Shortfall in provision of speech and language therapy exposed

In her final report Gross warned that NHS budgets have been slashed while the number of school-age children identified with speech and language problems as their primary special need has increased by 58 per cent over the past five years.

Gross is now calling for the Health and Social Care Bill, currently going through parliament, to be amended to make joint commissioning of children’s community health services by the NHS and local authorities compulsory.

Criticising the government’s proposed health reforms, Gross said: "I have met no-one outside government who believes that commissioning by clinical commissioning groups led by GPs will change the fundamental problems. 

"All say it will make it worse. I have found that in London, for example, only nine per cent of referrals for speech and language therapy go though GPs. Children requiring community health services are largely invisible to GPs, so it seems unlikely they will be a commissioning priority."

Gross also urged the government to focus on children’s language and communication before they reach the age of five and said teachers need more support to adapt their teaching to meet the needs of pupils with communication needs. 

"Children with speech, language and communication needs account for a high number of exclusions from school, and are twice as likely to be unemployed in their mid-thirties," Gross said. "Not addressing speech, language and communication needs stores up problems for the future."

Derek Munn, director of policy and public affairs at the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists, said Gross’s work during her two year tenure had "highlighted the link between language problems and social and economic deprivation".

"However, there is a danger that slash-and-burn cuts will put this progress at risk," he added.

Gross was appointed as communication champion in 2009 following the recommendation in John Bercow’s review of support for children with speech, language and communication needs.