Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of the number of speech and language therapists in England; and what recent estimate he has made of the proportion of schools’ budgets for speech and language therapy which goes unspent as a result of a lack of available therapists.

NHS England is currently working with Health Education England (HEE) to review the total speech and language therapy workforce. The Department of Health and Social Care will work with HEE, NHS England and the Department for Education to collate evidence of the demand for support for children and young people with special educational needs and disability (SEND) requirements from the therapy and diagnostic workforce.

While schools are not allocated specific funding for speech and language therapy, overall funding can be used for this purpose as necessary. The Department for Education does not collect information on schools’ budgets available for expenditure on speech and language therapy in the format requested.