Speech Therapy Services (Children)

Sarah Teather Excerpts

Wednesday 3rd November 2010 Westminster Hall

[The Minister of State, Department for Education (Sarah Teather)]

I congratulate the hon. Member for Blackpool North and Cleveleys (Paul Maynard) on securing the debate. I know how committed he is to the issue, and I could not help but hope, as I listened to his speech, that Mrs Williams was beaming with pride, and watching the debate. Similarly I hoped, when my hon. Friend the Member for Southend West (Mr Amess) was speaking, that Miss Grey could hear his tribute to her help.

[Mr Amess]

I think she is dead.

[Sarah Teather]

Perhaps she is listening from another place—if that is not to misuse parliamentary terminology.

I am hugely grateful to the hon. Member for Blackpool North and Cleveleys for securing the debate, and for speaking so knowledgeably and passionately. I was fortunate enough to attend a round-table meeting that he organised a few weeks ago on speech, language and communication needs. He is aware that I share his ambition. His expertise and the way he has campaigned on the issue since coming into Parliament is something that the sector recognises and is grateful for. The Government are grateful too.

The debate has come at an opportune moment because, as hon. Members will know—and as several hon. Members pointed out—several policy areas are in the process of being changed and developed. Consultation has just closed on the NHS White Paper, and we are drawing together White Papers on schools and on public health. The process in which I am personally involved is the production of a Green Paper on special educational needs and disability. Despite the suggestion that that might be a risk, I hope it may be seen as an opportunity. A key theme raised today was that of getting different services—local authorities, education and health—to work together. If everything is changed at the same time there is a much better chance of making sure that the elements of the new system will work closely together. Perhaps it is flippant of me to say so, but if Liberal Democrats and Conservatives can be got to co-operate in government, it cannot be beyond the wit of man to get health and education to work together.

In the past few months I have engaged in a series of small events and round-table meetings with the sector. I hope that hon. Members will not mind if I treat the debate as part of the Green Paper process. I shall do my best to respond to as many as possible of the issues that have been raised, but I shall not get to everyone. However, I shall pass on to the Department of Health the questions that have been raised, or make sure that they form part of our process of forming the Green Paper.

There were many knowledgeable speeches, including those by my hon. Friend the Member for Mid Dorset and North Poole (Annette Brooke), who has spoken on the issue over a long period; the hon. Member for North West Durham (Pat Glass), a new Member, to whom I always enjoy listening, and who speaks passionately on the subject; and the right hon. Member for Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill (Mr Clarke), who has campaigned on the issue for many years. I was particularly grateful, because those hon. Members have a long-standing interest in what we are debating.

Speech, language and communication skills are the bedrock of learning. If someone cannot communicate their needs, those needs are unlikely to be met. If they cannot explain what they do not understand, their questions are unlikely to be answered. If someone cannot tell another person how they feel, that person cannot help them; and it will probably be a struggle to make friends. Children with speech, language and communication needs can have a lonely childhood and a poor education, and it is no wonder that many go on to develop behavioural difficulties or that they are misdiagnosed.

As many hon. Members have said, the range of problems is huge, from speech delay to intractable and chronic problems that require intensive intervention. Speech, language and communication issues may occur alone or co-exist with other special educational needs or social disadvantage. The hon. Member for North West Durham focused on that overlap with social disadvantage, and I want to touch on it shortly.

Speech therapy and other services, allied to good teaching, are vital for children and young people with the difficulties in question, to help them learn and get the most out of life. There has been significant progress, and the Green Paper will build on the work that the previous Government did, not rip it up and start again. I recognise that, particularly in the matter of speech, language and communication needs, progress was made. I pay tribute to the part that Mr Speaker played in raising the profile of the issue. The Bercow review comprehensively mapped out the challenges in policy, and since then much progress has been made in accomplishing the action plan.

We are of course about to begin the first national year of speech, language and communication, and I congratulate the Communication Trust and the communication champion Jean Gross on their work to promote better information for professionals and parents. Raising awareness of speech, language and communication needs is the theme of the trust’s work and the “Hello” campaign that the hon. Member for Washington and Sunderland West (Mrs Hodgson) mentioned. If we are to make the best use of the expertise that we have in speech and language therapy, and in other matters, we must get much better at picking up problems earlier and putting in place the right package of support.

Several hon. Members mentioned the fact that more than 60% of young offenders have speech, language and communication difficulties. That is a shocking statistic and a clear reminder, if we should need any more, of the importance of intervening early to prevent problems later.

[Pat Glass]

The Minister spoke about early intervention, which has huge support. However, we are hearing fairly reliable but worrying reports that the much-trumpeted pupil premium will not be paid for children under the age of five. Will the Minister confirm that it will be paid for all children in education from the age of two, and not be restricted to those over the age of five?

[Sarah Teather]

The hon. Lady will be aware that the consultation closed just before the comprehensive spending review. We will be making a much more detailed announcement on the pupil premium shortly, but we want to ensure that local authorities know much more about the scheme when they get their settlement.

I was about to speak about some of the issues raised by the hon. Lady in her speech. Early identification is vital for the child and the family; as she said, it will reduce costly interventions later. It is essential that more timely referrals are made to specialist services. That is why I asked Dame Claire Tickell, who is leading a review on the early years foundation stage, to look specifically at how to improve early identification of such problems by the EYFS. She is leading the process at the moment, and she will soon be reporting her findings to the Government.

For the same reason, we have extended the two-year-old offer to significantly more disadvantaged young children. About 130,000 disadvantaged two-year-olds will benefit from 15 hours of early education a week. That point was raised by a number of Members. Indeed, the hon. Member for Gedling (Vernon Coaker) said that children often arrive at nursery without the required language skills because they have not been exposed to language in the usual way. Offering high-quality early education is vital in giving those children the chance to pick up those skills.

The hon. Member for Gillingham and Rainham (Rehman Chishti) spoke about Sure Start centres. Many already provide speech and language therapy, but more use of such evidence-based programmes is definitely part of the reform programme that the Government want to institute. The Under-Secretary of State for Health, my hon. Friend the Member for Guildford (Anne Milton), who is responsible for public health, recently confirmed the Government’s intention during this Parliament to recruit and train 4,200 health visitors. Health visitors will be key in picking up on speech delay in very young children, ensuring that they are referred to the appropriate services, including Sure Start centres.

[Mr Robert Buckland (South Swindon) (Con)]

rose—

[Nick Smith]

rose—

[Sarah Teather]

I shall give way first to my hon. Friend the Member for South Swindon (Mr Buckland).

[Mr Buckland]

I am grateful that my hon. Friend made that point about health visitors. As we know, they carry out a uniform hearing test for very young children. It seems to me and many others that we should be training health visitors to take that sort of approach for speech, language and communication difficulties.

[Sarah Teather]

Health visitors are the key to picking up problems in the early years and making appropriate referrals. Some really interesting projects have been undertaken in Manchester, using community-based budgets; they linked health and education, realising that many children who fall behind when they get to nursery school have often missed health checks. Ways of sharing that data are important.

[Nick Smith]

I thank the Minister for giving way. I thank her also for confirming that the Government will not rip up plans introduced by the previous Government to take forward this important agenda. However, some of us are concerned that the new commissioning agenda for the national health service might mean that specialist services for speech and language therapy will not be commissioned by GP consortiums. Will the Minister confirm that special efforts will be made to ensure that GP consortiums are fully aware of this important service and that they continue to make it available?

[Sarah Teather]

I shall turn to commissioning in a moment. First, I want to say something about the school work force, a theme that was developed during the debate. It is vital that teachers and other members of the children’s work force have access to information, and that they have the opportunity for professional development in supporting children with special educational needs. Those on the front line are often the first to pick up problems, and they are vital in implementing whatever is suggested by the specialists.

One Member—I noted the point but not who raised it—spoke about the need for speech and language therapy to be well integrated into what happens in school. There are some good examples of that. Indeed, it is the kind of good practice that we want to build on through the Green Paper, with speech and language therapists training teachers to ensure that the therapists’ work continues in the classroom once the specialist help is over. That is vital. Progress has been made in recent years with the development of dedicated resources for teacher trainers and trainees, with specialist professional development for special educational needs co-ordinators and with online training material for school staff on a range of special educational needs, including specific materials on speech, language and communication needs for teachers and other staff.

[Alun Cairns]

I am grateful to the Minister for giving way. The shortage of speech and language therapists for many schools means that when the need for specialist help arises it is not necessarily there. Often, only speech and language therapists themselves can deliver the necessary support, rather than the problem being passed on to the teacher every time.

[Sarah Teather]

We need a mix; that is why I said that speech and language therapists can often offer good professional advice to teachers, who are then able to do some of that work during the week. The number of speech and language therapists is rising consistently. The question of whether we have enough depends on commissioning, and the way in which those therapists are employed. The White Paper on schools and the special educational needs Green Paper will set out plans for developing the knowledge, understanding and skills of the children’s work force and will specifically address continuing professional development.

A number of Members asked about commissioning. I realise that we need to be much better at integrating the commissioning of services for children with special educational needs, as in many other areas. As I said earlier, I hope that the rapid change experienced in many areas will provide us with the opportunity to do much better. We are creating more diverse school systems with more freedom for schools to innovate; and the NHS White Paper focuses on creating locally based opportunities to improve patient care.

Improving outcomes is exactly what Mr Speaker wanted to achieve for children with such difficulties through his review. The challenge is to design future arrangements that work much better together and that focus specifically on the needs of children and families. I am working closely with colleagues at the Department of Health on all these matters. I am determined to ensure that we are better able to streamline the assessment process.

[Vernon Coaker]

rose—

[Sarah Teather]

Only three minutes remain, and people are already arriving for the next debate. I still have five pages of notes, so I shall end up rushing.

The hon. Member for Gedling mentioned a constituent of his, and I will ensure that excerpts from his speech are passed to Ministers at the Department of Health so that the matter is drawn to their attention. Things falling between Departments is exactly what we want to address in the Green Paper.

There are a couple of other points that I shall not manage to answer, but the hon. Member for North West Durham raised the question of the differences in commissioning for high need with low incidence and low need with high incidence. I know that the Department of Health is aware of the communication champion’s views on commissioning, and those views will be taken into account in designing the system.

I shall finish with a few words about the Green Paper.

[Mr Andrew Smith]

Will the Minister give way on ACE centres?

[Sarah Teather]

On that subject, my Department is considering the best way to secure support for children who require augmentative and alternative communication with colleagues in the Department of Health following the spending review. I hope that the right hon. Gentleman will understand that I am not able to give much detail on those commitments, because there is much yet to do.

I have one minute left, which is not enough time to say all that I want about the Green Paper. We have a real resource of knowledge in Parliament, and many Members have a real passion about the subject. The Green Paper is part of a consultation process, so I hope that right hon. and hon. Members will feel able to use their knowledge and expertise and get involved. I shall try to find ways to involve parliamentarians with such expertise; I am well aware of how much experience Members of Parliament have, both personally and in their campaigning role. I look forward to debating these issues again with those who are here today.