The department is investing around £1.8 billion over the next three years for local area partnerships, including local authorities and integrated care boards, to develop a new ‘Experts at Hand’ offer. The funding will support local areas to recruit more educational psychologists, speech and language therapists (SaLTs), occupational therapists and specialist teachers, so they can bring this vital support directly into mainstream settings and improve access to early intervention.

To support delivery of Experts at Hand, we are investing over £40 million in the specialist workforce. This includes £26 million to train at least 200 educational psychologists per year from 2026 and 2027, followed by further investment to train more from 2028, subject to future spending reviews. Upon graduating, trainees will be required remain in local authority employment for a minimum of three years.

The remaining £15 million will be invested to establish new speech and language therapist advanced practitioners in every Integrated Care Board geographical area, to get more SaLTs working in educational settings.

The Department recognises the issue of children’s screen use and social media exposure, and the role National Health Service professionals can play.

Screen use guidance forms a core part of the Government’s response to online harms, complementing regulatory action by providing clear, practical advice to parents on supporting safe, balanced, and developmentally appropriate use of digital technologies.

On 27 March 2026, the Government published advice for parents and carers on screen use for children aged zero to five years old on the Best Start in Life website, at the following link:

https://beststartinlife.gov.uk/screen-time-under-5s

This advice offers practical, non-judgemental support to help families balance screen use with other activities. The Children of the 2020s study found that children with the highest screen use at age two, around five hours daily, can say significantly fewer words than those with lower use, although this does not necessarily mean that one causes the other. We are taking a precautionary approach to screen use for younger children, especially where screen time may be replacing activities like moving, sleeping, and playing, which are all important for children’s health and development.

Building on the guidance for zero to five year olds, the Department of Health and Social Care is now working closely with the Department for Education to develop further parent and carer facing guidance for five to 16-year-olds to promote safe and healthy engagement with the digital world. Following the closure of our call for evidence on 29 June, we are reviewing the evidence received to inform the guidance, due to be published this autumn. This work is also being informed by an independent Expert Advisory Group, co-chaired by Children’s Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza and Professor Russell Viner.

The Department of Health and Social Care is also working closely with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology on the Government’s media literacy action plan, and we will explore how we can distribute useful information about screen use and social media to relevant clinical and public health networks.

The NHS does not currently have a specific requirement for NHS clinicians to routinely ask about children’s screen use or social media exposure. Clinicians, including speech and language therapists, take a holistic developmental history, considering a range of environmental factors where clinically relevant in order to determine a course of treatment. Clinicians are expected to draw on existing evidence, professional training, and clinical judgement in the assessment of healthcare needs.

Community health services, including children’s speech and language therapy services, are locally commissioned to enable systems to best meet the needs of their communities.

In the Devon Integrated Care Board area, the average waiting time between referral and the start of National Health Service speech and language therapy for children aged zero to 11 years old is 68 weeks in Devon and Torbay and 24 weeks in Plymouth.

In Devon and Torbay there are currently 2,574 children and young people aged zero to 18 years old waiting for speech and language therapy services, 1,978 of which are aged zero to 11 years old.

In Plymouth there are currently 648 children and young people aged zero to 18 years old waiting for speech and language therapy services, 602 of which are aged zero to 11 years old.

We have set clear ambitions for community health services through our Medium-Term Planning Framework. By 2028/29 at least 80% of community health services activity should take place within 18 weeks, bringing community health services in line with targets for elective care.

In 2025, we published Standardising Community Health Services which provides an overview of core community health services. Setting clear expectations of the core community health services ICBs should be providing will support consistent delivery of community health services and effective commissioning, and improve patient access to care.

Community health services, including children’s speech and language therapy services, are locally commissioned to enable systems to best meet the needs of their communities.

In the Devon Integrated Care Board area, the average waiting time between referral and the start of National Health Service speech and language therapy for children aged zero to 11 years old is 68 weeks in Devon and Torbay and 24 weeks in Plymouth.

In Devon and Torbay there are currently 2,574 children and young people aged zero to 18 years old waiting for speech and language therapy services, 1,978 of which are aged zero to 11 years old.

In Plymouth there are currently 648 children and young people aged zero to 18 years old waiting for speech and language therapy services, 602 of which are aged zero to 11 years old.

We have set clear ambitions for community health services through our Medium-Term Planning Framework. By 2028/29 at least 80% of community health services activity should take place within 18 weeks, bringing community health services in line with targets for elective care.

In 2025, we published Standardising Community Health Services which provides an overview of core community health services. Setting clear expectations of the core community health services ICBs should be providing will support consistent delivery of community health services and effective commissioning, and improve patient access to care.

The government consultation, special educational needs and disabilities reform: putting children and young people first, revealed the critical role that speech and language therapy plays in supporting children with speech, language and communication needs.

Our reforms will ensure every child gets the right support at the right time. We are investing £1.8 billion in the new Experts at Hand offer, through which education settings will be able to access support from speech and language therapists (SaLTs). These experts will work directly with staff in education settings to equip them with the skills and strategies to better meet needs.

We are also investing £15 million to establish new SaLT advanced practitioners in every integrated care board area to support more SaLTs to work with educational settings, upskill speech and language support workers.

Neighbourhood health underpins delivery of the 10-Year Health Plan. It will bring together integrated neighbourhood teams of professionals and partners closer to people’s home, to work together to support people and places to improve their health and wellbeing. We will publish a 10 Year Workforce Plan, which will put the National Health Service workforce on a sustainable footing so it can deliver the service model set out in the 10-Year Health Plan.

We expect the design and delivery of neighbourhood health to be locally led, including for integrated neighbourhood teams (INTs). However, INTs can include allied health professionals like speech and language therapists if this reflects the specific needs of the local population.

Community health services, including children’s speech and language therapy services, are locally commissioned to enable systems to best meet the needs of their communities.

We have set a clear target for systems to work to reduce long waits in NHS England’s Medium Term Planning Framework.

By 2028/29, at least 80% of community health services activity should take place within 18 weeks, and in 2026/27, integrated care boards (ICBs) and community health services providers must also develop plans to eliminate 52 week waits. Whilst targets are not service-line specific, capacity growth and waiting time targets should impact positively on children and young people’s speech and language therapy services.

Alongside the new target for community health services, in 2025 we published an overview of core community health services. Setting clear expectations of the core community health services, ICBs should be providing help to ensure consistent delivery of community health services, support effective commissioning, and improve patient access to care.

As of April 2026, there were 66,695 children and young people on waiting lists for speech and language therapy.

The Department does not hold specific information on speech and language therapy services in Hampshire.

After a 12-week consultation period including over 200 engagement events, meetings and roundtables, the department’s consultation ‘SEND reform: putting children and young people first‘ has now closed. We are carefully reviewing and taking into account all responses submitted to the consultation and continuing to engage widely on our proposals.

We proposed that the information about a child or young person’s special educational needs (SEN) or special educational provision (SEP) can be considered as part of appeals to the SEND Tribunal about Specialist Provision Packages or placements as appropriate, rather than being separate.

We want the Tribunal to focus on the key questions of the child or young person’s package or placement, recognising that SEN and SEP can frequently be a central part of the evidence for these appeals. At present, the great majority of appeals relating to SEN or SEP are combined with an appeal about the child or young person’s placement. Moreover, detailed information about the child or young person’s specific special educational provision will in future be included in new setting-led Individual Support Plans that are developed following a child being placed on a package and worked-up with the teachers and staff working with the child day-to-day, so are not part of the education, health and care (EHC) plan. For these reasons, the consultation proposed that special educational provision should be included in other appeals to the Tribunal rather than kept separate.

The department recognises the importance of ensuring all health professionals (HPs) have appropriate experience, skills, and training to undertake Personal Independence Payment (PIP) assessments.

Assessment suppliers ensure that all HPs who carry out PIP assessments on behalf of the department receive comprehensive training in disability analysis. This includes training in the evaluation of how medical conditions affect claimants in their day-to-day activities, as well as awareness training in specific conditions. Suppliers are required to demonstrate that their HPs meet all our requirements before they are approved to carry out assessments on behalf of DWP.

PIP assessments focus on the impact of a person’s condition on their ability to carry out everyday activities, rather than the condition itself. HPs are therefore trained to assess the functional effects of a broad range of health conditions on an individual’s daily life.

The small number of qualified and regulated speech and language therapists undertaking assessments are required to meet the same training, qualification, and competency standards as all other health professionals carrying out PIP assessments on behalf of DWP.

Decisions on the employment of allied health professionals are a matter for individual National Health Service trusts which manage their recruitment at a local level, ensuring they have the right number of staff in place, with the right skill mix, to deliver safe and effective care.

As set out in the 10-Year Health Plan, we are working closely with NHS England, employers and educators to improve transition into the workforce.

The Government is committed to making the NHS the best place to work to support and retain our hardworking and dedicated healthcare professionals. The 10 Year Workforce Plan will ensure the NHS has the right people in the right places, with the right skills to care for patients, when they need it and will make sure staff are better treated, have better training, more fulfilling roles, and hope for the future.

No specific assessment has been made. Decisions on the employment of speech and language therapists are a matter for individual National Health Service trusts which manage their recruitment at a local level, ensuring they have the right number of staff in place, with the right skill mix, to deliver safe and effective care.

As set out in the 10-Year Health Plan, we are working closely with NHS England, employers and educators to improve transition into the workforce.

The Government is committed to making the NHS the best place to work to support and retain our hardworking and dedicated healthcare professionals. The 10 Year Workforce Plan will ensure the NHS has the right people in the right places, with the right skills to care for patients, when they need it and will make sure staff are better treated, have better training, more fulfilling roles, and hope for the future.

NHS England has set clear ambitions for community health services through its Medium Term Planning Framework. By 2028/29, 80% of community health services activity should take place within 18 weeks, bringing community health services in line with targets for elective care.

The Stroke Quality Improvement in Rehabilitation (SQuIRe) programme has increased national coverage of the National Integrated Community Stroke Service model across the health, social care, and voluntary sectors. This has been achieved through SQuIRe Catalyst projects delivering needs-based stroke rehabilitation at home, including psychological and vocational rehabilitation.

Speech and language therapy provision is commissioned locally by integrated care boards. NHS England has revised the national service specification for specialised neurology following extensive consultation with clinical and charity partners. The service specification, published in August 2025, includes guidance on both specialised and core neurology services. The specification includes an annex which provides greater clarity for neurology sub-specialties, including movement disorders, under which Parkinson’s disease would fall. The annex states that integrated care systems (ICSs) should have local access to a multi-disciplinary team within their region. This should include speech and language therapists, as well as other allied health professionals.

Additionally, the national specialised commissioning neurology transformation programme has developed guidance as part of an ICS toolkit, specifically to support the implementation of the service specification.

As of January 2025, there are over 7,700 full-time equivalent speech and language therapists employed in NHS trusts and other core organisations in England. This is an increase of over 300, or 4.7%, compared to the previous year, and over 1,400, or 23.6%, compared to five years ago.

The provision of dementia health care services is the responsibility of local integrated care boards (ICBs). We expect ICBs to commission services based on local population needs, taking account of National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines.

The Government is committed to improving care for everyone with dementia, including those with Primary Progressive Aphasia, which is why we have funded the work of the Dementia 100: Assessment Tool Pathway programme, which brings together multiple resources into a single, consolidated tool. This will help simplify best practice for busy system leaders and help create communities and services where the best possible care and support is available to those with dementia.

A number of experts, including those with expertise in speech and language therapy and dementia care, provided independent, desktop analysis of the tool and this invaluable feedback was integrated into the tool. The D100: Pathway Assessment Tool can be found on the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ website.

Provision of dementia health care services is the responsibility of local integrated care boards (ICBs). NHS England would expect ICBs to commission services based on local population needs, taking account of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines.

The Government is committed to improving care for everyone with dementia, including those with Primary Progressive Aphasia, which is why we have funded the work of the Dementia 100: Assessment Tool Pathway programme, which brings together multiple resources into a single, consolidated tool. This will help simplify best practice for busy system leaders and help create communities and services where the best possible care and support is available to those with dementia.

A number of experts, including those with expertise in speech and language therapy and dementia care, provided independent, desktop analysis of the tool and this invaluable feedback was integrated into the tool. The D100: Pathway Assessment Tool is available on the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ website.

The Department does not hold vacancy rates that are granular enough to identify rates for neuro-phsyiotherapists, occupational therapists, and speech and language therapists in National Health Service stroke units.

NHS England publishes quarterly vacancy statistics for total staffing, registered nurses, and medical staff across the NHS. Data is not available at a more detailed staff group level or by the setting in which staff work. The latest published data can be found at the following link:

https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/nhs-vacancies-survey

We recognise that digital devices are now a part of most children’s lives, and that their impact on development, health, and behaviour is complex and not yet fully understood. Last month, the Government published advice on screen use for children aged zero to five years old, which is available at the following link:

https://beststartinlife.gov.uk/screen-time-under-5s/

The Government has also launched the Children’s Digital Wellbeing consultation on measures to ensure children have healthy relationships with technology, mobile phones, and social media. The consultation is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/growing-up-in-the-online-world-a-national-consultation

In addition, the Government will produce evidence-based screen time guidance for parents of children aged five to 16 years old.

We continue to learn from ongoing studies including the Children of the 2020s longitudinal study, which is available at the following link:

https://children2020s.ipsos.com/

Community health services, including children’s speech and language therapy, are locally commissioned to enable systems to best meet the needs of their communities.

The Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Integrated Care Board (ICB) recognises that waiting times for children’s speech and language therapy (SLT) remain too long in parts of Nottinghamshire, including Ashfield, and is taking action with system partners to improve access.

Since the 2023 Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) inspection of local services for children and young people with SEND, the ICB and partners have undertaken targeted transformation activity, including:

- introduction of a SLT advice line to support earlier intervention;

- refocusing clinical capacity to address long waits in autism pathways; and

- piloting open-access early years drop-in sessions for children under four year olds.

A revised service delivery model is being implemented across SLT pathways, including:

- group assessment of all two to three year olds;

- increased use of group-based therapy and parent-supported interventions; and

- enhanced parent/carer training to support children at home.

These changes will be implemented alongside additional improvements to the model, including building workforce capacity and capability and improving support to schools and early years settings.

Nationally, ICBs are being supported to reduce waiting times through an evidence informed Children and Young People Community Speech and Language Therapy Toolkit developed with speech and language therapists, children, families, and carers.

We have set a clear target through the Medium-Term Planning Framework for systems to work to reduce long waits for community health services, including speech and language therapy.

By 2028/29, at least 80% of community health services activity should take place within 18 weeks. This will be a key part of the shift from hospital to community. In 2026/27, ICBs and community health services providers must also develop plans to eliminate 52 week waits. Whilst targets are not service-line specific, capacity growth and waiting time targets should impact positively on children and young people’s speech and language therapy services.

NHS England is also working with the Department for Education to identify and support children with speech, language and communication needs to deliver the Early Language Support for Every Child programme in Early Years and Primary School settings. This programme is funding innovative workforce models to support early intervention for children with unidentified speech, language, and communication needs which may reduce exacerbation of need that might lead to a specialist speech and language therapist and/or Education Health Care Plan referral in the medium-term.

I refer the hon. Member for Maidenhead to the answer of 24 March 2026 to Question 121419.