Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what information his Department holds on how many children are currently waiting for NHS speech and language therapy in the Devon Integrated Care Board area.

Community health services, including children’s speech and language therapy services, are locally commissioned to enable systems to best meet the needs of their communities.

In the Devon Integrated Care Board area, the average waiting time between referral and the start of National Health Service speech and language therapy for children aged zero to 11 years old is 68 weeks in Devon and Torbay and 24 weeks in Plymouth.

In Devon and Torbay there are currently 2,574 children and young people aged zero to 18 years old waiting for speech and language therapy services, 1,978 of which are aged zero to 11 years old.

In Plymouth there are currently 648 children and young people aged zero to 18 years old waiting for speech and language therapy services, 602 of which are aged zero to 11 years old.

We have set clear ambitions for community health services through our Medium-Term Planning Framework. By 2028/29 at least 80% of community health services activity should take place within 18 weeks, bringing community health services in line with targets for elective care.

In 2025, we published Standardising Community Health Services which provides an overview of core community health services. Setting clear expectations of the core community health services ICBs should be providing will support consistent delivery of community health services and effective commissioning, and improve patient access to care.