Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans NHS England has to ensure that every child and adolescent mental health service includes speech and language therapists.

The NHS Long Term Plan, published on 7 January 2019 sets out where extra National Health Service funding will be focused and how services will be designed, including the importance of ensuring speech and language therapy is joined up with children’s mental health services. Work will take place with local areas to design and implement models of care for children and young people that are age appropriate, closer to home and bring together physical and mental health services. These models will support health development by providing holistic care across local authority and NHS services, including primary care, community services, speech and language therapy, school nursing, oral health, acute and specialised services.