The table shows the number of professionally qualified speech and language therapists employed in each strategic health authority in each of the last three years.
2003 2004 2005 England 6,243 6,556 6,759 North East Strategic Health Authority 344 366 371 North West Strategic Health Authority 911 949 917 Yorkshire and the Humber Strategic Health Authority 596 637 637 East Midlands Strategic Health Authority 462 467 486 West Midlands Strategic Health Authority 649 690 726 East of England Strategic Health Authority 573 519 605 London Strategic Health Authority 1,133 1,196 1,285 South East Strategic Health Authority 455 559 539 South Central Strategic Health Authority 476 485 497 South West Strategic Health Authority 644 688 696 Special Health Authorities and other statutory bodies 0 0 0 Source: The Information Centre for health and social care non-medical workforce census
Where speech and language therapy takes place as part of a hospital admission, the costs will be reflected in the relevant tariff price, although there is no separately identifiable tariff for the speech and language therapy component.
The introduction of a national tariff relies on national standardised data sets and robust cost and activity data collection. For this reason the implementation of a national tariff has begun with hospital-based care, where the data are available. There are limited data available on activity levels and the associated cost of services delivered in the community. As a result there is no tariff for speech and language therapy in the community.
We intend to consult on the future of payment by results in the new year, and as part of this we will consider the question of extending the national tariff to community services.