The Institute, together with leading organisations from the world of children’s health and social care, education, justice, disability, has co-signed a letter sent to the Prime Minister calling for more action to improve support for children and young people with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN).

Dr Cheryll Adams CBE, Executive Director of the Institute of Health Visiting, said:

“The iHV is pleased to co-sign such an important letter to raise the need for better support for children and young people with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN). We are delighted to already be working with PHE and DfE on new training for health visitors to help close the language gap between disadvantaged children and their peers (as announced last week). However, there is plenty more to be done to tackle the inequality of services – further actions are needed to improve the life chances for these children and young people, enabling them to reach their full potential.

“We fully support the call for joint commissioning to put an end to the postcode lottery of support for these children and young people. In addition, the implementation of a cross-Government strategy for children and young people would enable children and young people to fulfil their potential.”

Coordinated by I CAN, the children’s charity, and the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (RCSLT), the coalition of over 60 organisations has sent an open letter to the Prime Minister calling on the Government to tackle the inequality of services for some 1.4 million children and young people with SLCN in the UK. The coalition wants to see urgent action in five key areas, which will improve the life chances for these children and young people, enabling them to reach their full potential.

The coalition urges action on:

  • Joint commissioning to put an end to the postcode lottery of support for these children and young people;
  • Support for children and young people with long-term, persistent SLCN, who require some level of specialist help during and beyond their early years;
  • Providing professional development for those working in education, including teachers and teaching assistants, to enable all children and young people to develop language and communication skills. Teachers also need to be able to identify children and young people with SLCN as early as possible so they can be supported effectively;
  • Incentivising schools to give speech, language and communication the priority it deserves;
  • Training practitioners who are working with vulnerable children and young people, including; looked after children, those in the youth justice system or who are living with mental health issues, in how to recognise SLCN and respond effectively. They must also have access to specifically commissioned speech and language therapy services for those children and young people who need them

The letter to the Prime Minister comes as I CAN and the RCSLT publish the first anniversary update to their joint report, Bercow: Ten Years On, which looked at the state of provision for children and young people with SLCN in England. Of the 47 recommendations for action made in the report, 17 of them have been implemented. However, far more needs to be done by the Government.

iHV welcomes the Bercow: Ten years on report and its recommendations, published by I CAN (the children’s communication charity) and The Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (RCSLT) on 20 March 2018.

In particular, the iHV welcomes the recommendation that Public Health England should support the development of national health visitor training on identifying and supporting SLCN.

Bercow: Ten years on reports on the state of provision for children’s speech, language and communication needs (SLCN) in England. It lays bare the current picture of services for young people with SLCN and makes informed recommendations of what must be done to improve the situation at a local and national level.

Through extensive evidence gathering, I CAN and the RCSLT collected the views of children and young people, parents and carers, speech and language therapists, education professionals, commissioners and many others about the reality of support for children and young people with speech, language and communication needs in 2018.  This included information from the iHV’s State of Health Visiting Survey 2017 which found that 74% of health visitors have seen a rise in the number of children with SLCN.

The report shows poor understanding of and insufficient resourcing for speech, language and communication needs. This means too many children and young people receive inadequate, ineffective and inequitable support, potentially impacting on their educational outcomes, their employability and their mental health.

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