§ Mrs. Ray MichieTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how many children and adults have(a) cerebral palsy and (b) other speech/language/communication disorders; and how many of these people have received speech therapy in the past or are currently receiving it.
§ Mr. FreemanInformation about the number of children and adults with cerebral palsy is not available centrally. I refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave to the right hon. Member for Stoke-on-Trent, South (Mr. Ashley) on 26 March for estimates of the numbers of people with speech and language disorders. Not all those with speech and language disorders necessarily need or would benefit from speech therapy, and it is not known how many of them have received speech therapy in the past. Estimates of the number of people receiving speech therapy in England in 1988–89 are not yet available.
§ Mrs. Ray MichieTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how much money his Department has spent on research during the most recent five years for which figures are available; how much money his Department has spent on research into disorders of human communication and appropriate service provision to deal with such disorders during these five years; and if he will provide details on each research project undertaken into this subject during the most recent year for which this information is available.
§ Mr. FreemanExpenditure on research and development work in the field of health and personal social services commissioned over the last five years is as follows:
140W
£ million 1985 11.2 1986 11.5 1987 12.6 1988 12.9 1989 115.3 1 Approx. In 1989 approximately £434,000 was spent on research into speech therapy, visual and hearing impairments. Figures for the preceding four years are not readily available. Details of the research programme are published in the Department of Health yearbook of research and development and for earlier years in the annual DHSS handbooks of research and development, copies of which are available in the Library.
§ Mrs. Ray MichieTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will provide information relating to the demand for and take-up of devices for assisting communication, such as speech synthesisers and portable communication aids, and if he will provide specific figures, where possible, for particular devices.
§ Mr. FreemanInformation is not available in the form requested. A 1984 research report "Communication Aids Provision", commissioned by the Department from the rheumatology and research unit of the university of Leeds indicated that 1,214 communication aids had been prescribed to adults by 82 per cent. of speech therapy departments in the United Kingdom.
§ Mrs. Ray MichieTo ask the Secretary of State for Health whether he has any plans to investigate the need for alternative communication systems for the communication-handicapped population.
§ Mr. FreemanOfficials at the Department of Health, together with officials from the Department of Education and Science, have been examining whether the current arrangements for the assessment of children who require aids to communication meet the needs of those children in the most efficient and cost-effective way. We will consider in the light of their work whether any specific steps by the two Departments will be appropriate.
§ Mrs. Ray MichieTo ask the Secretary of State for Health whether his Department is considering making it possible for communication-impaired people of all ages to have access to appropriate communication aids.
§ Mr. FreemanIt is for individual authorities and their professional staff to determine whether a communication aid is appropriate for a communication impaired person. Health authorities can seek advice from the specialist communication aids centres to enable them to make a judgment.