Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to improve access to speech and language therapy.

We inherited a broken National Health Service with waiting times across all areas unacceptably high. In his investigation into the NHS in England, Lord Darzi highlighted the crisis in children’s community services with too many children waiting too long for services, including speech and language therapy, impacting their wellbeing, education and life chances. Lord Darzi also made clear we need to need to focus on community services. Too many adults are waiting too long to receive speech and language therapy, negatively impacting their communication or swallowing abilities.

Through our 10-Year Health Plan, we will shift healthcare from hospitals to community. This shift to community services, like speech and language therapy, helps to prevent costly and intensive support later. Through the 10-Year Health Plan, we will revisit the Long Term Workforce Plan to ensure we have the right staff delivering the right services in the right place.

We continue to improve access to speech and language therapy, including though the Early Language and Support for Every Child (ELSEC) programme, with the Department of Education and NHS England. The ELSEC programme provides training and support to education settings, to increase their ability to support speech, language, and communication development.