The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
Pressure rises over cuts for speech and language
Pressure is mounting on Aberdeenshire Council to clarify its position on speech and language therapy cuts. A vote in February cut funding for the service, saving the council £200,000 during the next financial year.
Despite repeated efforts by The P&J, charities and families, neither Aberdeenshire Council nor its leader Gillian Owen have clarified whether the cut means dedicated speech and language therapists being removed from schools.
This would see parents forced to take their children out of school for therapy at NHS settings, which they say will be “catastrophic”.
In an interview with The P&J in early March, Ms Owen said she was awaiting the outcome of meetings between the education service and NHS Grampian.
NHS Grampian runs the in-school speech and language therapy service with council funds, which are being withdrawn.
Billy Alexander, CEO of Autism & Neurodiversity North Scotland (A-ND), said: “This cut now means that... children will need to be removed by their parent and taken to an unfamiliar environment for speech and language therapy, and then taken back to school.”
The council cut will affect more than 6,000 children and their families.
Banffshire and Buchan Coast MSP Karen Adam has written an open letter to Ms Owen and council chief executive Jim Savege.
Ms Adam said parents were “significantly worried”, and Aberdeenshire Council’s decision contradicted its own policies on promoting inclusion.
She also said that the cut ignored the council’s own impact assessment, which states that “there is a risk of adverse impacts on the development of children as a result of funding withdrawal from speech and language therapists”.
In the letter, she said: “It is clear that parents of children with additional support needs, whose families will be most affected by these cuts, do not feel listened to by Aberdeenshire Council.
“Furthermore, these cuts risk pushing children out of mainstream school, which would be contrary to Aberdeenshire Council’s responsibility to promote inclusion as laid out in the Promoting Inclusion and Reducing Exclusions in Educational Establishments Policy 2022.”
A-ND’s Billy Alexander criticised both the cuts and the lack of communication and consultation with affected families.
“All this talk about SLAs (Service Level Agreements]) is kicking the can down the road and avoiding accountability,” he said.
“They know perfectly well the impact of the decision and what this means.
“If they didn’t, they surely must do now with so many individuals highlighting the lifealtering impact this decision could have.
“Not one person I’ve spoken to has said ‘I can get why they’ve made that decision.’ Every single person, and particularly affected families, has said ‘this is madness’.
“Families are devastated, and so worried about what this is going to mean for their kids.”
“Yes, there is technically still going to be speech and language therapy provided by the NHS. It was provided by the NHS, and it still will be provided by the NHS.
“It was very clever of Gillian Owen to state that in her interview with The P&J.
“But your child is now going to have to be taken out of school for that.”
A-ND has set up an online to petition to reverse the cut. An existing petition started by an affected parent now has almost 5,500 signatures.
Mr Alexander admitted some families “felt defeated”, but vowed to fight their corner.
Reacting to Ms Adam’s letter, an Aberdeenshire Council spokesman said: “We can confirm the council has received further correspondence from Ms Adam on the subject of speech and language therapy and will formally respond to her in due course.”