Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the level of uptake of the joint Best start in speech, language and communication guidance among local commissioners and service leads.

A survey has been sent to practitioners in England who attended training on the new Early Language Identification Measure and Intervention in 2021 to assess awareness of the guidance and whether speech, language and communication pathways are in place. In addition, regional early years speech, language and communication communities of practice facilitated by Departmental officials took place between July and November 2021 and are continuing into 2022 to share best practice on the use and implementation of the guidance.