§ Mr. Wyn Robertsasked the Secretary of State for Wales if he is satisfied with the provision in Wales for speech therapy; and to what extent the level of staffing projected by the Quirk Report has been attained in Wales compared with Scotland.
§ Mr. Barry JonesIt is for each health authority to decide its particular service priorities within the resources available and some progress has been made.
The Quirk Report recommended a target provision by 1992 of 2,500 tull time speech therapists for Great Britain as a whole. This long-term planning target took account of the use of speech therapy aides, also recommended in the report. On a population basis this would imply a target for Wales and Scotland of 127 and 239, respectively. At 30th September 1976 there were 48 speech therapists— whole-time equivalent—in the NHS in Wales. I understand that in Scotland there were 197 at 31st March 1976.