Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to reduce waiting lists for NHS speech and language sessions.

We want routine NHS services such as speech and language therapy to return for patients as quickly as possible, but this must be done in a safe and managed way. With a rise in COVID-19 activity, we have been clear that non-COVID-19 services will be maintained as far as possible. Trusts, working with general practitioner practices, have been asked to ensure that every patient whose planned care has been disrupted by COVID-19 receives clear communication about how they will be looked after, and who to contact if their clinical circumstances change. Clinically urgent patients should continue to be treated first, with priority then given to the longest waiting patients specifically those breaching or at risk of breaching 52 weeks by the end of March 2021.

In the longer term, a critical element of reducing waiting lists for speech and language therapy is ensuring we recruit and retain the workforce needed to meet demand for services. To encourage students to study nursing, midwifery or one of the allied health subjects, including speech and language therapy, from September 2020 the Government has made available additional maintenance grant funding of at least £5,000 per academic year, for new and continuing students at English universities. In addition, students with child dependants will benefit from an extra £1,000.