Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with NHS England on ensuring that NHS speech and language therapy services use evidence-based intervention dosages for children with moderate to severe speech sound disorders.

All National Health Services, including speech and language therapy, should operate in accordance with the best available evidence-based practices. Where sufficient evidence exists, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) publishes formal guidance. Frontline services, including those delivering speech and language therapy, are expected to adhere to NICE guidance wherever it is available and applicable. A relevant NICE quality statement can be found at the following link:

https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/qs128/chapter/quality-statement-2-speech-and-language#quality-statement-2-speech-and-language

In 2020, Public Health England published the Best Start in Speech, Language and Communication guidance to support local commissioners and service leads in meeting the needs of children in the early years, which can be found in the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/best-start-in-speech-language-and-communication