Speech Therapy: Manpower
Health
Written answers and statements, 5 November 2009
Annette Brooke (Mid Dorset & North Poole, Liberal Democrat)
To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many speech therapists completed their training in the UK in each of the last five years; and what his Department's latest estimate is of the number of (a) job vacancies in this profession and (b) trained speech therapists.
Ann Keen (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department of Health; Brentford & Isleworth, Labour)
The following table contains the number of speech and language therapy commissions in each of the last five years.
| Allied Health Professionals Training Commissions 1996-97 to 2008-09 | ||
| Source | Speech therapy | |
| 1996-97 | BS | 74 |
| 1997-98 | A/R | 75 |
| 1998-99 | A/R(1) | 455 |
| 1999-2000 | Revised Q4 | 457 |
| 2000-01 | QMR Q4 | 558 |
| 2001-02 | QMR Q4 | 553 |
| 2002-03 | QMR Q4 | 597 |
| 2003-04 | QMR Q4 | 630 |
| 2004-05 | QMR Q4 | 740 |
| 2005-06 | QMR Q4 | 797 |
| 2006-07 | QMR Q4 | 758 |
| 2007-08 | QMR Q4 | 770 |
| 2008-09 | QMR Q4 | 79 |
| (1 )Unvalidated 1998-99 outturn. Note: BS = Balance Sheet. A/R = non-medical education and training (NMET) accountability report. QMR = NMET quarterly monitoring reports. Source: NHS Pay Review body. | ||
The last national health service vacancy survey showed that at March 2008 there were 30 vacancies in speech and language therapy that trusts had actively been trying to fill.
A table giving the number of trained speech therapists as at September 2008 is as follows.
| England as at September 2008 | |
| Speech and language therapy | |
| Qualified staff | 7,115 |
| Consultant therapist | 12 |
| Manager | 313 |
| Therapist | 6,676 |
| Scientist | — |
| Scientific officer | — |
| Technician | — |
| Instructor/teacher | 112 |
| Tutor | 2 |