RCSLT News September 2023: busy times in politics; touring the UK; Times Health Commission; and more

In September's news:

- Autumn is a busy time in politics. Find out how the RCSLT is engaging to ensure speech and language therapy is represented.
- Travelling around the UK - how the RCSLT is engaging with members face to face across the four nations.
- Our submission of evidence to the Times Health Commission. https://www.rcslt.org/news/rcslt-submits-evidence-to-the-times-health-commission/
- ICS project
- Autism guidance and McGowan mandatory training
- Vacancies survey

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This interview was conducted by Victoria Harris, Head of Learning at The Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists and features Derek Munn, Director of Policy and Public Affairs at the RCSLT.

Transcript

Transcript Name: 

RCSLT_News_September_2023       

Transcript Date: 

21 September 2023 

Speaker Key (delete/anonymise if not required): 

HOST:                         VICTORIA HARRIS 

DEREK:                      DEREK MUNN 

MUSIC PLAYS: 0:00:00-0:00:10 

HOST:                         0:00:10 Hello, it’s Wednesday, 20 September. I’m Vicky Harris, Head of Learning at the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists, and I’m here with Derek Munn, the RCSLT’s Director of Policy and Public Affairs for our regular catch-up. We’ll be covering key issues and activities relating to speech and language therapy all around the UK. Good morning, Derek. 

DEREK:                      0:00:30 Hello. 

HOST:                         0:00:32 Hello. Okay, so autumn, it’s always a very busy time in politics. How are you raising awareness of the importance of speech and language therapy in Parliament at the moment? 

DEREK:                      0:00:43 Thanks, Vicky. Yes, if you follow the news at all you’ll know that we are heading into General Election season. Now, the General Election could be as late as January 25, so there could be another 16 months of this, but we are now definitely in a pre-election period. And that comes on top of what always happens in the autumn, which is the UK Parliament comes back, it then goes away again to have the party conferences, then it comes back to finish up legislation, then it has or what will now be the King’s Speech for the first time as opposed to the Queen’s Speech. And there will be a clue perhaps in how much legislation is in the King’s Speech as to how long the government expects the term to run before it calls an election. So, preparing for all of that in different ways. 

In terms of parliament itself, we continue with the kind of things we do. Steve, our new Chief Executive will be meeting Robin Walker, Chair of the Education Select Committee – very important contact – in the coming weeks. 

We have contacted all MPs, just as a general catch-up, using the information that we developed for them about voice care, which has gone down very well with parliamentarians in the past. And we will be holding a big event with a celebrity in Parliament in October. 

The party conference is going alongside that, and I’ve been invited to attend the Conservative Party conference to talk to their policy development forum, particularly around early intervention, so that will be interesting. Because, clearly, we believe what we believe about what’s needed for speech and language therapy, and people with communication and swallowing needs, but you tailor to your audience, so I have to think, okay, I’m addressing the Conservative conference, what is it that I’m going to say, which will tie in with where these people are coming from. 

And then we continue our work around the manifestos too, [inaudible 0:02:45] two or three, but particularly most recent submission around the Liberal Democrats. 

HOST:                         0:02:53 Wonderful, thank you. We’ll look out to hear about that celebrity as well, I guess. Okay, thank you. 

I know that the RCSLT has also been busy engaging around the UK, all of the UK, and there have been staff out and about from Lisburn in Northern Ireland to Newport in Wales to the Shetland Islands. I wonder, what have they been up to and why is this so important?

DEREK:                      0:03:13 There are two aspects to this, I think. The first is just about people from the Royal College Headquarters and the nation’s offices being out on the ground with members. And it’s something which is incredibly valuable to us and we do it whenever we can. Vicky, I know that you’re going to Lewisham and Greenwich in the near future. Invite us, we will come. 

Glen, the head of the Scotland office has now visited every health board in Scotland, having just visited the team in Shetland, which is… What I always say is you can be in central London, or you can be in the Western Isles, you’re paying the same membership fee, and you’re entitled to the same service from the head office. 

Thinking about what’s going on actually in the nations, it’s the middle of the electoral cycle in Wales and Scotland. Obviously, as we know, there is no government in Northern Ireland currently. But we are using the opportunity of DLD awareness which we’re going to be making quite a noise about in October to hold events both in the Welsh Senedd in Cardiff, and at the Northern Ireland Assembly in Stormont, co-produced with people with lived experience of DLD to raise awareness and hang wider issues of speech language and communication on that. So, that is going well. 

We know that notwithstanding the different points in the electoral cycle, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland face exactly the same challenges on vacancies, on service funding, on morale. And then, we’ve got some specifics, actually, in the devolved nations around student numbers, around the mental health workforce, around the pathway and justice. 

HOST:                         0:05:00 Wonderful, thank you. And I know as well that there was a news story on our website, the RCSLT has provided evidence to the Times Health Commission. I wonder if you can tell listeners more about that, please. 

DEREK:                      0:05:09 Of course. We put in submissions all the time – every week – some of them quite technical, some of them related to things which are really important to the profession, but wouldn’t necessarily make news. 

The Times Health Commission is interesting. It’s run by The Times newspapers. They did an education one, now they’re doing a health one. I think what they want to do is a gathering of the great and the good, where they want to try and set the agenda. 

What was interesting was, we put in some initial evidence, just so that the Times Health Commission were aware. They came back to us and said, we think this is really interesting, could you tell us more about a number of areas, which we’ve been delighted to do. And it relates… it’s given us a chance, really, to consolidate and set out our stall in a number of the key areas where we think there needs to be movement in public policy at the moment. 

I’ll run through them very quickly, it’s a bit of a list. Community rehabilitation; prevention to avoid hospital admission; recognition for the role that SLT can play in urgent and emergency care, which is a real live issue at the moment. Talking about the fact that even though there is an increase in student training places, and an increase in the number of speech and language therapists there are still shortages. There are vacancies for existing roles and all areas of unmet need. And the fact that student numbers and SLT numbers continue to rise needs to be set alongside the vacancy challenges and the unmet need and demand. 

Then, particular role around our role in the cancer pathway, our role in the mental health pathway, and finally, issues around health inequality. So, if you want a precis of where we are coming from on all of those issues, then you’ll find our submission to the Times Health Commission on the website.

VICKY:                        0:07:09 Thank you. And I will put a link to that news story as well in the podcast notes. 

Okay, that’s a lot, but is there anything else that listeners will be interested in, please?

DEREK:                      0:07:19 Let me just mention three things very quickly. Members in England will know that integrated care systems and everything to do with them continue to evolve and develop. We are undertaking a project this autumn where we are speaking to speech and language therapists and allies who have been heavily involved in ICS’s and integrated care boards so far to find out what’s worked, find out what best practice looks like, get some resource out to support people across England with that. 

I mentioned last month the all age autism pathways guidance which has an error in a table, which misses out us and the OTs, which is causing all sorts of difficulties. I just want to reassure people that we’re still on that case, meeting NHS England this week about it; we’re going to get it corrected. And we’re also heavily involved for those who are interested in the upcoming mandatory training around autism and learning disability. 

And then the last thing I would say is thank you to everybody who took part in the second iteration of the vacancy survey. Participation was almost as high as the first one, which is great in participation terms, but tells us that there’s still a big issue out there. And you can expect to see the results and analysis of the second vacancy survey in the weeks ahead. 

HOST:                         0:08:39 Great, thank you. You did mention earlier about the work around DLD Day, so I want to mention to listeners that we are planning a podcast for DLD Day. And we’ll also be meeting again for our catch-up, Derek and I, in mid-October, so listen out for that. 

And I just want to remind anyone who’s a listener who’s a registered speech and language therapist in the UK that obviously the end of September is the deadline for re-registration and also if you’ve been called to submit evidence on your CPD audit that you will need to do that by the end of September as well. 

Okay, thank you. Until next month. 

MUSIC PLAYS: 0:09:19

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