§ 27. Mr. Nicholas Wintertonasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is the total number of fully-trained speech therapists at the latest convenient date; and how this compares with the requirements set out in the Quirk Report.
§ Mr. Alfred MorrisThe number of people qualified to practise speech therapy was 3,048 at 1st June 1974. At 30th September 1973, the latest date for which figures are available, the number working in the hospital service, school 151W health service and community health service in England and Wales was 907 whole-time equivalent. This represented increases over the previous year of about 10 per cent. and 6½ per cent. in the hospital and school health service respectively. The Quirk Report recommended a target of 2,500 to be reached within 20 years.