It is a bit disturbing that none of the panel members seems to be particularly aware of this serious issue. The Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists has said:
“There is no ring-fenced provision of SLT in Secure Care in Scotland.”
The submission points to the
“strong co-occurrence of mental illness”
and speech, language and communication needs, and to the
“strong co-occurrence of challenging behaviours ... and SLCN”.
Those are all bread-and-butter issues in considering the welfare of such children, whether they are in secure care or in custody. Would the panel be in favour of ring fencing the provision, perhaps in looking at the terms of any contract, to ensure that those services are available?
Worryingly, the royal college says that there is “patchy provision” in prison and young offenders institutions, which
“demonstrates the lack of understanding of the nature of need and SLT contribution.”
It goes on to say that,
“Without a shift in funding to ring-fenced SLT funding for this population, provision”
is “unlikely to change”, given the general funding challenges.
Now that you are aware of those issues, will you comment on them?