More children need speech and language support in first year of school, with the rise in Lincolnshire above the national average

The number of children needing speech and language support in the first year of school has risen by almost 10 per cent, BBC analysis shows.

The increase, three times that of recent rises, is partly down to the effect of lockdown restrictions, according to experts.

In Lincolnshire, the number of children needing support for speech, language and communication in Year 1 rose from 342 in 2015/16 to 390 in 2021/22.

The number of children in Lincolnshire needing support for speech, language and communication in Year 1 in 2021/22 rose by 10.17 per cent compared to the previous academic year, which is higher than the national rise of 9.81 per cent.

The Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (RCSLT) said the profession was struggling to cope with the demand.

Analysis by the BBC's Shared Data Unit found the number of five and six-year-olds needing help with language increased more than most other areas of special educational needs.

A total of 42,341 children required extra support in 2021-22, up from 38,560 in 2020/21.

The charity Speech and Language UK said this could have been down to the lack of stimulus available to young children during the pandemic.

However the increases in children needing speech and language support in Year 1 varied greatly across the country with some authorities seeing increases of over 35 per cent.

Kamini Gadhok, chief executive of the RCSLT, said: “It is a real worry. Our members have been telling us anecdotally that they’ve been seeing a huge increase in the number of children referred to them. We’ve been very aware, from the surveys we’ve done, that the pandemic has had an impact, not just because of services being closed or schools not being open, but also because children were not able to interact that they, as in a way that they used to.

“It’s really important to remember that we learn to communicate by socialising with other people. So for children and young people, it’s being able to socialise with other children, to be able to mix with family members, to be out and about in the community, or even simple things like being in the playground.

“Well, we’ve been raising concerns even pre pandemic, because there was a situation within the profession, and for services that were already very, very stretched. So we have seen a cut in funding to speech and language services over the years. Children’s communication needs have not been prioritized within government, and we were very concerned about this. So what we are now seeing post pandemic, or actually, we still obviously have an issue with the virus is that we’ve hit a crisis point with services, where services are not able to meet the level of demand that we’ve just talked about.

Jane Harris, chief executive of Speech and Language UK, said: “We see more and more children, struggling to talk and understand words and that’s really a concerning situation. We know that if children don’t get support with speech and language challenges they are more likely to fall behind in subjects like English and maths at school.

"They are more likely to have mental health problems. They are more likely to be unemployed in later life and they’re more likely to end up in the criminal justice system.

“We really want government and school leaders across the country to wake up to this situation and put in place much more support.

“This is a really serious problem. But at the moment our education system is focused on reading, writing and maths. We’ve known that for years, but we need our schools and our nurseries to understand that speech and language is fundamental to children’s success. They need to put in much more support for children with these challenges.”

The Department for Education said that up to £180 million of government funding over the next three years will support the sector to focus on children’s development in their earliest of years and help to address existing recruitment and retention challenges

Minister for Schools and Childhood, Kelly Tolhurst, said: “The early years of a child’s life are vital, not only in establishing important developmental skills, but also in building a lifelong love of learning that will help them succeed in adult life.

“I’m really proud of the quality and dedication of our early years workforce. This package of support is a huge investment in their skills and professional development, because raising the status of this important sector is key to its growth.”