Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether mainstream schools are able to use the School-Led tutoring grant to pay for additional speech and language therapy support, where children have fallen behind in their speech, language and communication development as a result of the covid-19 outbreak.

There are a limited number of speech and language therapists (SALTs) available in the sector and their remit must remain on providing speech and language therapy. Therefore, the school-led tutoring (SLT) grant cannot be used to help subsidise the cost of SALTs. This applies to all schools, including special schools

However, special schools can use their higher rate of recovery premium funding to help subsidise the cost of SALTs should they wish to do so.

In special schools, the SLT grant can be used for tutoring to support catch-up in the broader curriculum, such as practising and consolidating techniques in speech and language therapy. In practice, tutors and internal staff will understand the pupils’ individual learning needs and can ensure support is tailored accordingly. They may also choose to support pupils further by incorporating exercises set by the SALT into the tutoring session. It is important to note that this provision must be additional to a pupil’s existing learning programme set out by the school or an education, health and care plan.