Speeches by Craft.

“I would like to focus on a fairly specific area around commissioning. We recently held a session at which Helen Hayes from the Education Select Committee guested. She posed some rather interesting questions about the ESC’s SEND inquiry and, rather notably, the absence of health playing into this. They have been finding…”

“I hear what you are saying. There is a current statutory framework around it and a current duty on ICBs to assess the need in their area. However, a lot of professionals in the education sector and particularly in local authorities would argue that that is not sufficient to get ICBs to meet that need. For example, on a…”

“In terms of the strategic modelling and transparency, will there be an ability for local authorities, parent carer forums or anything along those lines, to monitor certain metrics around how ICBs are delivering on SEND? That might be diagnosis pathways, timelines for diagnosis or actual waiting lists to see professiona…”

“Will that be a specific SEND metric? If you want to look online at how your ICB performs on this, will you be able to see that?”

“I would just put it to you that what we hear from professionals in this space, parents and families is that health is absent from that conversation and that the needs of individual children are quite often not met. Outside of having a statutory obligation on health providers, this is something that falls brilliantly in…”

“Just to pick up on that, you said it has been developed with ICBs and chairs. Was it not co-produced with local authorities and schools as well? Did you look at that framework going wider? Part of the issue seems to be that everything is operating on a very siloed basis. Would it not have been useful for local authorit…”

“Will the workforce plan reflect the rising level of demand? There has been a significant uptick in demand across the piece for speech and language, OT, physio and all those early years services. Or will there be an aim to reduce some of that acute demand, as opposed to meeting that demand via recruitment?”

“We have heard it is also quite crucial for retention, because it allows professionals to do the job that they have entered the profession to do. That has been quite useful. To touch on the issue of recruitment, there are obvious workforce shortages, not just in early years, but across the NHS. One specific area is spee…”

“But the RCSLT did specifically pick up on the current guidance for early language and home-learning environment funding. In the 2022 to 2025 period, it could cover only three to four-year-olds and up, and that was extended to cover two to three-year-olds for 2025-26. They ask for that funding be able to be used from bi…”

“I want to follow on with another question about family hubs, you will be unsurprised to hear, specifically looking at speech and language development. We had a very interesting session focusing on that area. The Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists noted in its written evidence—and this was picked up during …”

“Thank you. Looking specifically at the first 1,001 days, what is the offer around speech and language therapies and interventions in the nought to two-year-old category,? The Committee visited Blackpool, where they have an extended health visitor programme. I am not going to get ahead of Andrew, who I think is going to…”

“Is there a planned target for those who are most in need of this kind of therapy? There is quite a lot of evidence around disadvantaged communities not necessarily accessing some of the support that people in a higher economic bracket will access. Is there a plan for how will that will be targeted, or is the idea to ro…”

“I want to touch more on the wider early years workforce. I was wondering what kind of plans you have in place to make sure that the expertise of specific professions, such as occupational therapy, physiotherapy, and speech and language therapy, is best deployed, and when the interventions in that space are best deliver…”

“Yes; to access a bunch of these services, you need a diagnosis or a referral, and we have been hearing again and again from professionals in this space that they spend a lot of their time not being able to do the kind of dedicated work that they want to do, because they are dealing with that referral process. Speech an…”

“Thank you, Chair, for giving me a little time to speak about why I have requested this debate. One would hope that it goes without saying that we are an island nation. Like many Members, I have a port in my constituency, and it provides a significant amount of employment for local people, but it also provides a lot of …”

“I imagine it would be Transport.”

“Thanks for mentioning that you are a teacher. I don’t think I knew that about you—I don’t think any of us was aware of that. [Laughter.] The debate encompasses all seafarers—a seafarer being someone who goes to sea. Interestingly, in my patch, we have mainly merchant navy, but we also have a cruise terminal, so cruise …”

“I very much appreciate my hon. Friend giving way again. Does he agree that when you go somewhere and you are unable to access adequate facilities to change your child, the message that is sent to you and your family is, “You are not welcome here. We do not want you.”? Conversely, when you go somewhere that has a Changi…”

“Will my hon. Friend give way?”

“I want to add a personal note of thanks to my hon. Friend for being such an outstanding advocate for families such as ours. We share a strong union on that point. Does he agree that it is not enough just to have a Changing Places facility, because it is also important for staff in those areas to have had training so th…”