Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to reduce speech and language therapy workforce shortages.

We want to remove the barriers to training as a speech and language therapist (SLT), which is why eligible SLT students can get a non-repayable grant of £5,000 a year through the NHS Learning Support Fund. Further financial support is also available for childcare, dual accommodation costs, and travel. This is in addition to the student support package available from Student Finance England, which includes loans for tuition fees and living costs.

We will also publish a refreshed Long Term Workforce Plan which will deliver the transformed health service we will build over the next decade to ensure that the National Health Service has the right people, including those who work in speech and language therapy, in the right places, with the right skills to deliver the care patients need when they need it.