Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure that specialist speech and language therapies are available to children with education, health and care plans in Surrey Heath constituency.

The department is working closely with the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England to improve access to community health services, including speech and language therapy, for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities. This includes extending the Early Language Support for Every Child programme, trialling new ways of working to better identify and support children with speech, language and communication needs in early years settings and primary schools.

In addition to the undergraduate degree route, speech and language therapists can also train via a degree apprenticeship. This route is now in its fourth year of delivery and offers an alternative pathway to the traditional degree route into a successful career as a speech and language therapist, helping to grow the pipeline.