Speech and Language Therapy: Children
(asked on 15th January 2020) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to reduce waiting times for assessments for children's speech and language therapy.
The NHS Long Term Plan recognises the importance of speech and language therapy. Local areas will design and implement models of care that are age appropriate, closer to home and bring together physical and mental health services.
In the development of the NHS People Plan, the capacity requirements, as set out in the NHS Long Term Plan, have been modelled to ensure appropriate capacity for all the allied health professions. This includes speech and language therapy.
‘Advancing our health: prevention in the 2020s’, the Prevention Green Paper, confirmed the Government will continue to prioritise improving early speech and language outcomes as a preventative measure.
The following table shows the mean and median waiting time1 for a first outpatient attendance2 for patients aged under 18 with a treatment specialty of Speech and Language Therapy3 in England from 2017-18 to 2018-194.
Year | Total First Outpatient Attendances | Mean Waiting Time (days) | Median Waiting Time (days) |
2017-18 | 11,306 | 76 | 48 |
2018-19 | 9,740 | 87 | 59 |
Source: Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), NHS Digital
Notes:
Activity in English National Health Service hospitals and English NHS commissioned activity in the independent sector
1. The waiting time is the period in days between the date of the appointment date and either the referral request received date (reqdate) or the Did Not Attend date, if given. The waiting time is not calculated if reqdate is missing or invalid.
2 Attendances at outpatient clinics. Includes first attended and first telephone consultations, excludes did not attends and cancellations.
3. Treatment Speciality: A code that defines the specialty under which the consultant responsible for care of the patient is working, which may be different to the specialty under which the consultant is registered.
4. Assessing growth through time (Outpatients) HES figures are available from 2003-04 onwards. Changes to the figures over time need to be interpreted in the context of improvements in data quality and coverage (particularly in earlier years), improvements in coverage of independent sector activity (particularly from 2006-07) and changes in NHS practice. For example, changes in activity may be due to changes in the provision of care.
NHS Digital have advised that information on waiting times from assessment appointment is not held in the format requested as they are unable to identify in which appointment treatment started.