Health and Social Care Bill

My Lords, I rise to speak to Amendment 26A and the others in this group on behalf of my noble friend Lord Ramsbotham, who was unable to stay until this hour tonight. My noble friend was first going to explain, and apologise to the House, that the amendments, as handed to the Public Bill Office, included the word ““communication””, which somehow turned into ““communization”” during the printing process. My noble friend was then going to thank the noble Earl for his letter, which he received on Friday, and invite him to confirm to the House what he said in that letter about the healthy child programme. The letter said that the programme, "““provides regular opportunities after birth for the parents and the health visitor to review together a child’s development, health and wellbeing including any concerns about speech and language skills””." My noble friend was very glad to note that the Department of Health and the Department for Education and Skills are working together to ensure that the two-year to two and a half-year review that is part of that becomes an integrated review covering both health and education, which he assumes is to be compulsory. He also noted the work that was being done within the public health outcomes framework to inform decisions on services and support. However, accepting all that, he noted that, in her final report, the communications champion recommended that the Government should fund local professional development for early-years practitioners to enable them to assess and support children's communication and language development within the revised early-years foundation stage framework that is part of the public health outcomes framework. There is a possible shortfall, so my noble friend would like to ask the Minister whether that includes training of health visitors, who will make initial assessments, and a halt to the reduction of speech and language therapists, whose numbers were reduced by 3 per cent in 2010-11. Their follow-up is crucial to successful post-assessment development support. Equally crucial is that health and well-being boards understand that speech and language development not only underpins literacy development but is at the heart of the Government's proposed revisions to the early-years foundation stage framework. My noble friend seeks the Minister's additional assurance that assessment and follow-on action are properly integrated. Speaking now for myself in support of these amendments, I have had personal experience in my family of a child needing the specialist help of speech and language therapy to be able to acquire sufficient language for day-to-day communication. The battle to provide adequate speech therapy for pre-school and indeed for primary schoolchildren has been ongoing for many years. I know that my noble friend Lord Ramsbotham was not proposing to test the opinion of the House, but I beg to move this amendment tabled in his name.