Lord Darzi’s NHS Report: Welcome focus on children and young people and community services   

The RCSLT was pleased to make a submission to the Darzi review, and we agree with the severity of the situation described and the changes needed.  

Derek Munn, Director of Policy and Public Affairs said:  

“The RCSLT finds much to welcome in Lord Darzi’s analysis, including the need to focus on community services; recognition of the growth in the needs of children and young people; and the opportunities that exist to improve within new structures. We welcome too the recognition of the need to re-engage NHS staff.

“The solutions will need to make use of the whole health workforce including speech and language therapists and other allied health professionals. Services are stretched, and action is needed now to tackle growing waiting times, increasing unmet need, address health inequalities and the recruitment and retention of NHS staff including through the student pipeline.

“It is critical that the Government now prioritises services outside of hospital. This means greater investment in vital community services such as speech and language therapy to prevent the deterioration in health and wellbeing which otherwise leads to costly and intensive support later.

“The report also highlights the crisis in children’s community services, with many children waiting too long for speech and language therapy, impacting their wellbeing, education and life chances.” 

These findings will inform the Government’s new 10-year plan to reform the health service. 

The RCSLT is calling for: 

1. The funding of speech and language therapy services adequately to provide therapy and prevention. The Government to invest in speech and language therapy services – Mikey Akers’ petition and RCSLT’s statement.
2. Speech and language therapists to be embedded in relevant community multidisciplinary teams as part of their standard staffing. Plan and allocate resources to ensure speech and language therapy services are available across primary, community and mental health services.
3. A targeted campaign to address the growing waiting times across children’s community health services, with funding to enable timely access to high quality support.
4. A comprehensive workforce plan for the whole speech and language therapy workforce that addresses the crisis in the supply and retention of speech and language therapists, across all relevant sectors, including the NHS, the independent sector, and the third sector, as per the RCSLT and ASLTIP Fail to Plan, Plan to Fail report.

In our data submission to the Darzi review, we showed that:  

1. Community speech and language therapy waiting lists have remained stubbornly high over the past year. Children and adults are waiting too long to receive speech and language therapy negatively impacting upon their communication and/or swallowing abilities.  
2. Staff shortages are adding to the pressures already facing community services, meaning children and adults find it difficult to access speech and language therapy services when and where they need it.  
3. Whilst the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan committed to increased training places for speech and language therapists, there is no evidence of this in the current plateauing of student applications.  
4. There is no national assessment to assess the demand and unmet need for speech and language therapy. This places a strain on the system. Too many people are unable to access the speech and language therapy they need when they need it. 

RCSLT Chief Executive Steve Jamieson was pleased to be a member of the Expert Reference Group informing the investigation.