Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to improve access to speech and language therapy services in prisons.

NHS England’s Regional Health and Justice teams directly commission the primary healthcare services within prisons, and oversee the healthcare delivery based on the primary care service specifications for prisons. In line with the specifications, healthcare providers should provide healthcare which includes supporting people’s mental health, as well as communication, speech, and language needs.

Healthcare services in the children and young people secure estate are commissioned locally by Regional Health and Justice commissioners using core outcome-based specifications, which are benchmarked by the Healthcare Standards for Children and Young People in Secure Settings. These include several individual standards that reference speech, language, and communication needs, as part of the overall complex needs that are common in children held in these settings.

NHS England recently held an event for regional Health and Justice neurodiversity leads and commissioners on neurodiversity specialist recruitment, to support with recruitment and training in specialist areas such as speech and language therapists. This included a presentation from the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapist’s prisons lead. In addition, NHS England has allocated additional funding to Health and Justice regions which has been ring-fenced for use on their adult prison custodial neurodiversity pathways.