RCSLT News November 2023: RCSLT CEO tells us about his tour of services around the UK

In November's news catch up:

- RCSLT CEO Steve Jamieson tells us about the many different places he's been to meet RCSLT members - across the four nations of the UK and in a huge range of settings.
- He tells us what he's learned from that experience and how that is shaping his thinking.
- Overview of the recent Parliamentary event hosted by Saqib Bhatti MP and with broadcaster Chris Kamara.
- A summary of key things happening around the UK which listeners will be interested in including:
- RCSLT Wales gives evidence to Senedd enquiry on education https://www.rcslt.org/news/rcslt-gives-evidence-to-senedd-enquiry-on-access-to-education/
- RCSLT Wales and Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board host visit with minister for health and social services, Eluned Morgan, https://www.rcslt.org/news/rcslt-wales-host-visit-with-minister-for-health-and-social-services/
- Wins in areas of autism, stroke and early years.

Please do feedback on our podcasts to help us improve them: tinyurl.com/RCSLTPodcastFeedback. Thank you!

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_Nov_2023      

Transcript Date: 

27 November 2023 

Speaker Key (delete/anonymise if not required): 

HOST:                         VICTORIA HARRIS 

DEREK:                      DEREK MUNN 

STEVE:                       STEVE JAMIESON 

MUSIC PLAYS: 0:00:00-0:00:09 

HOST:                         0:00:09 Welcome to the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists news catch up. It’s Friday, 24 November. I’m Vicky Harris, Head of Learning, and I’m here with Derek Munn, RCSLT’s Director of Policy and Public Affairs. And we are delighted to be joined by RCSLT’s CEO, Steve Jamieson, as a special guest for this edition.

Good morning, everybody. 

DEREK:                      0:00:29 Morning. 

STEVE:                       0:00:29 Good morning. 

HOST:                         0:00:29 Steve, it’s lovely to have you here today. When you first came on this podcast in April, you were quite new in post, promised you would go around the UK meeting with members. And I wonder if you could share with us and the listeners where you’ve been on that journey, please, and why that’s so important. 

STEVE:                       0:00:45 Yes. Good morning and thank you. Thank you for asking me to talk about my journey with RCSLT so far. 

As you say, Vicky, it’s been a hectic eight months, but I have to say I’ve enjoyed every single minute of it. I was very clear when I was appointed as chief exec that I would be out and about at least once a week, travelling across all four nations of the United Kingdom, to meet members and just visit them in their place of work. 

And firstly, I guess I’d just like to say a really big thank you to all those members who I’ve met, and I guess for their hospitality, their honesty, and the sheer professionalism. It has been amazing to do these visits.

As you know, I don’t come from the profession of speech and language therapists, and therefore, I’ve been on a really steep learning curve, just getting my head around the breadth of the profession, and also the challenges and opportunities for our members and how they face those on a daily basis. But I now have visited all four nations, and I’ve been welcomed by everyone that I’ve met. 

I think one thing for me that’s really important, and for the Royal College, to be visible for our members. As I know, it feels sometimes that it’s often regarded as if the staff live in some ivory tower in the middle of London somewhere, and that’s certainly just not the case. That’s something that I’ve wanted to change since I’ve come into post.

I’ve also been accompanied by other members of staff from RCSLT as I’ve been doing my visits, and I want to make sure that that continues as well. It’s really important not just for me but for other staff to meet members and see the role that our organisation is doing to be able to support our members in their workplace. So, that will continue as we move forward. I have already visits booked up until March and April next year, so those visits are continuing around the four nations, which is fabulous. 

It’s only by seeing our members and listening to their stories that I’ve been able to address some of the concerns that they have and help as an organisation to support them with some of these. I also believe that, as a Royal College, I think we need to be able to empower our members to do the best that they possibly can, and I think we’re very good at doing that and supporting our members in their journey. 

I think it’s also really important for us to engage with our members, and that’s why we have appointed a membership engagement officer to be able to look at the various member categories and help to support each one of those as we move forward. 

So yes, it’s been a really busy eight months, Vicky, but certainly, I’ve enjoyed every minute of it. And I’ve learned so much over the past eight months. 

HOST:                         0:03:37 That’s fantastic. Thank you. What, in particular, do you think you’ve learned, and what’s surprised you the most, perhaps? 

STEVE:                       0:03:43 I guess I’ve learned a great deal! I’ve learned that speech and language therapists are dedicated individuals who really care passionately, both for their profession but I guess really passionately care for the service users and the patients that they care for. That’s the number one thing – I have seen passion and enthusiasm and professionalism across every single site that I’ve been able to visit.

I’ve also learned that even though there’s a real shortage of staff and the workforce is a real difficult situation, speech and language therapists are always thinking about innovative ways to improve care for all. They’re very good at thinking out of the box at how we can do things differently to improve the services, even though some of those services are in difficult situations. 

I’ve also learned that whether you work in clinical practice or education or research, or indeed and leadership roles, all speech and language therapists want the best for their teams, and ultimately, direct care provision. And teamwork seems to be key across every site that I’ve visited and the teams really work together and come together to help address some of the bigger issues. 

I’ve also learned that it’s really tough out there. There are major issues, as I’ve said, with workforce, with staff morale, with cuts to services, and difficulties around career progression as well. So, it is really tough for our members now, and I recognise that. But I also recognise that, from a Royal College point of view, they’re the sort of things that we could begin to support and help our members with. 

But what has surprised me most in all of the work that speech and language therapists do is how they do everything from birth to end of life care and everything in between. That’s something, even though I’ve worked in the NHS and the health world for 40 years now, that’s something I was never really totally aware of before taking on this role as chief exec. 

I’ll give you a couple of examples. It was a real pleasure to spend some time in the Intensive Care Unit at Wolverhampton with a speech and language therapist who had become an integral part of the multidisciplinary team of that intensive care unit. It was just amazing to see her work, but also how she was regarded as a key member of the team in intensive care. 

It was also really amazing to spend the day with Gillian Rudd and Melanie Packer at Birmingham City University, just meeting some of their BSc and their masters students, and hearing about the passion that they have. 

And what I was really impressed with with Birmingham was how they have used the expertise and experience of service users to help develop the syllabus and the programme around bachelors and masters programmes. And I met some of those service users who sit on interview panels for the students who are coming on to the courses, etc., and that just really made me really proud of what are our profession does and how they do it – that integral collaborative co-production working, which is fabulous. 

I spent a day with Greater Manchester with obviously the inspirational Michelle Morris and her team and witnessed the speech and language therapists in a nursery and a primary school. For me, it was a real humbling moment when I sat in with a speech and language therapist working with a very young child, and just watching the relationship that she was building with this kid. 

I’ve been to Glasgow, with Derek, in fact, where we met some speech and language therapists who work in quite a deprived area of Glasgow, about how they’ve dedicated their experience and work with children, and how they ensure that the families who are living in these deprived areas actually get the services they require, even though there’s very little resources available for them. 

And research. I spent a day with the Bristol Speech and Language Research Unit, working with Professor Yvonne Wren and her team, looking at all the various research projects that are around. 

I’ve been to Wales and I’ve met amazing speech and language therapists looking at working in dementia care and working in the youth justice and criminal justice centres, which, again, was great. 

I’ve been to Northern Ireland and visited speech and language therapists at the Royal Victoria Hospital, where they were working with young people who have got cancer, and working with a child who had a brain tumour and the speech and language therapist was doing some amazing work for this child and really supported by the family. The parents were speaking so highly of our SLT member. 

But I also want to share one thing which was really powerful over the past couple of months, and that was a highlight for me when I was accompanied to the House of Lords and to the House of Commons with one of our members, Charlotte Crosbie from Wolverhampton. Charlotte manages adult and children’s services. We invited Charlotte to come along with us to meet an MP and then later on that day to meet one of the Lords. 

Charlotte was able to really discuss the issues that are affecting her and her service, to both the MP and to the Lord. It was a real turning point moment for Charlotte to know that she was able to, I guess, influence and lobby both of those individuals about the really good work that’s happening, but also some of the difficulties that they’re having. 

Really, really remarkable work that’s happening that I’ve observed. And one thing I have realised in all of this is that whilst it’s truly remarkable work, speech and language therapists believe that this is almost like normal part of their day duty and they don’t see it as being anything extra or anything special. And I just think, in my eyes, what an amazing job our members do. So, I really want us to shout really loud about what a great professional this really is. 

HOST:                         0:10:07 Thank you. That’s quite a summary of, I know, a very, very busy eight months. 

I wonder if what you’ve seen and heard will feed into your plans for the future of RCSLT? Maybe has anything gone to the top of your ‘to do’ list as a result of meeting members and going out and about?

STEVE:                       0:10:25 Yeah, that’s a really good question. I think, for me, on my travels, what I realised are speech and language therapists are highly professional. But actually, some of them don’t feel that they’ve got the confidence to be the leaders of the future. I think there’s a real piece for me and a piece for the Royal College of Speech Language Therapists to look at developing a leadership programme and incorporating within that programme things around commissioning services, service provision, and the ability to be able to influence and politically lobby, etc., I think is really important. 

I want to see our speech and language therapists to be the leaders of the future, to be the future capos of the four nations to be the next chief exec at the Royal College. For me, it’s about how do we develop our really professional members to be the leaders of the future? 

So, one of the things in my list is looking at how we develop and implement an RCSLT leadership programme to be able to do that, and I think that’s one of my key priorities moving forward. 

As I mentioned earlier, obviously, I think what’s really key as well, and going to the top of my list, is around our membership engagement and how we engage our members much more actively in the work of our organisation. It is a membership organisation, and I want our members to feel that they are a part of our organisation. So, I think that’s really important as well. 

Politically, we also need to just think about the governments in the four nations and how we make sure that we have got our speech and language therapists being able to lobby and influence on that, and influence the future provision of service delivery. 

And in England, for example, we just need to work really closely with NHS England around the workforce plan, and how we help to influence and make sure that we sort out some of these issues. 

Moving on, I think, Vicky, there are a couple more things I’d just like to mention. One is we are doing a lot of work around our EDI programmes. But I want to make sure that areas such as our anti-racism work is not just highlighted in work that we do; I want it to be embedded in everything that we do, both from a Royal College point of view, but also in every speech and language therapists’ day-to-day work. I want us to not just think about it, but actually embed it in it, so that we can feel it and see it as we go through. 

In other areas, I’ve been to the board of ASLTIP, our independent members, and I’ve been with Sarah Buckley, who’s the Chair of ASLTIP, and really just thinking about how we work really closely with our independent members and practitioners, I think, is really important as well. 

And I think, finally, as I’ve got a better understanding of the organisation and the profession over the past eight months, I see my job as being influencing the leaders of health and social care. So, with my regular one-to-ones with the capos across the four nations, I think, is really important.

I also just want to continue the brilliant work that we do with our charities and other stakeholders to make sure that those relationships continue to flourish and that we work together collaboratively and through co-production that we’re able to do a lot more. So, yeah, lots of things on our list, Vicky. But as I said before, I just want to be really clear that we look at the workforce issues, we’re able to support our members and that raising the profile of the profession is really important. 

And then my final plea is, if I was able to sort out prescribing in my tenure as chief exec at the Royal College, I think I would be a very happy man. But as most of our members know, it’s not just as easy as that. But believe me that I am banging the drum and I know that the team at RCSLT are also doing lots of work behind the scenes. But I would like that to be one of my legacies that I was able to sort out prescribing for speech and language therapists. 

So, there you go. That’s my sort of plan for the next while. But as I said, Vicky, really, really enjoying my role here at the College. 

HOST:                         0:14:40 Brilliant, thank you. What an ambitious list, and let’s keep fingers crossed for the prescribing. 

I’m going go over to Derek now. So, Derek, it’s been a very busy few weeks in Westminster. There’s been a King’s Speech, there’s been a cabinet reshuffle, and this week there’s been an autumn Financial Statement. 

Do you have any reflections on what this means for speech and language therapy? 

DEREK:                      0:15:03 Thanks, Vicky. You’re right. It’s a particularly fast-moving time in politics, although it feels like we’ve been saying that for a number of years now. 

In terms of the King’s Speech, I think the key thing was what wasn’t there. We were hoping, although not expecting, that the long-awaited reform of mental health legislation in England and Wales would come forward. It did not do so. This is a disappointment. And the Labour Party have now said that they will pick it up if they win the election. We shall see.

There were several justice bills in the King’s Speech and we will, as we often do, be making the case to ensure that speech, language and communication are appropriately recognised in justice systems and procedures as those laws go through. 

In terms of the announcements on the day of the Financial Statement this week, we were particularly pleased to see the announcement of the Partnership for Inclusion of Neurodiversity in Schools. We’ve been involved in this behind the scenes for some time. It’s going to be an innovative delivery model, improving access to specialist support in mainstream primary. And there’s money attached to it, so that was a bit of good news from this week. 

And then we continue to work with all the parties as we run into the election, particularly around, for example, Labour’s pledge around fluency and early language intervention in schools. But also, as Steve was mentioning, prescribing rights for SLTs and other profession.

HOST:                         0:16:38 Great, thank you. And of course, a nice little segue here. Steve, you were at Westminster recently as well for a special event. The broadcaster and former footballer Chris Kamara joined Saqib Bhatti, MP at the House of Commons for an event on improving support for people who communicate differently or with difficulty. 

I wonder if you can tell us about that, please? 

STEVE:                       0:16:57 Yes, as you say, Vicky, it was a really great event. I believe we had about 100 people there. And as you say, it was hosted by Saquib Bhatti, MP and we had Chris Kamara as the key speaker at the event. Chris, obviously, being a football personality, had received lots of attention by most people who were there. I think he really enjoyed being with us, and spoke really eloquently about the condition that he has and how he is campaigning to support people with speech and communication difficulties. So, that was great. 

I think Derek, I’m sure, will give more details about this. But I guess I just wanted to highlight the work that we do with our politicians, etc., is really important, because Saquib Bhatti was instrumental in helping us to pull together this high-profile event. And I think if our members can develop their good relationships with their politicians I think that’s really important. Because if they get them to come along to our services, or understand the work of speech and language therapists, that really helps around that influencing part as well. 

But yeah, a really great event, and I think a lot of people left that event really understanding the impact that someone with a speech communication difficulty has, but also understanding the role of speech and language therapy and much more. But yes, I’m not sure if Derek wants to say anything more. 

DEREK:                      0:18:35 You’ve covered this in the main, Steve. We met some existing parliamentary contacts, but also some new MPs that we haven’t met before, who we are now able to follow up with, and I know that members have also been to visit their MPs as a result of this. We had international contacts. We had people who came from the United States for that event. Also, just to build a relationship with Chris himself, who is such a powerful advocate for, in his case, adults with apraxia. 

HOST:                         0:19:01 Great, thank you both. And I wonder, what’s happening around the UK that that will interest listeners? Maybe this one’s for you, Derek.

DEREK:                      0:19:09 [Inaudible 0:19:10] return to these next month, perhaps, if we need to. The same week that we had the event at Westminster, we also had events in the Northern Ireland Assembly and the Welsh Senedd focused on DLD, which was great. 

Actually, a quick focus on Wales, because Wales have also had a ministerial visit with the Health Secretary. We’ve had evidence given by the head of our Wales team, Pippa, at the Senedd around disabled children and young people having equal access to education in care. So, it’s been a strong time in Wales. 

Three very quick wins we’ve had at UK level to finish. First of all, there were some concerns around clarity between the NICE stroke guideline and the intercollegiate working group. We managed to get that clarified. It’s very clear that the NICE guideline of 45 minutes per day post-stroke is not affected by the wording around motor therapy in the working party guideline. 

Secondly, early years proposals. Department of Education are not implementing a proposal to reduce the percentage of level 2 qualified staff, which was a big concern to us. And thirdly, although we’re still waiting for this change to be made, we’ve got agreement from NHS England to correct an error in the all-age autism assessment guidelines, so that the SLT role in interview and diagnosis is properly recognised, because we know this has been causing real difficulties for services on the ground. 

So, it’s slightly technical, but there’s stuff on the website, but good news around stroke and around early years, and around autism assessment. 

HOST:                         0:20:46 Fantastic. Thank you. And I know we’ve talked about the autism stuff before, so that’s really good. 

Any final thoughts to leave listeners with? And I might pass this one to you, Steve, as our special guest.

STEVE:                       0:20:57 Thank you, Vicky. I guess last comments, I suppose we’re all going into that real busy time of the holiday season and we’re getting into winter and winter pressures. I think that in itself causes a great deal of work and also extra stress for lots of people. I think my final word would be for our members to look after themselves and look after their own health and wellbeing over this period when it can become quite stressful, it can’t become a difficult time with the extra pressures at work. But please look after yourself. And just remember that the Royal College is always there for you as a member and if there’s anything that we can do to help support you in your day-to-day work then you know where we are.

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