Children's Communication Coalition (CCC)
The Children's Communication Coalition (CCC) brings together national organisations, experts and service users who are speaking out for all children with communication disability within the criminal justice pathway.
Up to one in 10 young children in society have a communication disability.
However, it is a shocking fact that at least 60% of children in contact with youth justice services in England have communication difficulties (Bryan et al, 2007).
This mirrors international evidence from Australia and Canada showing similar levels of difficulty in children within each country.
International evidence shows that communication is the key life skill, the means by which we meet our needs, form relationships and access education, employment and the rest of society.
Unless we intervene early to identify children with communication difficulties and provide them with the support they need, the cost to the child and to society is vast.
We call on Government to deliver on the following three aims, which we have identified as key factors in meeting the communication needs of children and avoiding their descent into offending behaviour.
The CCC is calling on Government to:
- Introduce holistic communication screening for all pre-school children in order to identify vulnerable children early on and provide the support they need
- Put in place a communication screening process for children as they enter the justice pathway to identify vulnerable children at the earliest point
- Adopt the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists’ model of service delivery of speech and language therapy services within the justice pathway. In this way we can work together to identify children with communication difficulties, reduce re-offending and allow our children to achieve their potential
Download Children's Communication Coalition briefing
Children's Communication Coalition report (July 2010)
Children's Communication Coalition partners
