Beth Moulam, Communication Matters’ trustee and AAC user has provided tools and guidance for members and supporters to find and write to MPs as part of the AAC community’s response to the SEND Reform consultation (closing date 18 May 2026).
We outline our proposed response, below. We look forward to seeing as many of you adding your voice to the overall SEND Reform Consultation response.
AAC for ALL
The UK government has set out its proposed policy to enable every child to achieve and thrive in England’s school and SEND systems.
The Department for Education’s Schools White Paper and the SEND Reform consultation documents covers plans for Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) users. However, for the policies addressing AAC provision for children and young people at home, school and in the community to be achieved, health and education must work together.
It is important that SEND reforms establish services for all children and young people who need an assessment, provision of equipment and ongoing support, not just those who have the most complex communication and access needs.
The role of Integrated Care boards (ICB)
To achieve the stated goals every local ICB must have an AAC specialist service, including speech and language therapists, who can work with education to identify AAC need early.
ICBs should be able to assess and provide equipment locally for the 90% of children who need AAC including children with autism and learning disabilities.
For the 10% of children with the most complex communication and access needs, ICBs are the referral service to the regional specialised services who provide assessment and equipment.
All AAC users, wherever the equipment came from, should then receive ongoing support at school and home from the local AAC service.
Expertise and Literacy
The Government’s plans relies on ‘experts at hand’ to provide ongoing support for all children with communication disabilities, however, it is important to recognise that generalist AAC speech and language therapists are not yet trained to work with AAC users.
Current polices; the reading framework and the writing framework, referred to in the consultation, allow for head teachers to exempt some non-speaking children from communication assessment and being taught the national curriculum. However, there is evidence to support the effectiveness of teaching literacy and oracy to all children.
It is important the proposed specialist provision packages for those with the most complex needs, including children who need or use AAC, include assessment by trained AAC specialists to ensure every child is given the opportunity to fulfil their own potential by becoming literate.
Ending postcode lottery
Due to the abolition of NHS England there is still some uncertainty over the future of the Regional Specialised AAC services. This needs addressing if the SEND reforms are to be successful for AAC users.
Despite guidance to local commissioners being provided a decade ago (NHSE, 2015) many ICBs are yet to establish local provision, or due to funding pressure and lack of specialist staff have reduced these services in recent years.
Where local services exist the specialist AAC team may face high caseloads and challenges around recruiting specialist AAC speech and language therapists due to profession shortages. The result is they struggle to have capacity to work 1-1 with the team around a child, young person or adult.
We are concerned about the provision of AAC where not every ICB is yet commissioning AAC services. The key concerns are around:
- Continuing access to highly specialist expert assessments.
- The postcode lottery of local services meaning an inability for many to receive a local AAC assessment.
- The lack of ongoing support services for those with high need.
- Little or no ongoing support from specialist AAC speech and language therapists for individuals with little or no speech, the team around them, their networks and their families.
The professionals currently employed in the regional specialised services are highly experienced experts in complex AAC and access solutions. They provide a valuable resource that benefits the wider AAC population by sharing their knowledge with local AAC teams (where they exist) and during initial training for schools and families when they provide equipment. This expertise, along with their technical support desks, cannot be easily replaced if services are disrupted through the proposed changes.
It is important that the DoH and ICBs sets out their plans for future commissioning, including how any changes will affect current service provision.
Assistive Technology and Communication
As the use of assistive technology becomes ever more the norm and new solutions have become available in everyday education and society it is essential those with complex communication needs are not left behind or overlooked.
We are asking AAC users, professionals and supporters to write to their MPS to either ask a question in the House and/or raise with the Minister, concerns about the provision of AAC services and for a commitment that health and education will work together nationally, regionally and locally to provide the resources our children and young people need to fulfil their potential.
