Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of whether speech and language therapy is consistently available from NHS hospitals to pupils attending independent schools, and what steps they are taking to ensure that it is.

The National Health Service is free at the point of use and provides care to anyone who needs it based on clinical need. A parent or carer can speak to their general practitioner who can refer a child to local NHS children’s occupational therapy services if there is a clinical need, for instance if there are difficulties with motor skills, sensory issues, handwriting, etc. The fact that a child attends private school does not disqualify them from NHS healthcare services, as NHS services are based on clinical need, not type of school. In some cases, there have been errors in a local service offer that have led to this being corrected before.

In circumstances where the difficulty would be considered a disability, then equality duties would apply, and reasonable adjustments would be expected.