Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Education on the role of speech and language therapy services in developing communication and literacy skills.

The Department of Health and Social Care are working with the Department for Education and Public Health England to enable early years professionals to identify and support children’s early speech, language and communication needs. In an exchange of letters with the former Minister of State for Children and Families (Robert Goodwill MP) last November, the Department agreed to ensure that we and Public Health England prioritise the required activities to support the social mobility action plan launched in December 2017. Detailed work is ongoing between the Department for Education and Public Health England.