Schools will be able to make new referrals to the speech and language therapy service from this week.

That’s the pledge from Health and Social Care Minister David Ashford following staffing issues and increased caseloads that had forced the government to stop taking referrals for children in the key stage two age bracket (ages seven to 11), apart from those with stammering problems.

Some schools were told visits by a therapist would be on a ’term-on, term-off’ basis.

Mr Ashford has now confirmed a ’bank’ staff member was recruited to cover maternity leave of a part-time staff member.

In a written Tynwald question, Daphne Caine (Garff) asked when new referrals would start to be accepted again. The minister said: ’September 2019 on the return to the new school year.’

But he also confirmed the shocking rate of caseloads that each member of the speech and language therapy service faces. ’The current caseload per speech and language therapist is 89, and the waiting list is 14 weeks to be seen for a new referral,’ he said.

’The recommended caseload number for a full time speech and language therapist is 50.

’The lack of capacity to meet demand will be part of the business case and service proposal for children’s speech and language therapy.’

When the problems were first highlighted in January, he announced there would be a ’fundamental review’ of the service. That review had now been completed, in advance of the business case’s preparation.

The minister added: ’The department has ascertained the level of unmet need by the use of historical referral data, this will be further analysed when the referrals are processed in September when the new school year starts.

’A significant number of the children involved will also have input from occupational therapists and physiotherapists within the team and therefore the unmet need is well understood within the children’s therapy service as a whole.’