Over recent months, RCOT has been leading a taskforce bringing together the Royal College of Speech & Language Therapists, the Chartered Society of Physiotherapists, British Academy of Childhood Disability and the Disabled Children's Partnership to call for greater access to therapy support for children and young people.
After gaining support from the Children's Minister back in November to protect children's therapists from redeployment, we met with the Minister in April 2021 to highlight concerns that therapy support for children with disabilities was sitting at just 30% of the level it was pre-pandemic. The Minister was quick to act on our advice and sent an email to all schools in England on 24th April to emphasise the guidance and ask that all therapists and health professionals have access to schools to help the most vulnerable children.
Furthermore, due to our work, the Minister is setting up a working group made up of NHS England, the Department for Education, Department for Health and Social Care and Public Health England to look specifically at access to therapies for children and young people with SEND. RCOT has been invited as a key driver to sit on this group and advise on the next steps to ensuring that the education, development and mental health of children and young people is not ignored.
The proposed working group is a welcome opportunity for occupational therapists to raise awareness of their role in enabling children and young people with physical, learning and mental health needs to realise their potential and participate as valued members of their community. We will be pushing for cross-departmental support to ensure all children can access occupational therapy at the right time, and in the right place.
Commenting on this development, RCOT Chief Executive, Steve Ford said:
“This is really positive news, demonstrating how lobbying by the RCOT public affairs team gets results for our members and society.”
We will be reaching out to members to engage with activity related to this working group. Updates will be shared as opportunities arise.