Now is the time to speak up for speech and language needs

Now the first young offender institution to employ a speech therapist is having the post removed. Children of all ages whose speech needs are overlooked suffer a raw deal. Underperformance at school, difficulties making friends, poor mental health, a struggle to find employment later on and risk of criminal behaviour threaten to bring them a familiar but avoidable cocktail of misery. Indeed, more than 60 per cent of young offenders have a significant communication disorder.

An evaluation by the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists put the net benefit of speech therapy to the UK economy at £765m. But therapists' jobs appear far from safe. In many areas, they are funded by both the primary care trust (PCT) and the local authority - and therein lies their particular vulnerability. PCT spending reductions (due to the NHS requirement to make £20bn in savings) coupled with council cuts produce a double whammy. With budgets tight, agencies will tend to retrench in areas where responsibility is shared with another, meaning speech therapy falls between two stools. This lack of clarity and accountability between children's health and local authority children's services must be tackled by the government's special educational needs review, expected in March. There are nonetheless examples of some great practice, where speech services are commissioned jointly for the long term, such as the Stoke Speaks Out scheme.