Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to lower waiting times for speech therapy for children.

The department continues to improve access to speech and language therapy by including the ‘Early Language and Support for Every Child’ (ELSEC) pathfinder project, in partnership with NHS England and within the department’s existing Change Programme. This is delivered across nine pathfinder sites, with one in each English region.

The interim programme evaluation allows the department to explore insights into the effectiveness of ELSEC delivery at a local level. Highlight reporting data shows that therapy support teams have helped around 20,000 children so far and just over 3000 setting staff have been upskilled in delivering interventions. A final evaluation will take place following the end of the summer term 2025.

The department is continuing funding support for the 11,100 schools registered for the Nuffield Early Language Intervention (NELI) programme. As of March 2025, as part of NELI, 47,982 pupils undertook an initial Language Screen assessment in the 2024/25 academic year.