Nursery World - Children's Commissioner warns of speech and language therapy postcode lottery

Too many vulnerable young children are missing out on the speech and language help they need to be ready for school, according to a new report from the Children’s Commissioner.

The report, the first to bring together data showing how much local areas spend on speech and language therapy (SLT) services, reveals a postcode lottery of spending, with ‘huge’ variations across different areas, risking children waiting months to be seen or worse, not receiving any support at all.

The Children’s Commissioner Anne Longfield warns this risks the Government’s ambition in its Social Mobility Action Plan to tackle the word gap in the early years.

According to the report - ‘We Need To Talk: Access to Speech and Language Therapy’ - the top spending areas in England spend at least £16.53 per child, while the bottom 25 per cent spend 58p or less per child.

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