Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they plan to review the effectiveness of the Comprehensive Health Assessment Tool in identifying speech, language and communication needs.

The Government has no current plans to review the effectiveness of the Comprehensive Health Assessment Tool to identify speech, language and communication needs in the children and young people’s secure estate.

NHS England has commissioned Manchester University to review use of the Tool across 14 Secure Children’s Homes, three Secure Training Centres and four Young Offender Institutions. This includes consideration of the quality of the assessments being completed and the processes and procedures set up to support the Comprehensive Health Assessment Tool. The review will report on overarching themes and individual site reports, each containing an action plan and recommendations. It is intended that this process will enable identification of key themes for NHS England to consider as well as individual site reports, each containing an action plan and recommendations.