it is sadly nothing new.
before we wised up and went private (and I than my lucky stars every day that we could afford it), we were pushed form pillar to post for SALT.
dd1 was first assessed at 20 months. no -pre-school SALT available in the county.
we saw no one until we got angry when she was nearly 3. still no pre-school SALT, but it was ok, we were being placed on the case load of the SALT who specialised in over 3s. this woudl mean a 4 month wait.
dd1 turned 3. we heard nothing. we got angry angain, and demanded a meeting. in the meeting, the senior SALT, who had told us she specialised in over 3s, only 4 months previously, had now miraculously changed her secialism to under 3s, so dd1 still did not qualify.
stillno SALT, as no pre-school service.
we got very angry, and got allocated a SALT form the SN school (who turned out ot be worse than useless, but there oyu go).
dd1 went to pre-school. still no regular SALT. as she approached school, we were told there was no SALT for school aged children...
sadly htis is not just due to the cuts. SALT services have been in disarray ofr years. it is well known that ASD children are mostly fobbed off wrt SALT, as their problems are not "fixable" (ie are not easier pronunciation problems. I do not mean isues like oral dyspraxia here, I mean routine toddler mis-pronunciations)
it is a total postcode lottery. some areas have pre-school services, some have school services. all have a cut off at some point.
no child shoud be turned away due to age (whether too young or too old), but it has been happening for years.
dd1 is now nearly 7, and has never had nhs SALT services, and we could not get it written into her statement. she has never had OT either, despite severe OT issues. again, the service did not exist for children under the age of 6. this is not news.