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Girl, 5, has 18-month battle for speech therapy

Family handout Five-year-old Martha. She has blond hair and wears a blue dress. She is playing in a garden and has her hands on what seems to be a red and white toadstool.Family handout
Five-year-old Martha should have speech and language therapy delivered by the local authority on behalf of the NHS.

The mother of a young girl with Down's syndrome said she has had to fight her local council for 18 months to get the help they are entitled to.

Five-year-old Martha, from Bracknell, should receive speech and language therapy sessions, provided by the NHS, through the local authority.

Martha is one of more than 63,000 children nationally who are waiting for community speech and language therapy, according to NHS England figures.

Bracknell Forest Council said it could not comment on individual cases.

Vicki is a woman with fair hair and a black jumper stood in a living room. She has shoulder length
Vicki said she had been trying to get an answer on speech and language services for her daughter for 18 months

"I've emailed the council numerous times, I've had no reply back from the council. I've phoned the council, left messages, no reply back." Vicki, Martha's mother, said.

"It will have a lasting effect because unfortunately, Martha is falling behind at school. School are amazing but she's falling behind because she can't quite grasp what's being asked of her."

"At the moment she's living in that constant frustration because she can't tell people what she wants or what she feels."

Grainne Siggins, executive director for people at Bracknell Forest Council, said: "We are unable to comment on individual cases. However, when a child transfers from outside of the borough to Bracknell Forest, any existing EHCP (education health care plan) already in place is adopted by the council.

"This ensures continued provision of the already identified interventions."

Derek Munn, director of policy and public affairs at the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists, said Martha's story was not an uncommon one.

"There is an understanding that the current system is not working," he said.

"There needs to be more resource, there needs to be more speech and language therapists - it's a shortage in the profession.

"Different challenges and conditions will have different pinch points in terms of age but as a general rules the earlier you identify, the earlier you intervene, the greater and better the impact is going to be for that child later in life."

According to the latest NHS figures, 63,411 children are waiting for community speech and language therapy in England, with 19,820 waiting between 18 and 52 weeks.

The number of children waiting more than a year was 4,545.

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