School children’s grades and mental wellbeing are suffering, NHS bosses have warned, as waiting lists for community health services bulge with almost 230,000 youngsters.
Official figures show the number of under-18s in line for – among other things – essential speech and language therapy, autism checks and paediatric appointments has grown by 10 per cent in just five months.
About 13,500 of them have been stuck on waiting lists for more than a year, prompting calls for the government to pledge more money for early intervention services.
It comes after Schools Week revealed how a collapse in state services brought on by austerity has left schools to pick up the pieces.
