RCSLT News March 2024: Budget; autism in work; events in Senedd & Scottish Parliament

In March's news:

- Response to the Budget
- Vacancies in speech and language therapy survey
- Nurses' pay scale response
- Buckland review of autism employment https://www.rcslt.org/news/rcslt-response-to-the-buckland-review-of-autism-employment/
- Scottish Parliament committee evidence
- Ramadan guidance https://www.rcslt.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/RCSLT_Ramadan_Guidance_FINAL.pdf
- #InvestInSLT petition reaches 10,000 signatures: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/657935
- Swallow Awareness Day event in the Senedd


Please do take a few moments to respond to our podcast survey https://uk.surveymonkey.com/r/LG5HC3R


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

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HOST:                         0:00:05 It’s Friday, 19 April. I’m Vicky Harris, Head of Learning at the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists. I’m here with colleagues, Derek Munn, Director of Policy and Public Affairs, and we’re delighted to be joined by our special guest colleague, Cara McDonagh, Director of Engagement and Communications. We’ll be discussing what’s going on in the world of speech and language therapy and how the RCSLT is supporting that. 

CARA:                         0:00:30 Good morning. 

DEREK:                      0:00:32 Good morning. 

HOST:                         0:00:32 Morning. Cara, I think I might start with you. Welcome back to the podcast. I wonder if we could start by talking about the member survey, please. If you could let us know where members can find it, what’s the deadline, and how do those answers affect what RCSLT does, please? 

CARA:                         0:00:52 This is the first large scale member survey that we’ve done since 2018. What we’re really looking to do with the survey is to better understand the membership, what members find valuable and what they would like to see us improve, and to really get under the skin of what the challenges are that members are facing. 

That information will really help us shape the strategic direction for RCSLT, help us [inaudible 0:01:15] services and focus what we do so we can better support the profession and members individually as well. 

It takes about 10 minutes to complete the survey, and the deadline is 9am on Tuesday, 28 April. We’ve had a good response so far, but we really do need as many members to complete this as possible, so please do check your inbox, because that’s where you will get… received an email with your personalised link to complete the survey, and there are also more details on our website if you’ve got any questions about how we’re running survey this year. 

But yeah, this is a really key, important piece of work for us, and we really do want to hear from you. 

HOST:                         0:01:53 Thank you. I will put a link in the podcast notes as well, so that if people have missed that email that they can find it online. Thank you. 

Also, I hear that we’ve got a number of vacancies on our boards and committees at the moment. I wonder if you can tell us about those, please, and how members can get involved. 

CARA:                         0:02:12 Yeah, so this is a [inaudible 0:02:13] opportunity to get involved directly with RCSLT. This an opportunity to help shape the organisation and the direction that we’re going in. It’s a way to ensure that RCSLT represents you and your community. And it’s a great chance to grow your professional network and develop your leadership skills as well. 

So, for the roles that we’ve got, the time commitment isn’t too onerous. There’s normally a series of meetings, sort of around four a year, and you need to have time to read the board papers ahead of that, but not too much of a time commitment. 

The roles are open to all RCSLT members, so it’s not just senior leaders, everybody can bring something to a committee or board role. So, do think about that – you don’t have to be someone in a… had to have a long-term career in the profession, we want everybody to have a chance to have their say. 

And we’re looking for a number of different committee and board roles, so we’ve got three roles on our finance and resources committee. We’re looking for people on our professional practice and policy committee [inaudible 0:03:19] Scotland, one in Northern Ireland. And very importantly, we’re looking for a new deputy chair as well. And that role will then also automatically transfer into the chairmanship role after that initial tenure, so that’s a really key role for us. And then we’re looking for two lay trustees – one who has some background in HR and one in finance. And either of those roles, you don’t necessarily need to be a speech and language therapist. 

And then finally, we’ve got several roles in the nominations committee. That’s not necessarily the same as some of the new standard committees and boards that we have, but that’s the group of people who help make the decisions as to who sits on those boards and committees. So, that’s another good opportunity to understand how the governance structure works at RCSLT. 

The deadline for those roles is 10 May, so please do have a look and check out the job descriptions and consider [inaudible 0:04:19]. 

HOST:                         0:04:22 That’s fantastic. Thanks. So, great opportunities to influence in the profession, and also for, I have to say, your own CPD as well. I’ll put a link to that on the notes as well. Thank you. 

You’re also, I understand, busy with plans for Pride Month. Can you tell us more, please? 

CARA:                         0:04:38 Yeah. It’s the third year. We’re going to one of the pride parades, and we’re trying to make sure that we move around the country each time so come and join us. [Inaudible 0:04:50] partnership with the SLT Pride Network, and this time we’re going to be in Birmingham, and that will be Saturday, 25 May, and that day was a bank holiday. 

The parade marches is just a really important platform to voice the inequalities that still exists for the LGBTQIA+ community as well as a celebratory opportunity. So, if you’d like to come along and march with us, you can sign up on our website. So, please do – it’d be really lovely to have as many members there as possible. 

HOST:                         0:05:22 Wonderful, thank you. Again, I’ll put the link in the notes as well, so that we can ensure people can find the ways to access this. Fantastic. 

Are you involved in any other events coming up, Cara, or are there more things to tell members, please? 

CARA:                         0:05:36 Yes, lots of events coming up. If you keep checking the website and reading [inaudible 0:05:43] keep you up to date with all the dates and the topics that we’ll be covering. The ones coming up soon are… we’re continuing our series of webinars on the professional development framework. The next one is on 25 April at midday, and this is going to be a deep dive into the four domains of practice. You’ll also have an opportunity to do the interactive version of the professional development framework. 

And then we’ve got another one on 22 May, and this will be looking at how you can use the framework for things like your career journey more broadly. So again, both of those coming [inaudible 0:06:18]. 

And then the big thing is that we will be launching a series of in-person events. We know that interaction and that opportunity to network face-to-face is really important, so we’re launching a series of RCSLT Connect events, and they will be across the country, so we’ll be doing one in Wales, Scotland, two in England, one in the south and also one in Northern Ireland. These will be really good opportunity to meet face-to-face with peers, meet RCSLT staff, share best practice, and discuss the really key issues facing the profession. We’ll be announcing details and where they all are, the dates, and how to book on our website next week. 

As I say, we’re planning lots more events and webinars and things.

HOST:                         0:07:07 Fantastic. There’s lots to get involved in then. Thank you. I wonder if I can go to you now, Derek, please. What events are coming up for you? 

DEREK:                      0:07:15 Thanks, Vicky. As we record, it’s just ahead of Greener AHPs Week, which is the week of 22 April. We’ve already distributed stuff about that. It’s an NHS England thing, but they’re very clear that all of the events are open to all AHPs. They’ve asked me to speak at the closing webinar about the journey that both the RCSLT as an organisation and the SLT profession is on towards sustainability. And we’ll also have an announcement next week about the next step we’re going to take in supporting greening SLT practice. 

HOST:                         0:07:52 That’s very exciting. Excellent. Thanks. Moving on from events now, Derek, last month, I remember you mentioned the separate nursing pay scale, the consultation on that. Has anything moved on that since we spoke last, please? 

DEREK:                      0:08:06 The consultation was closed. We put in our submission, which was pretty robust in its language. We said that the separate nursing pay scale would be divisive, would be unworkable, would be impractical. It wasn’t only us – pretty much all the AHP organisations did, and the trade unions too. And we made the Nursing Times with our submission. So, watching brief now, just to make sure that this doesn’t go any further. 

HOST:                         0:08:31 Thank you for that update. I wonder, what’s going on around the four nations of the UK which will be of interest to people, please? 

DEREK:                      0:08:40 More good news than bad, this one, but some bad. I wanted to begin by congratulating the team in Northern Ireland where we’ve had enormous coverage this week for a report we’ve put out about early years provision and the lack thereof, and the shortages. This has been partnership work with a range of organisations and people with lived experience in Northern Ireland. 

And it’s one of these things where we’re delighted that we got good media coverage, but we’re sad we were in a position where we have to put out a report pointing to the challenges with early years provision in Northern Ireland. 

The latest waiting lists for England are out. Marginal month-on-month improvement on children. Adults still worse across the piece. Tens and tens of thousands – over 90,000 people, children and adults – now on waiting lists in England, and increasing year on year. So that remains a focus. 

Since the last podcast, the National Audit Office put out a report on the NHS England Workforce Plan and it chimed with a lot of the things we’ve said about the weaknesses in the numbers and the need for modelling to be across the whole workforce, the need for them to have a proper understanding of the number of speech and language therapists there are, the way in which apprenticeships are already growing, and the support that’s needed for universities in training places. 

So, we agreed with the National Audit Office, and we are still hoping that NHS England will talk to us across the piece. We’ve got good conversations, for example, around the children’s workforce, but there are bits of NHS England that just aren’t engaging when it comes to taking forward the workforce plan. 

Finally, just to give a shout-out again to two Parliament petitions – neither are ours, but we’re pleased to support them both. One from Mikey Akers, a big service user advocate for apraxia of speech. And his Invest in SLT petition has 12,000 signatures and has had a government response now, but we want to push on to try and get enough signatures to have a parliamentary debate. 

Also, STAMMA’s petition on an inclusive parliament, which is around disfluency, but also more generally around the experiences that people with communication needs have had in parliament. I’m sure Vicky will put the hashtags in the notes, and I urge you to sign both of those parliament petitions if you haven’t already. 

HOST:                         0:11:13 Wonderful. Thank you, Derek. Thank you very much for today. Just to let listeners know that the next news podcast will be in a month’s time, and then we will be joined by Glen Carter, the head of the Scotland office so we’ll have a bit more of a deep dive into what’s happening in Scotland at that point. 

Also, next week, we are putting out a podcast on looking at the value of research to the service user, so look out for that next week. Thank you very much. 

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