David Rees AM joins Speech and Language Therapists from across Wales: Giving Voice to our most Disadvantaged Children

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yesterday David Rees AM joined Speech and Language Therapists from Wales in a special event to celebrate the second anniversary of Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists’ Giving Voice campaign, launched in 2010 to raise awareness of the vital work Speech and Language Therapists do to help people with speech disorders and swallowing difficulties including children, stroke patients, head and neck cancer patients, people with learning disabilities and dementia sufferers. Around 60,000 people in Wales have a Speech, Language or Communication need, with are around 450 Speech and Language Therapists working in the public sector at present.

The Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists is calling on the Welsh Government to increase the number of Speech and Language Therapists working in Flying Start teams, the Welsh Government’s targeted Early Years programme for families with children under 4 years of age in some of Wales’s most deprived communities.  The Welsh Government has committed a further £55 million to double the number of children supported by the programme, which means that around 18,000 children will receive specialist Speech and Language support.