Speech and Language Therapy

Connor Rand Excerpts

Monday 27th January 2025 Westminster Hall

[Mr Connor Rand (Altrincham and Sale West) (Lab)]

I echo the congratulations to my hon. Friend the Member for Lichfield (Dave Robertson) on introducing this important debate, and to all the campaigners who work tirelessly on this issue. I thank everyone who signed the petition, especially the 124 people in my constituency of Altrincham and Sale West: we contributed more signatures than any other constituency. That reflects the great number of conversations that I have had on this issue with local residents since being elected.

Other Members have spoken powerfully about the fundamental nature of communication to human life. It is clear that speech and language therapy can be transformational for those who experience it— approximately 76% of people who have had therapy say that it has materially improved their life—but it is a service that is far too hard to access. NHS England figures show that in September last year, over 64,000 children were on a waiting list for speech and language therapy, and 41% of them were waiting more than 18 weeks.

In my local NHS trust, there are about 154 speech and language therapists working full time. If we speak to any family with a relative affected by a communication or language difficulty, they will tell us that that simply is not enough. I have spoken to many school leaders locally, especially primary leaders, who are having to make stretched budgets stretch even further to fill in the gaps. The picture we face is stark and reflects the huge crises in our national health service and our special educational needs system.

In 2023, a report by the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists identified significant failings over many years in planning for the speech and language workforce. Alongside significant cuts to early intervention services under the previous Government, those failings were reported as driving factors behind the waiting lists for therapy, which in turn piled pressure on other parts of the system and ultimately resulted in a demoralised workforce leaving the job they love and in the public going without the support they need. Ofsted, the Education Committee and the Care Quality Commission have all published similar reports, which should frankly have set alarm bells ringing in Government, but the truth is that not enough has been done.

Neither funding nor the numbers of speech and language therapists have kept up with the 64% increase in the number of children identified as having communication needs since 2015. Tragically, with adults, we have seen a steady decline in the amount of speech and language therapy received after a stroke, and effectively no dedicated adult service for those with long-term speech conditions. The challenge for this Government is that we must reverse these trends, not just because it is absolutely the right thing to do, but because improving access to speech and language therapy is essential to this Government’s missions for change, as my hon. Friend the Member for Hyndburn (Sarah Smith) outlined. Whether that is breaking down barriers to opportunity in education or getting the NHS back on its feet, giving people the support to communicate effectively is critical.

Given the impact that speech and language therapy can have on giving people the ability to return to work, it is hugely important to our national effort to boost economic growth. I know that some important steps have been taken, and taken quickly, by this Government, not least the record funding increases set out for the national health service in the Budget. I know that there is no ringfenced central funding for speech and language therapy and that service delivery is in the hands of the integrated care boards, but I would like to know from the Minister, if possible, what work the Government are doing with ICBs to ensure that that extra funding feeds through the system and is being felt by individuals affected by communication and speech issues.

If possible, I would also like the Minister to address how the Government will improve the planning for the whole speech and language therapy workforce and what provision there is for that in the NHS workforce plan, which I know the Department of Health and Social Care is currently looking to update. That is desperately needed across our national health service. Finally, I will be extremely grateful if the Minister sets out the progress in delivering early language support for every child pathfinder project, so education settings can increase their ability materially to support speech, language and communication development.

These are big challenges for the Government to address, but that is why Labour Members like me have been sent here. We were elected on a mandate of changing and rebuilding our public services, so that they can be there for those who need them. We should never lose sight of the role that restoring speech and language therapy provision must play in the driving missions of this Government.