3 July 2025
Today, the Government have published their 10 Year Health Plan for England.
The RCSLT believes that there is much to welcome in the 10 Year Health Plan for England, but only if the commitments are backed with the right resources, leadership and planning. We see potential in:
- Neighbourhood health services, including:
- Neighbourhood health centres with diagnostics, mental health and rehab under one roof
- For babies, children and young people, Neighbourhood Health Services which work in partnership with family hubs, schools, nurseries and colleges
- Digital records for patients as well as dedicated digital records for children’s health- We have long called for a single unique identifier for children to enable information to be shared between health and others.
- Shared IT systems reducing duplication across systems and sectors
- Increased staff training.
To get this right, neighbourhood pathways and models must plan for, resource, and make use of the whole health and care workforce.
Neighbourhood health will involve many professions, and speech and language therapists must be one. We make a difference from pre-birth to end of life care and must be involved in the design of the new system at every stage. This is an important opportunity to bring speech and language therapy closer to patients.
It is also essential that the increased reliance on the NHS App takes account of accessibility for everyone’s communication needs, and a lack of digital access does not result in, or exacerbate, inequalities in access and outcomes.
There will need to be investment in the workforce to deliver this plan. This must include a clear commitment to Allied Health Professional (AHP) leadership to guide the process of change. It will be critical to progressing rehabilitation pathways and to connecting and improving services across place and neighbourhood.
Key elements of the plan RCSLT welcomes
- A commitment that Start for Life services will be extended to the whole conception to age five range, enabling additional health visitor and speech and language support for children and their families.
- The plan recognises the promise of the Early Language Support for Every Child (ELSEC) programme and that speech and language therapists are vital for supporting children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). It states that the Government will ensure that “education and healthcare providers work together with other local services to plan and deliver evidence-based early interventions for children” and that reforms to the SEND system “will focus on ensuring allied health professionals are more effectively deployed spending time supporting children not on bureaucracy and admin.”
- The plan’s recognition of increased staff training, development and wellbeing support as well as more research opportunities and advance practice models for AHPs.
A fuller position and analysis from the RCSLT will follow.
