{"id":2979,"date":"2025-08-15T14:16:01","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T13:16:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/ebn\/?p=2979"},"modified":"2025-08-29T15:42:02","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T14:42:02","slug":"wait-up-slt-exploring-experiences-of-waiting-within-childrens-speech-and-language-therapy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/ebn\/2025\/08\/15\/wait-up-slt-exploring-experiences-of-waiting-within-childrens-speech-and-language-therapy\/","title":{"rendered":"WAIT-UP SLT: Exploring Experiences of Waiting within Children\u2019s Speech and Language Therapy"},"content":{"rendered":"

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This week’s blog is written by DHealth candidate, and Senior Lecturer, Gillian Rudd from Birmingham City University. Gill’s blog is about her DHealth study WAIT-UP SLT: Exploring Experiences of Waiting within Children\u2019s Speech and Language Therapy.<\/p>\n

Communication is a human right<\/strong><\/p>\n

Speech and language therapists are allied health professionals who support people of all ages with communication and swallowing difficulties (RCSLT, nd<\/a>). Communication is essential to humanity, enabling us to express ourselves, connect with others and participate in the world in a meaningful way (McEwin and Santow, 2018<\/a>). The right to freedom of opinion and expression has been recognised internationally for over 50 years (McLeod, 2018<\/a>).<\/p>\n

When people experience an impairment in their communication, it can affect their activity, participation and wellbeing across a range of domains (McCormack et al, 2018<\/a>). Individuals with communication disabilities can be more at risk of abuse (Marshall and Barrett, 2017<\/a>) and children with communication disabilities are at particular risk of not being heard (Gallagher et al, 2018<\/a>; Gillett-Swan and Sargeant, 2018<\/a>). Dysphagia (eating and drinking difficulties) can have wide-ranging impacts on mortality and quality of life. Dysphagia in children may result in failure to thrive, aspiration pneumonias, gastroesophageal reflux and\/or the inability to establish and maintain proper nutrition and hydration (Prasse and Kikano, 2009<\/a>). Quality of life can be affected through embarrassment and reduced enjoyment of food with \u201cprofound social consequences\u201d for individuals and their families (RCSLT, 2015<\/a>).<\/p>\n

A Cinderella service<\/strong><\/p>\n

Despite an established need for support, there are longstanding concerns about the availability of and access to speech and language therapy (SLT) services. A \u2018Cinderella service\u2019 (Law, 2019<\/a>), SLT is a \u2018postcode lottery\u2019 (Children\u2019s Commissioner, 2019<\/a>; I CAN and RCSLT, 2018<\/a>; RCSLT, 2025<\/a>) with children and families receiving very different types and amount of input depending on the area in which they live. Only 15% of respondents to a 2018 survey by I CAN and RCSLT felt that SLT was available for children and young people as required. Although the issues are longstanding, the situation has been further exacerbated by the pandemic (Dearden, 2022<\/a>; Kessler and Boaz, 2024<\/a>; RCSLT, 2021<\/a>; RCSLT, 2022<\/a>; RCSLT and ASLTIP, 2022<\/a>), with services disrupted by staff sickness, difficulties accessing families and staff redeployment. SLT service managers have reported that \u201cstaff vacancy rates have risen to levels that they have never seen before\u201d (RCSLT, 2023<\/a>) and waiting lists are \u2018spiralling\u2019 (Deakin and Reynolds, 2022<\/a>) as \u2018demand is outstripping supply\u2019 (Staufenberg, 2022<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Waiting in speech and language therapy<\/strong><\/p>\n

The latest available data from NHS England (2025)<\/a> shows that 68,185 children and young people were waiting for speech and language therapy support in May 2025. To give a sense of scale to that number:<\/p>\n