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Yorkshire Coast Speech Therapy Service Deals With Workforce Crisis

NHS bosses say challenges with the children's speech therapy service on the Yorkshire Coast are being dealt with.

Dr Gill Kelly, Consultant in Public Health, has highlighted the significant challenges facing the children's speech therapy service on the Yorkshire Coast. Speaking to local councillors, Dr Kelly acknowledged the workforce problems impacting speech and language services across the entire Humber and North Yorkshire region.

The shortage of qualified speech therapists has created long wait times for assessments and treatment, delaying vital interventions for children with speech and language difficulties.

However, Dr Kelly outlined a new initiative within the Healthy Child Service which aims to improve early identification of speech and language issues. This initiative involves incorporating an early language assessment into the mandatory developmental check for children aged two to two-and-a-half years old.

Dr Kelly says this enhanced assessment is already proving successful in identifying a greater number of children with potential speech and language delays. By detecting these issues earlier, parents can be empowered to implement simple strategies at home that may prevent further challenges developing in the future.

Dr Kelly expressed optimism that this proactive approach will ultimately reduce the number of children requiring referral to formal speech and language therapy services. While acknowledging that the service is still in its early stages, she urged stakeholders to "watch this space" for positive developments in the future.

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