Written question WQ89591
- Asked by
- Russell GeorgeConservative
- To be answered by
- Minister for Health and Social Services
- Tabled
- Due
- Answered
- Time to answer
- 11 days
Question
What steps is the Welsh Government taking to ensure there are specialist practitioners, including auditory verbal therapists, available to enable more deaf children to have an equal start at school and the same opportunities in life as their hearing peers?
Answer
Answered by Minister for Health and Social Services
The Minister for Social Justice and Chief Whip met Auditory Verbal UK (AVUK) on the 8th November. The Deputy Minister for Social Services met the organisation in December 2022 and officials met them again in September 2023.
The decision to select and use any given approach or intervention in a healthcare setting is a clinical decision, made following expert assessment and discussion with all those involved in the care of that person and their family as relevant. As part of delivering care the clinician will continually assess the effectiveness of the intervention.
Speech and Language Therapists have developed several evidence-based care pathways to ensure quality and consistency of support throughout Wales as a result of such assessment. The Deafness pathway includes several evidence-based communication development options with a summary evidence-base for each. AVUK’s approach is included in the pathway.
The Welsh Government ‘Talk with Me’ programme exists to support the speech, language and communication (SLC) development of all children, with a particular emphasis on universal, population and targeted support. One of the aims is to ensure that the right children are seen by the right person in the right place at the right time: meaning that children needing to access more specialised support will be able to do so more effectively.
49 Speech and Language Therapist training places are funded each year, in addition to 11 Audiologist and 10 Audiological training places. There is additional funding for post-registration funding to support specialist training. This was £2 million in the HEIW 2023/24 Education and Training Plan. Health boards manage their own procurement of both training for their staff and any service provision.