RCSLT NI welcomes Assembly motion

The Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (RSCLT) has welcomed the motion tabled in the Northern Ireland Assembly today,  highlighting the significance of speech, language and communication needs in offenders and reoffenders in the criminal justice system.

The RCSLT has highlighted that a failure to correctly assess the communication needs of prisoners and those at any stage of the justice system can have life-changing consequences.

Ruth Sedgewick, head of RCSLT in Northern Ireland said: “Communication skills are fundamental to how we make ourselves understood, our ability to understand what’s been said to us, and knowing how to speak to different people in the right way at the right time. Thinking about a young person facing a magistrate, it’s not hard to see how undiagnosed communication needs could dramatically affect this interaction and its outcome.

“Without critical speech and language therapy support in place offenders often have difficulty navigating the complexities of the justice system and don’t understand how their behaviour can have devastating consequences for their future. These challenges also act as a barrier to assessments and treatment programmes relying on verbal communication.

“Once inside the prison environment, communication difficulties are strongly linked with challenging, aggressive and violent behaviour, self-harm, increased physical restraint and segregation. The impact of a failure to identify these needs can have life-changing implications.”

The RCSLT in Northern Ireland is calling for:

• the implementation of a speech, language and communication assessment of everyone coming into the criminal justice system, and we would like to see this happening at an early stage of the justice process
• widespread implementation of training for staff in the justice system to aid better recognition of communication needs, so that appropriate support and intervention can be delivered for those entering the system and those already inside a prison setting
• the Health Minister to immediately increase the number of places on the Ulster University undergraduate degree, whose annual intake is currently only 28 students.

Research shows that children with undetected and unaddressed speech language and communication needs are twice as likely to develop social, emotional, and mental health difficulties as children with typical language development. They experience higher rates of school expulsion and are less likely to advance to further education.  In adult life, they are twice as likely to go over a year without employment.

Ruth added: “We would urge the Northern Ireland Assembly and Executive to consider whether more rigorous assessment of, and support for speech and language needs in the early years of childhood development would have an impact on the overall wellbeing of individuals, the level of offending, and on the academic and economic success of our citizens.

“Like many other parts of the health service, this will require investment in more resource to increase the available workforce. A modest investment in speech and language services stands to deliver huge societal benefits for Northern Ireland.

“We look forward to working with the Justice Minister and other Ministers to support this important and valuable piece of work.”