keep you posted with our news, activities and how you can help in other ways.We'll never sell or swap your details with anybody else.

For more information see our privacy policy.

We'd love to keep you posted with our news, activities and how you can help in other ways. We'll never sell or swap your details with anybody else. You are free to change your mind at anytime. Please indicate how you would like to hear from us by using the tick boxes below

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Your Privacy

We will always store your personal details securely. We'll use them to provide the service that you have requested, and communicate with you in the way(s) that you have agreed to. Your data may also be used for analysis purposes, to help us provide the best service possible. For full details see our Privacy Policy or contact us on 01245 421901.

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Privacy Policy
At CLEFT, we’re committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. This Policy explains when and why we collect personal information about people who contact us, how we use it, the conditions under which we may disclose it to others and how we keep it secure.
We may change this Policy from time to time so please check this page occasionally to ensure that you’re happy with any changes. By using our website, you’re agreeing to be bound by this Policy.

Any questions regarding this Policy and our privacy practices should be sent by email to [email protected] or by writing to CLEFT, 10a Warren Estate, Lordship Road, Writtle, Chelmsford, Essex CM1 3WT. Alternatively, you can telephone 01245 421901.

Who are we?
We are CLEFT, we support cleft lip and palate teams in poorer countries by working with local surgeons and other specialists to help them develop high quality multidisciplinary cleft centres. We do this by visiting and working with them regularly, helping to provide education and training and donating much needed equipment. Our goal is to help local teams so that children born with clefts in these countries will have the same opportunities as those in the UK.

CLEFT also supports research in the UK which will potentially benefit the much greater number of cleft lip and palate patients in countries other than the UK. Our research projects include a pilot project to develop techniques for 3-D MRI scanning of the palate, a study of the muscles of the soft palate to try to improve the quality of the surgery as well as investigating submucous cleft palate development and therapy.

CLEFT is a registered charity (no. 1119630). The registered address is CLEFT, 10a Warren Estate, Lordship Road, Writtle, Chelmsford, Essex CM1 3WT.

How do we collect information from you?
We may obtain information about you when you contact us about what CLEFT does, register for one of our events, to make a donation or if you register to receive one of our newsletters.

What type of information is collected from you?
The personal information we collect might include your name, address, email address, phone number, and birth date. If you make a donation online or by phone, your card information is not held by us, it is collected by our third party payment processors, who specialise in the secure online capture and processing of credit/debit card transactions, as explained below.

How is your information used?
We may use your information to:
• process a donation that you have made;
• to carry out our obligations arising from any contracts entered into by you and us;
• seek your views or comments on the services we provide;
• notify you of changes to our services;
• send you communications which you have requested and that may be of interest to you. These may include information about campaigns, appeals, other fundraising activities;
• process a grant or job application.

We review our retention periods for personal information on a regular basis. We are legally required to hold some types of information to fulfil our statutory obligations (for example the collection of Gift Aid). We will hold your personal information on our systems for as long as is necessary for the relevant activity, or as long as is set out in any relevant contract you hold with us.

Who has access to your information?
We will not sell or rent your information to third parties.
We will not share your information with third parties for marketing purposes.

Third Party Service Providers working on our behalf: We may pass your information to our third party service providers, agents subcontractors and other associated organisations for the purposes of completing tasks and providing services to you on our behalf (for example to process donations and send you mailings). However, when we use third party service providers, we disclose only the personal information that is necessary to deliver the service and we have a contract in place that requires them to keep your information secure and not to use it for their own direct marketing purposes. Please be reassured that we will not release your information to third parties beyond the CLEFT Network for them to use for their own direct marketing purposes, unless you have requested us to do so, or we are required to do so by law, for example, by a court order or for the purposes of prevention of fraud or other crime.

Third Party Product Providers we work in association with: When you are using our secure online donation pages, your donation is processed by a third party payment processor, who specialises in the secure online capture and processing of credit/debit card transactions. If you have any questions regarding secure transactions, please contact us.

Your choices
You have a choice about whether or not you wish to receive information from us. If you do not want to receive direct marketing communications from us about the vital work we do in other countries and our research here in the UK then you can select your choices by ticking the relevant boxes situated on the form on which we collect your information.

We will not contact you for marketing purposes by email, phone or text message unless you have given your prior consent. We will not contact you for marketing purposes by post if you have indicated that you do not wish to be contacted. You can change your marketing preferences at any time by contacting us by email: [email protected] or telephone on 01245 421901.

How you can access and update your information
The accuracy of your information is important to us. We’re working on ways to make it easier for you to review and correct the information that we hold about you. In the meantime, if you change email address, or any of the other information we hold is inaccurate or out of date, please email us at: [email protected], or write to us at: CLEFT, 10a Warren Estate, Lordship Road, Writtle, Chelmsford, Essex CM1 3WT. Alternatively, you can telephone 01245 421901.
You have the right to ask for a copy of the information CLEFT hold about you.

Security precautions in place to protect the loss, misuse or alteration of your information
Non-sensitive details (your email address etc.) are transmitted normally over the Internet, and this can never be guaranteed to be 100% secure. As a result, while we strive to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of any information you transmit to us, and you do so at your own risk. Once we receive your information, we make our best effort to ensure its security on our systems.

Links to other websites
Our website may contain links to other websites run by other organisations. This privacy policy applies only to our website‚ so we encourage you to read the privacy statements on the other websites you visit. We cannot be responsible for the privacy policies and practices of other sites even if you access them using links from our website.

In addition, if you linked to our website from a third party site, we cannot be responsible for the privacy policies and practices of the owners and operators of that third party site and recommend that you check the policy of that third party site.

16 or Under
We are concerned to protect the privacy of children aged 16 or under. If you are aged 16 or under‚ please get your parent/guardian’s permission beforehand whenever you provide us with personal information.

Review of this Policy
We keep this Policy under regular review.

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I am a foundation doctor who graduated from UCL medical school in 2023, I now work at Southport Hospital in the Merseyside and West Lancashire NHS trust.
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Celebrate CLEFT Summer BBQ Event

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A Dynamic Speech and Language Therapy Workshop

This June, Marie Pinkstone (CLEFT Trustee) and Izzy Snape, one of our Trainee section members, introduced CLEFT to Speech and Language Therapy (SLT) students at University College London. Their presentation coincided with the North Thames Cleft Service's lectures at Great Ormond Street Hospital and aimed to showcase CLEFT's history, ethos, and opportunities for involvement.
Trainee Presentations at the 2024 CFSGBI Conference

The annual conference held by the Craniofacial Society of Great Britain and Ireland 2024 took place in Manchester this April. The conference is always a fantastic opportunity for new and experienced clinicians to meet and share information on a wide variety of subjects. CLEFT was very proud to see three members of the Trainee Section deliver presentations, and one member contributed to an academic poster.
Trainee Video Series Highlights CLEFT Expertise

Shonnelly Novintan has created some insightful videos by collaborating with clinicians from the CLEFT Trustee board and steering committees. The videos look at why they pursued their chosen career paths, what their motivation was for joining the CLEFT charity and what advice they would give trainee surgeons thinking about pursuing a career in cleft care.
Dorney Duathlon 2024 Success

Will and Shonnelly, the Chairs of the CLEFT Trainee Section, conquered the Dorney Duathlon and raised an amazing £1223.
Shonnelly, Chair of the Trainee Section

Shonnelly Novintan is Chair of the Trainee Section and is one of the founding members of this group. The Trainee Section has quietly and carefully found its place within the charity and we are exceptionally proud of the group's enthusiasm and commitment. Shonnelly has some exciting plans for the year ahead so watch this space!
How to join the Trainee Section

If you are a trainee working in one of the specialties of cleft care and interested in being part of our Trainee Section, find out here how you can get involved.
Trainee Section: Current Projects

Find out what our Trainee Section is up to and the projects they are involved with.

Sheikh Hasina National Institute of Burns and Plastic Surgery

We are working with Bangladeshi specialists at the new Sheikh Hasina National Institute of Burns and Plastic Surgery to create a sustainable centre to treat children with cleft lip and palate.
Our mission

CLEFT was established in 2007 with one aim, to help improve the lives of children born with cleft lip and palate, either by funding research into the likely causes of the condition or by helping support teams in lower and middle income countries.
Nawrin and the C-Arm

This important piece of equipment was supplied by CLEFT and is used to see moving images of the cleft palate. Nawrin is a 13 year old girl who was experiencing speech difficulties and needed the C-Arm to show the cleft team if further surgery was required.
Donate

You can make a one-off donation today or sign up to giving a regular monthly gift. All donations, small or large, will help us to improve the lives of those born with cleft lip and palate both now and in the future. 100% of your donation today will go towards funding an international or research project thanks to a charitable trust covering all our administrative costs until February 2025.
About us

CLEFT was established in 2007 by cleft surgeon Brian Sommerlad - based at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, together with a former patient and a patient's grandmother.
Our research vision

At CLEFT, our vision is of a future where clefts are preventable. Until we get there, we want to improve the lives of those born with cleft lip and palate.
Trusts and Foundations

Today, 1-in-700 babies in the UK are born with a cleft lip and palate, the most common form of birth defect. The impact on a child’s life as they grow is profound. Typically, they will need at least four operations. They may also require ongoing tests, treatment or therapy. It will affect the way they look but also their speech, hearing and dental development. It can leave deep psychological scars.
The genetics of cleft lip and palate

Investigations into the genetics of cleft lip and palate to understand more about why cleft lip and palate occurs.
Brian Sommerlad, Consultant Plastic Surgeon and Chair of Trustees

For over 40 years, I have been involved in operating on babies, children and adults who have been born with cleft lip and/or palate.
FOXF2 gene discovery

A genetic defect has been identified in a family from Egypt with a type of palate abnormality and speech disorder apparently not previously described. The FOXF2 research is one of the many projects currently funded by CLEFT, paid for with money raised by our donors and fundraisers.