Calls to save speech and language support

The number of school pupils identified as having speech, language and communication needs has risen by around 70 per cent in the past six years.

But this expanding group of children and young people is among those who professionals fear could benefit least from the government’s special education needs (SEN) reforms.

The forthcoming Children and Families Bill is thought to contain proposals to introduce new single education, health and care plans from birth to age 25. But these plans will be restricted to children and young people who would have been eligible for a statement under the current system.

Those with lower-level needs will be supported in schools and through whatever provision is available in their area. Councils will have a duty to publish a “local offer” outlining such support.

Postcode lottery
Anne Fox, director of the Communication Trust, warns that children with low-level speech and language needs could be subject to a postcode lottery of services, determined by what schools and councils decide and can afford to provide.

“Although the prevalence of speech, language and communication needs is rising, there are still huge levels of misinterpretation, misdiagnosis and misunderstanding,” she explains. “We are really going to have to focus on how children are identified and supported through these local offers. It is not going to be cheap and easy.”

Her concerns are echoed by Kamini Gadhok, chief executive of the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists, who fears that the new plans will overlook many children who need support.

“The children with statements are not necessarily the ones who would benefit most from speech therapy, even though they might have the greatest needs overall,” she says.

“For a child with complex SEN, it is about managing and supporting their disability and optimising their functional communication. But at no point will they suddenly become able to communicate at the same level as their peers, whereas there are children who speech therapy could really help and who could be supported to function really well in a mainstream school. But those children are at risk of not getting any.”

Last month, the college published research that showed more than two-thirds of speech therapists working with children are rationing their services because of budget cuts. Gadhok says protecting services over the next year could be a struggle, made more difficult by extensive reform across SEN, health and education services.

Budget concerns
She cites the increasing numbers of academies as an area for concern. “Budgets are going directly to schools,” she says. “The question is whether the fragmentation of that local money will fragment the provision. We’re finding schools are deciding to employ their own staff, but we’re encouraging them to work together and have service-level agreements to purchase speech therapy from a larger provider.”

She warns that new clinical commissioning consortia could also splinter provision, adding that council-led health and wellbeing boards may be the only local organisations capable of joining the dots between services.

Mary Hartshorne is head of quality and outcomes at the charity I Can. She says the SEN reforms should in theory mean that schools offer more comprehensive support. This is because schools will have more responsibility for directly addressing communication needs than they did previously.

“Many children who have speech, language and communication needs aren’t going to be eligible for an education, health and care plan, so it’s about ensuring there’s really strong support for those children in schools,” she says.

“It’s important to have specialist interventions, but also to have that universal quality teaching support in place to support children’s communication. Teachers need the skills and knowledge to ensure they’re identifying children who have significant difficulties, perhaps because their communi­cation needs are masked by something like a behavioural difficulty.”

A DfE spokeswoman says the SEN reforms will revamp an “outdated system” that is failing children. “We are protecting the schools budget,” she says. “All schools and colleges will have a duty to ensure they support children with SEN.”


Expert view: Jean Gross CBE, the government’s former communication tsar

“A year ago, I wrote my final report as the government’s communication champion. Looking ahead to this year, there are a few helpful developments on the horizon, such as plans to mandate joint health and local authority commissioning of services for children, and government plans to commission specialist assessment and communication aids centrally by the NHS Commissioning Board.

"There is also the increased probability that children with such needs will be identified early as the number of health visitors grows and the integrated assessment at age two kicks in.

"But sadly I think the overall picture is bleaker than a year ago. This is because of the imminent risk that the new special educational needs (SEN) legislation will focus commissioners on high-end needs – children eligible in future for education, health and care plans – and create a cliff-edge effect in which children who may simply need a speech and language therapist do not receive services.

"This is already beginning to happen, with some services reporting that they are only able to work with children with SEN statements, and that the time children wait for help is lengthening.

"The new public health guidance from the NHS Commissioning Board unhelpfully excludes any preventive role for speech and language therapists. This could damage the invaluable work they do in children’s centres to get messages to parents about how to support their child’s language development from birth.

"Finally, there is the revised National Curriculum to worry about. When I speak at conferences, head teachers are convinced by the evidence that language and communication are fundamental to attainment. They are keen to develop new approaches to speaking and listening. Let’s hope the new curriculum supports them in focusing on this, not just on spelling, punctuation and grammar.”