asked Her Majesty’s Government:

What assessment they have made of the case for speech and language professionals in children’s centres and primary and secondary schools.

My Lords, speech and language development is crucial to maximising children’s life chances. Some children require support from speech and language professionals, and often it makes sense to provide those services in Sure Start children’s centres and in schools. The decision on the location of speech and language professionals is for primary care trusts to make with local authorities. The special educational needs code of practice, issued in November 2001, offers guidance on speech and language therapy provision.

My Lords, I thank the Minister for his reply. Given that 1.2 million children have communication difficulties and given that if they cannot speak fluently it is very hard for them to learn how to read fluently, which can lead to social exclusion and even crime, what workforce arrangements are in place to ensure collaborative working between health and educational professionals, so that they can jointly deliver services? Secondly, as early intervention is so important, how many speech and language professionals are already in place in children’s centres and how many have advanced plans to have them?

My Lords, as the noble Baroness will know, there are now more than 1,000 Sure Start children’s centres up and running, and a good number of them have speech and language therapists in place. We do not have the breakdown of the figures for speech and language therapists by location, but with plans to increase the number of children’s centres to 2,500 in 2008 and to 3,500 by 2010, we would expect to see steadily more speech and language therapists employed therein. It is the responsibility of local children’s trusts, which bring together the local authority, the education service and the local NHS, to plan that provision locality by locality.

My Lords, it sounds as though my noble friend agrees that the research shows that early intervention is almost the only chance of preventing a lifetime of stammering and heavy social and economic disadvantage. How does he respond to the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists, which says that six out of 10 NHS speech therapy departments are too under-resourced to plan for or to meet demand and that half say that the standard of their service has significantly declined?

My Lords, we completely agree on the importance of early intervention. My department has paid for and distributed in each local authority new materials to promote early intervention among practitioners, including Communicating Matters, a module on communication and language in early years settings, made available to all local authorities. More than 5,000 copies have been circulated.

On my noble friend’s points about the resourcing of centres, the number of training places for speech and language therapists is 74 per cent higher than in 1999. The number of speech and language therapists working in the NHS is 39 per cent higher than in 1997. The resources have been increasing, as has the number of job opportunities.

My Lords, what, if anything, are the Government doing to help the parents and carers of these children to complement the work of speech and language professionals?

My Lords, the development of the children’s centres, of which there are more than 1,000, is a substantial help to the parents and carers of these children that was not available before. As I say, we have plans to increase that 1,000 to 2,500 by 2008, and 3,500 by 2010. There is a substantial programme of investment in this area.

My Lords, I am sure that the Minister is aware of the enormous importance of learning songs and singing together for linguistically deprived children? A good deal of research shows that children with a small vocabulary increase it enormously if there is singing in class. Can the Minister suggest ways in which primary school and reception class teachers can be encouraged to get children singing as a way of improving their vocabulary and ability to communicate with one another?

My Lords, I entirely agree with the noble Baroness. Indeed, when we were debatingthe Education and Inspections Bill at 11.30 last night, the issue of singing was to the fore, with contributions from many noble Lords.

This is a vital area of work by local authority music services. For example, the Manchester Music Service, which I visited recently, has exemplary materials, now available nationally, for training ordinary primary school teachers—without their being trained as vocal teachers—in singing. That has a great capacity to be extended nationwide. The recent report by the Music Manifesto champion, Marc Jaffrey, particularly highlighted the room for expanding singing in primary schools, and we intend to take that forward.

My Lords, has the Minister noted the prevalence of speech, language and communication difficulties among young offenders, as highlighted in the Unstarred Question asked by the noble Lord, Lord Ramsbotham, last Friday? Many of these problems had been undiagnosed before the young offender came into an institution. Does that not indicate that, in spite of the increase in provision under this Government explained by the Minister, it is still inadequate?

My Lords, as I said, there are now39 per cent more speech and language therapists than there were in 1997; there has been a significant increase. Of course, the noble Lord is right about the severe linguistic and literacy disadvantages of young offenders and adults in prison: we must do a great deal more.

My Lords, is speech and language therapy available for children in care?

My Lords, arrangements should be made for children in care, who will be attending the children’s centres and schools to which I have referred, where there has been significant expansion in speech and language therapy provision in recent years.

Does the Minister agree that the new training provisions for the special educational needs co-ordinators, extended under the Education and Inspections Bill, should include some training or experience in communication difficulties?

My Lords, we are certainly prepared to look at that. As the noble Baroness knows, mandatory training is to be introduced for new SENCOs for the first time under provisions in the Education and Inspections Bill. We have only just started drawing up the arrangements for that training, including its contents. We shall look at it further, and I shall get back to the noble Baroness when the work is further advanced.