Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of speech and language therapy provision for children with speech, language and communication needs in Eastleigh constituency; what data his Department holds on (a) waiting times for assessment and intervention, (b) the number of children receiving face-to-face speech and language therapy support and (c) vacancies in speech and language therapy services in Hampshire; and whether he plans to review the availability of specialist training for speech and language therapists in supporting children with complex communication needs.

Community health services, including children’s speech and language therapy services, are locally commissioned to enable systems to best meet the needs of their communities.

We have set a clear target for systems to work to reduce long waits in NHS England’s Medium Term Planning Framework.

By 2028/29, at least 80% of community health services activity should take place within 18 weeks, and in 2026/27, integrated care boards (ICBs) and community health services providers must also develop plans to eliminate 52 week waits. Whilst targets are not service-line specific, capacity growth and waiting time targets should impact positively on children and young people’s speech and language therapy services.

Alongside the new target for community health services, in 2025 we published an overview of core community health services. Setting clear expectations of the core community health services, ICBs should be providing help to ensure consistent delivery of community health services, support effective commissioning, and improve patient access to care.

As of April 2026, there were 66,695 children and young people on waiting lists for speech and language therapy.

The Department does not hold specific information on speech and language therapy services in Hampshire.