Transcript Date:
27 February 2024
Speaker Key (delete/anonymise if not required):
HOST: VICTORIA HARRIS
DEREK: DEREK MUNN
MUSIC PLAYS: 0:00:00-0:00:07
HOST: 0:00:08 It’s Friday, 23 February. I’m Vicky Harris, Head of Learning at the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists, and I’m here with my colleague, Derek Munn, Director of Policy and Public Affairs. He’s going to catch us up on what’s been going on in the world of speech and language therapy, and what’s coming up that you need to know about.
We met last month; I think a lot has happened since then, so I’ve got a feeling we’ve got a lot to talk about. Good morning, Derek.
DEREK: 0:00:31 Hello.
HOST: 0:00:33 About 10% of children in schools face language challenges, and I understand that RCSLT has come together with many other organisations across Europe to declare a commitment to support those children. I wonder if you can tell us more, please?
DEREK: 0:00:48 Thank you, Vicky, for giving me a chance to talk about some of our international work, which is a small strand of what we do but it’s important. And yes, a couple of years ago we joined with expert speech and language therapists and linguists from across Europe to work on a document that became known as the Leiden Manifesto – Leiden, a place in the Netherlands – about children’s language rights , really to try and use the language and architecture of rights to support the evidence around children’s language development, particularly perhaps in countries where services are less developed.
We were pleased to host the launch of that at the Houses of Parliament in the UK. But actually, the audience included an education minister from Portugal and a high court judge from Croatia, and somebody from the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child from Austria. So, it was interesting to be in that international space talking about children’s language rights and to think about ways that we can help support that going forward across Europe.
HOST: 0:01:54 That’s fantastic, thanks. And I believe there’s some information on our website which I’ll put a link to that as well.
Since we last met, there’s been a return to power sharing in Northern Ireland. What does that mean for speech and language therapy there?
DEREK: 0:02:10 We have welcomed the fact that a government is back in Northern Ireland. We know that it’s going to take a while to get things back up and running. For example, we’ve just asked a question of the minister around special educational needs, and we’re told that the budget’s not been set yet. The health minister in Northern Ireland, Robin Swann, is someone we know, and who gets speech and language therapy.
He has said the first thing he needs to do is sort out NHS pay. But actually, we have already had in the Northern Ireland Assembly just this week a motion passed by the Assembly recognising the importance of speech and language therapy in the justice system.
We are also particularly focusing on early years. So, the pace of work has picked up a lot, but we’re glad that things are back up and running in Northern Ireland.
HOST: 0:02:59 Wonderful, thanks. Last month, you mentioned that we’d be discussing the General Election every month until it happens, and probably afterwards as well. What’s the latest we need to know, please?
DEREK: 0:03:11 Yes. We continue working in the background around Labour’s pledge on early language interventions in schools, on work with the Liberal Democrats. We are meeting shortly to try and up the game on rehab along with our sector partners. Specifically, listeners may be interested that Keir Starmer in a speech to the Civil Society Summit referenced speech and language therapy – interestingly, in the context of youth violence again, in the context of that justice space, alongside what they’re saying on spoken language.
We’re also, playing into what Labour have said about spoken language, have relaunched the Spoken Language Coalition. That’s over 50 professional bodies, charities, and others. #letstalkcommunication. We’ve written to all three party leaders emphasising the sheer breadth of organisations that have a concern around… It’s not just us saying, look at these 50+ organisations in all sectors all saying that spoken language matters.
HOST: 0:04:14 Thank you. And I wonder, what’s happening in other nations of the UK, please?
DEREK: 0:04:19 I’ve talked about Northern Ireland. In Scotland, we have particular concerns still around local government funding, which is understandable given the cuts to local government funding and the relative protectedness of the NHS budget. But we have to say to local authorities in Scotland, this is a false economy.
We’ve just had a situation in Aberdeenshire in the northeast of Scotland where, with just seven days’ notice, there was a 100% withdrawal of local authority from speech and language therapy. So, in just seven days, we worked very hard, we got a lot of press, we got a lot of coverage. The budget has gone through for now, but there’s some more money from Scottish Government and we’re going to continue to try and work with the council to overturn what they’ve done, because we think it’s just so short-sighted.
Now, waiting times in Scotland had been raised in the Scottish Parliament, actually by the Conservative [group 0:05:15]. In Wales, we had a youth justice summit called by Welsh Government, following the pressure that the Senedd committee made after the inquiry last year into youth justice. We also had a question to the First Minister of Wales, Mark Drakeford specifically on speech and language therapy.
We’re preparing to have a big hit in Wales around Swallowing Awareness Day. Some very creative stuff that we’re going to be doing to raise awareness of eating, drinking, swallowing, dysphasia within the Welsh Senedd. So, look out for that.
I would say across all three devolved nations, we continue to have to work hard on student numbers, commission places, and the size of the profession in a way which we don’t so much in England, but it remains a major priority in all three of the nations.
HOST: 0:06:02 Thank you. And finally, is there anything else listeners need to know?
DEREK: 0:06:06 That’s a dangerous thing to say, Vicky, because I could go on for some time. Let me give you a handful of key things. Prescribing rights – that that long-term ambition of ours – we had a question in the House of Lords by our very good friend Lord Bradley. It was clear that the minister hadn’t been briefed on the history of this issue, and the fact that it’s already policy that just needs to be unblocked. The minister did give a renewed commitment around prescribing rights, so we need to push that forward.
I’ve already mentioned the Spoken Language Coalition. We’re also working with other children’s organisations, very specifically around waiting lists and Children Can’t Wait being that the campaign slogan. All of this has led us to Steve Jamieson, our CEO, being part of a meeting with the Community Health Minister this week, and we have a meeting with the Children’s Minister coming up. We are pleased to be able to continue to push on those matters.
On integrated care systems, we’re continuing to scope best practice. We also, along with other children’s organisations, have recently co-authored a report around the extent to which children and young people are recognised in integrated care systems documentation. Not bad, actually, in terms of mentions, and of course, being mentioned is only half the battle, something’s then got to happen, but it does show the value of getting children specifically into the legislation and guidance that it does look like ICSs are explicitly addressing children and young people, which the same could be said for community rehab.
Two more things. We’ve got a situation where [inaudible 0:07:48] that deals with language [inaudible 0:07:52] very specialist at one of the London hospitals has had its funding withdrawn. We have gone in hard and heavy on that. And amongst other things, NHS England have asked to speak to us urgently about the situation.
Finally, vacancy survey, you’ll have seen that the second… well, we mentioned last month that the second vacancy survey was out, showing that we continue to have vacancy rates above 20%. It is really vital that we have trend data on this issue. The third vacancy survey closes next Thursday, the 29th, as we record. I’m delighted that we’ve got over 240 services responding to the third one. I think this shows the strength of concern that remains out there around vacancies and retention. But please, please, please do fill in third vacancy survey. Thank you.
HOST: 0:08:42 Thank you, Derek. And I will put a link to that vacancy survey in the show notes so that people can access it. Okay, great, thank you.
It just remains for to me to say that, in our next podcast, we are going to be chatting with authors of the recently published RCSLT LGBQTIA+ guidance, why it matters and what it involves. Listen out for that in early March. Thank you very much.
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