Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Georgia Gould and Josh Fenton-Glynn(1 week, 6 days ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
The Minister for School Standards (Georgia Gould)
The Department is working closely with the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England to improve access to community health services, including speech and language therapy for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities, and we have extended the early language support for every child programme.
Josh Fenton-Glynn
Currently, about 60,000 children are waiting for their first speech and language therapy appointment, and some are waiting for over a year. As with a lot of SEND problems, this happens because health and education are not working that well together. Can the Minister tell me what we are doing to bring allied health professionals—including speech and language therapists—closer to schools, so that families do not fall through the cracks?
Georgia Gould
I welcomed the opportunity to discuss this issue with my hon. Friend last week, and I am grateful for his work on the Health and Social Care Committee on the subject. We agreed about the need for partners to work together to fix the SEND system, and I will be working closely with Ministers from the Department of Health and Social Care to move towards a better system which works for all.