Barnardos calls for children's healthcare waiting list to be tackled

Barnardos is calling for more medical staff to tackle growing waiting lists for children's healthcare.

The charity says there is been a 44% increase in waiting lists for mental health assessments.

Children are having to wait almost a year on average for disability assessments.

Over 10,000 children are waiting for speech and language therapy.

June Tinsley from Barnardos says such delays can create long term problems: "For verbal communication and verbal reasoning, infancy and early childhood is a key time.

"So any delay has knock on effects on a child's ability to communicate and it impacts on their life, not only today, but into the future."