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Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill

I, too, support these amendments. I suffered from a speech impediment as a child, received assistance, did not have to do very much and was relieved of it. I was teased for that impediment before it was treated. How much worse it might be for some young people with such a problem. I support what my noble friend proposes and I pay tribute to him for his ceaseless, long-term campaigning in this area. I was grateful for the extremely helpful meeting that he organised with many of the so-called stakeholders in this area some time ago. I ask the Minister perhaps to write to us on the situation and give the numbers of speech therapists that we have and are planning to develop. Finally, the more health visitors and social workers we have, the less these sorts of problems are likely to arise, because to some large degree they are a function of poorly functioning families. If we have the right professionals in place to support families, some of these problems will simply either be noted very early or not develop in the first place.