In January's news:
- Workforce projects for 2024 - including roll out and embedding of the professional development framework; curriculum review; review of Newly Qualified Practitioner competencies; preceptorship; placement expansion; supporting the support workforce; career opportunities including enhanced practice and advanced clinical practice. Supported by funding from NHSE - but to work across the UK.
- Results of the second vacancies survey published today and third survey launched.
- Current workstreams on equality, diversity and inclusion.
- Other key issues around the UK.
- Launch of the Voicebox joke telling competition for children in Scotland.
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 and Judith Broll, Director of Professional Development.
In January's news:
- Workforce projects for 2024 - including roll out and embedding of the professional development framework; curriculum review; review of Newly Qualified Practitioner competencies; preceptorship; placement expansion; supporting the support workforce; career opportunities including enhanced practice and advanced clinical practice. Supported by funding from NHSE - but to work across the UK.
- Results of the second vacancies survey published today and third survey launched.
- Current workstreams on equality, diversity and inclusion.
- Other key issues around the UK.
- Launch of the Voicebox joke telling competition for children in Scotland.
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 and Judith Broll, Director of Professional Development.
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HOST: Welcome to the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists first news catch-up of 2024. It’s Thursday, 25 January. I’m Vicky Harris, Head of Learning and I’m here with Derek Munn, RCSLT’s Director of Policy and Public Affairs for our regular catch-up. We’re also delighted to be joined by our colleague, Judith Broll, Director of Professional Development, who’s going to be talking us through things that are going on in the world of training and development. Good morning.
DEREK: 0:00:32 Hello.
JUDITH: 0:00:33 Hello.
HOST: 0:00:34 So, it looks like workforce is going to be a very big theme for 2024. I wonder, what do we mean by that, and what’s it likely to cover? I wonder if I could start with you, Judith, please.
JUDITH: 0:00:46 Yeah, workforce is a small word that covers huge amounts of information. I think we all know that workforce is in the news, not only around the waiting list for children and young people on speech and language therapy lists, but also in terms of how we, as a profession, can continue to expand and grow, and also to keep our staff.
I think we are a very ambitious profession and, as such, we continue to expand into new and wonderful clinical areas. And I think that is also a challenge and an opportunity.
As the professional body, we have been working very hard to support all members to continue to develop, and that’s why the Professional Development Framework which was coproduced last year and delivered is something that we’re really proud of. We’ve only heard very positive responses to it, and in this next year we’re going to embed and socialise it to ensure that everybody who needs it across NHS education and independent practice are really sited on it and it really gives her a flexible overview of opportunities for the profession.
We’ve also been working to put together the Speech and Language Therapy Support Workers Framework, which aligns with other professional bodies as well, other AHPs. Again, I think support workers are really having a light shined on them now, which is a very positive thing after so long, and really being developed and loved in a very overt way, which is just what we need. And I think the support workers are going to continue to be a really key part of our workforce to really support all the work as it grows in many areas.
The apprenticeship agenda continues to grow in England at the moment, but hopefully other nations are interested in looking at apprenticeship courses, and then more universities in England really interested in setting up their courses.
Another area where we’re trying to support clinicians in all areas to really think about their career opportunities and have some badged learning around enhanced practice apprenticeships, first contact practitioners, advanced clinical practitioners and consultant roles is something that we’re really going to focus on over the next year, hoping to get some speech and language therapy specific courses in these areas up and running by working and coproducing these roles right across the clinical view.
I think children and young people’s clinical areas are ones that we’re really focusing on. We know they’re non-medical, so we’re going to have to think of a different way of delivering training in these areas. But I think it’s very exciting and very timely, because most of the ACP courses, in particular, all sit in acute hospitals, which are very valuable as well, but not great when most of our membership still works with children and young people.
To help us deliver some of this ambitious work and some more work, we have been funded again by NHS England to deliver a very tight programme for all members across the four nations. It’s got a catchy title of ‘professional bodies education reform specification’. This is a really great opportunity to really front load the funding of some of the work that we’ve been wanting to do for a long time. But also, to continue to do some of the work that I’m listing above.
We’re going to really cut the work up into three cohorts. One cohort is around pre-registration education, which is really going to support the workforce to really embed the Professional Development Framework, for example. It also allows us to do a lot more work looking at the curriculum, so how do we actually future proof the profession? We know there are big yawning gaps in the curriculum at the moment just because as I said at the top of my talk, we keep expanding into new clinical areas. So, how can we crowbar more knowledge into pre-reg training without making the HEIs fall over, making it relevant, and also allowing the workforces, the newly qualified practitioners to really feel equipped in the 21st century workplace.
We’re also going to be looking at the clinical hours and what the placement hours look like, and where we can embrace simulation placements in that as well, so really looking at digital in a more positive way.
The second tranche of work is post-registration enhanced roles. That’s also going to look at the EPA and ACP roles, as well as additional work which we started last year looking at the paediatric community dysphagia piece, which will fit very nicely into the bigger piece of work to support workforce that is being done with RCSLT colleagues around the dysphagia competency framework. We’re trying to knit all of these pieces of work together, so they don’t stand alone.
We’re also going to be working around preceptorships, which I’m sure you’ve heard around and about the place, especially if you work in the NHS. But we need to really work out what it means for our members to support the workforce, and we’re going to review the NQP framework in light of that to ensure that the work that is done in the curriculum review is also carried into the workforce to really help the transition from being a learner into being a newly qualified practitioner.
The third area of work we’re going to be looking at is around careers, and how we can ensure the careers pipeline continues. We know a lot of support workers will become either apprentices or go in to become speech and language therapists. But how do we ensure that we have a robust pipeline into the profession, and also that it actually reflects the work and the and the caseload that we’re seeing? So, we need to look at the diversity of the clinicians coming through, and that’s work that we’re going to be doing in that space, especially in how we can embed the idea of speech and language therapy in schools as an opportunity for a career much earlier on.
The other really big pieces of work in this tranche of work will include we’ve been asked to really have a deep dive into how waiting lists for children and young people’s services for speech and language therapy work, what is the impact on workforce, and how could we do it differently?
Now, I know we’ve been looking at this forever, but I think we’re really going to spend some time just collating what we’ve already got – we’re not going to reinvent wheels. Some fabulous work has already been done. And then, how can we learn and really make this meaningful for the workforce moving forward? And then pulling in the work, especially around advanced clinical practitioners into this space as well to help support the support and supervision in that area.
There are other bits of work around the justice system as well and how speech language therapists add huge value in that space, and other bits of work, which I’m not going to keep talking about because I think we, as an organisation, need to work out how we can deliver it in detail. But I’m always happy to talk about it in more detail. We will absolutely be coming out to you. This has to all be co-created with and for you. So, please watch out, and please do get involved as much as you can. And in the meantime, if you have any questions, please do contact me, I’d be more than delighted to talk about it.
HOST: 0:07:44 Thank you, Judith. It sounds like you’re going to be very busy making sure that all those many pieces of work are knit together in a way that is really supportive to the profession.
Derek, I wonder if you can fill us in on what’s been happening with the vacancy survey, please. And I believe we’ve got some results in today.
DEREK: 0:08:01 Well, we’ve had the results [for a wee while 0:08:01]. But yeah, we’ve finally launched them just today. Health Service Journal have done an exclusive on it, which is great and [inaudible 0:08:12] from there. Thank you to everyone who filled it in in the latter part of last year.
Interestingly, the adult services are even worse than the children’s services this time. The headline across the EU figure, across the UK figure, NHS and non-NHS, is 23% vacancies for adults and 20% vacancies for children’s services. What can we say? This continues to be unacceptable and unsustainable, and it continues to be common to all specialisms and settings.
So, we continue to say to governments, to commissioners, to service providers there is a red flag on this stuff. It continues to be the case that not just us but NHS providers and a range of other stakeholders are pointing to the egregious and urgent nature of speech and language therapy waits.
So, vacancy survey is out. The third vacancy survey has also gone live today. You’ll see that on our social media. Because it is essential that we continue to generate trend data on this. Thank you for doing the first two. You’ll see the traction we’ve had today in the Health Service Journal, please make sure you fill in third.
HOST: 0:09:28 That’s great, thank you. And I wonder, is it the same across all of the four nations of the UK?
DEREK: 0:09:32 Yes, and the figures aren’t quite as high in the devolved nations. But I think that masks that, of course, vacancies are appalling and unacceptable, but they’re not the only problem. Actually, the challenge we particularly have in the devolved nations is around supply, around there not being enough places being commissioned for the pipeline. But the short answer is the vacancies aren’t as high in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, but they’re still unacceptable.
HOST: 0:10:06 Okay. I’d like to talk about equality, inclusion, and diversity now, and that’s obviously a golden thread which runs through all of the RCSLT’s work. Thinking about what are the areas of focus right now? I wonder, Judith, if you could start on this, please.
JUDITH: 0:10:20 Yes, of course. And I think there’s… as you’ve said, it is an absolute golden thread and it is key to all the work we do right across the organisation.
I think one of the pieces of work within the funding money that we’re getting really resonates for us as a professional body, because we’ve done such a lot of work around it. But the focus for the specification around EDI is really about how we can support people with disabilities or need more support, especially around recruitment and around interview.
We know, as a professional body, and I’m sure a lot of places already are doing a lot of work in this space, but we have been charged, if you like, as part of the specification to ensure that there is a really clear line from the professional body from us about how we should and need to support people who have additional needs, and members have additional needs, at the point of recruitment, which is a really stressful time for anybody, but in particular if you have additional needs or you need extra support, to ensure you’re able to optimise your ability to get a post. So, that’s something we’re going to be working with NHS Careers as well as within our own cohort in speech and language therapy.
And this fits very nicely with the other guidance that we’ve already got up and running in this space. We’ve put together some guidance for HEIs around how to support students with disabilities. And Derek and his team are working very closely with other members of staff to put some videos in that space together. But I think Derek might have some more information about that as we move forward that I’d like to hand over to you for.
DEREK: 0:12:01 That’s right, Judith. The video [inaudible 0:12:02] practice educators around disability. If I may talk about other aspects of equality, Vicky, the neurodiversity group of SLTs continues to work and that guidance is also in prep. We should very shortly be launching further resources from the LGBTQIA+ working group about SLTs from the LGBTQIA+ community.
And then beyond that, we will be taking a strategic [inaudible 0:12:31] across all of the equality strands, and also four years on from Black Lives Matter taking the opportunity to stocktake and refresh what our commitment is to active and embedded anti-racism, so standby for all of that.
HOST: 0:12:48 Great, thank you. What other themes are coming through your work at the moment? And maybe we’ll go to Derek on this.
DEREK: 0:12:54 General Election will be coming up in every podcast this year until it happens. I think the key update is that Bridget Phillipson for the Labour Party has recommitted to Labour’s commitment around funding evidenced early language interventions in every school. We want to know what every sentence of that means. Evidenced funded early language, [possibly even school 0:13:20]. So, the recommitment of Labour to that early language [inaudible 0:13:23] is critical.
You may have seen that a call has gone out for consultation around having a separate nurses’ pay structure to Agenda for Change. On behalf of all of the allied health professions, we are describing this development as unhelpful and divisive, and we will strongly be opposing any suggestion that there should be a separate nursing pay scale to Agenda for Change.
We continue to work closely with the Department of Education around SEND reform and workforce. We’ve just completed a mapping of the justice workforce across the UK about where speech and language therapists are, and there’s still a lot of exciting developments going on in Northern Ireland in respect of early years.
HOST: 0:14:09 Great. Thank you, Derek. Judith, did you want to come in on anything there?
JUDITH: 0:14:14 I think the only other piece I’d just like to mention is the fact that we continue to look at how we deliver guidelines. Please watch out for more information about that, especially as we’re now really doing a lot more co-produced guidelines now and delivering those, which have been extremely positive. But they do take longer, and they’re also very different, so I think these are way to go forward. We’re really wanting some feedback from members about how useful they are as well. Again, it’s a watch this space piece. We’re going to be doing a lot of work around that over the next year as well.
HOST: 0:14:43 Thanks, Judith. And finally, do ever of you know any jokes?
DEREK: 0:14:50 We talked about this before the recording and agreed that there were no jokes that we were going to share on this occasion! But it is an excuse to talk about the [voice box 0:15:00] competition in Scotland. Colleagues may remember from back before the pandemic, when a number of times we did really successful school joke telling competitions, which then led to events in the Westminster Welsh and Northern Ireland Parliaments and Assemblies. And they were a really good way of bringing… mainstreaming speech, language and communication and bringing it to the attention of politicians.
This year we’re going to do for the first time in the Scottish Parliament. We launched it on Blue Monday, 15 January, in a primary school in the west of Scotland. It’s really cute. It looks really exciting. So, if you’re in Scotland, please stand by to get involved in that initiative in the months ahead.
HOST: 0:15:39 Wonderful, thank you both. And so, I’m just going to leave with the fact that we have a new podcast on thickened fluids to go with our new guidance that’s just come out on the use of thickened fluids. And look out for the next news podcast in the last week of February. Thank you very much.
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