§ Mr. Pavittasked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) if he will publish in the OFFICIAL REPORT a list of the specialist diagnostic centres for the assessment of children whose language development is retarded, together with the dates upon which they opened and the number of staff employed;
(2) if he will issue advice to all post-natal clinics for the immediate referral to a specialist diagnostic centre when impaired hearing or language problems are suspected; what is his estimate of the extra centres and costs involved in treating children of pre-school age; and if he will make a statement;
(3) if he will publish in the OFFICIAL REPORT the sums allocated for specialist diagnostic centres for speech and language disordered children for each 156W of the last five years together with the percentage of the budget for the National Health Service that this represents.
§ Mr. AlisonWherever possible, babies at risk of hearing or speech impairment from genetic or other causes are identified at birth and their development progress is watched. Tests to detect hearing impairment are carried out on these and all other babies as soon as practicable, usually at about age six months.
Where hearing impairment is thus detected as a single handicap, or in association with other handicaps, or where language problems are suspected, the child should be referred promptly for comprehensive assessment which includes specialist diagnostic provision for hearing and language problems.
No information is available centrally of the number, costs or staffing of centres providing diagnostic or treatment services for children with impaired hearing or language problems. Although there are some hearing, audiology and speech centres, assessment services for children with all kinds of defects are generally better able to assess the total needs of such children, many of whom have more than one defect, than separate services at centres for individual conditions. Our policy is to encourage the development of comprehensive assessment services and my Department has given guidance on this to health service authorities.