Children’s early development at risk with year-long NHS waits

Tens of thousands of children in England have waited more than a year for community care such as NHS hearing services, speech and language therapy and disability support, the BBC has found.

Analysis shows a quarter of the 300,000 children on waiting lists are waiting more than 12 months.

NHS leaders and doctors say the delays are “catastrophic” and damaging not only to their health but also to their development, and are calling for the same priority to be given to tackling long waits as is being given to hospital backlogs.

The government says long waits are unacceptable but further investment in community services under the 10-year plan will improve access to care.

Tiya Currie’s six-year-old son Arun has struggled to get the support he needs.

He had difficulty speaking since his childhood. But Tiya, 46, from London, said she was faced with “waiting list after waiting list” when she tried to get help.

“I was in total darkness and pulling my hair out. It was really stressful.”

After waiting two years, Tiya and her husband felt they had no choice but to use £4,000 of their savings to pay privately for speech therapy and formal diagnosis, which revealed Arun had developmental language disorder (DLD).

DLD is a diagnosis given to children who have significant and ongoing difficulties understanding or using spoken language.

Tiya said: “It absolutely devastates me that there are so many people out there who need access to speech and language therapists but cannot get this service due to long waiting lists and lack of affordability.”

Arun’s progress has improved significantly with speech therapy and appropriate school support, but Tiya said the need for better early intervention and resources for children was crucial.

“I know how challenging NHS services are, but children must be prioritized because they are still developing and need this support now, not years later,” he said.

The society’s waiting situation for people under the age of 18 has worsened in the last three years.

Since the beginning of 2023, there has been a sixfold increase in the number of children waiting more than a year; More than 77,500 children in England currently have this condition.

It is not common in society for adults to wait a year; While this rate is 26% for children, only 1% wait this long.

Although the figures only cover England, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) says longer-than-usual waits have also been reported elsewhere in the UK.

Many of the children facing long waits have complex needs, including learning and physical disabilities. Some of the young children waiting will include those needing autism or ADHD evaluations. For older children, mental health services take the lead.

Elliot Howard-Jones, chairman of the Robinson Group, which represents specialist community NHS services, said he was genuinely concerned about how the delays were affecting children.

“Getting this support is essential to their development journey, which is why waiting is so damaging.”

To illustrate this point, he gave the example of a child who had a hearing problem, which caused them to become distracted and apathetic.

“For an adult, waiting is annoying, painful, and difficult. But for a child, waiting means your peer group moves on before you leave. You fall behind and can never catch up.”

Howard-Jones said there needed to be greater focus and investment in community services, as was the case with hospital treatments; Tackling the backlog was at the heart of Labour’s manifesto, and NHS trusts are getting extra money to make progress.

His warnings were echoed by other senior NHS leaders.

Richard Kirby, chairman of the NHS Confederation and NHS Providers community network, said demand exceeded capacity.

“Without more help, children will continue to wait longer and fall further behind, which is something none of us should accept.”

RCPCH’s Dr. Ronny Cheung added: “Chronic underinvestment and lack of focus on children’s health and services means staff are unable to meet growing demand.

“Long waits are unacceptable for any patient, but for children and young people these waits can be disastrous.

“Many treatments need to be given at a certain age or stage of development to prevent long-term complications, and for many children these long waits mean we miss important opportunities to intervene in a timely manner.”

Kate Lawson, head of policy at disability charity Sense, said there were many “heartbreaking stories” of families struggling to access essential care and therapies, with a significant number having to pay privately.

“It is crucial that the government addresses this issue to give every child the best start in life,” he added.

The Department of Health and Social Care acknowledged the waits were unacceptable.

He said he had taken “robust action” by setting a new target to ensure community health services were working towards seeing patients within 18 weeks, doing the same thing hospitals were expected to do.

And a spokesman added there would be further investment in community services under the government’s 10-year NHS plan.

“Our vision for neighborhood health is that with more staff, better digital tools and services working together, we will bring care closer to babies, children and teens, ensuring children get the right support in the right place,” she said.