Early Identification and Intervention to Better Support Children and Young People’s Therapy Needs

The SEND Review Outcome describes how services for SEND need to adapt. Identification of children’s needs should be as early as possible, and intervention provided in a timely way. It recognises the role of all system partners in providing support for a range of SEND needs.

15.8% of pupils will identify as SEN during their educational journey (The Special Educational Needs in England, Academic Year 2021/22)

The largest two categories of SEND needs requiring support were:

• Speech, Language, and Communication Needs (SLCN) (22.6%)
• Autism (12.5%) (Special Educational Needs in England, 2022)

Around 1 in 10 children will have a Speech, Language, and Communication need that they will not grow out of (Scale of the issue, 2022). They will need therapy support to ensure that they can take part in school and at home.

The national workforce issues faced are:

• a shortage of Occupational Therapists and Speech and Language Therapists in the UK. This is also being seen in other countries. (Immigration Rules - Immigration Rules Appendix Shortage Occupation List GOV.UK, 2022)
• fewer therapists in local areas to deliver specialist support
• less opportunity to train or support therapists at the non-specialist level