January marks 80 years of Royal College of Speech & Language Therapists. Unfortunately, Wales has fewer speech & language therapists vs. other parts of Britain: with waiting times that've increased 33% in last five years between 2019-2025. Youth Justice Board statistics show 71% of children criminally sentenced simultaneously have some sort of communication need. 7 times more likely than their cohort by age, disproportionately. Welsh Conservatives are advocating a fairer funding model for speech & language therapists that work within Youth Justice, we're trying to make mandatory the inclusion of speech & language therapists towards this outcome as a legal requirement imbedded into multi-disciplinary support services.
It's past time that our Labour-run Government increase investment, readily recruiting enough of these therapists!