RCSLT News July 2024: General election, Senedd reports, Scottish Covid Inquiry

In July's news:
- Impact of the results of the General Election and how you can get involved.
- Communication Access free training www.communication-access.co.uk/
- Lee Silvermann Voice Technique media coverage www.rcslt.org/news/new-study-com…e-with-parkinsons/
- King's Speech
- Senedd reports on the implementation of the Additional Learning Needs legislation and curriculum reform and access for disabled children in Wales to education and childcare www.rcslt.org/news/rcslt-respond…ng-senedd-reports/
- Scottish Covid Inquiry

Please do take a few moments to respond to our podcast survey 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 and Peter Just, Head of External Affairs and Influencing.

Transcript

Transcript Name:  

RCSLT_News_July_2024 

Transcript Date:  

23 July 2024  

Speaker Key (delete/anonymise if not required):  

HOST: VICTORIA HARRIS  

PETER: PETER JUST  

DEREK: DEREK MUNN  

MUSIC PLAYS: 0:00:00- 0:00:02 

HOST: 0:00:02 Hello, and welcome to the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists new podcast for July 2024. It’s Friday, 19 July. I’m Vicky Harris, Head of Learning. I’m here with my colleague, Derek Munn, Director of Policy and Public Affairs, and I’m also delighted to welcome Peter Just, our Head of External Affairs and Influencing. Peter is joining us to give an overview of the recent general election result and how it may impact on speech and language therapy. Good morning.  

PETER: 0:00:29 Good morning.  

HOST: 0:00:32 Peter, if we might start with you. I appreciate it hasn’t been very long since the general election, just two weeks. But I know that in that time, you’ve been very busy analysing the results. Do you have any key takeaways for listeners about what those results may mean for speech and language therapy, please?  

PETER: 0:00:46 Thanks very much, Vicky. First of all, actually, I must start with a shout-out to my wonderful colleague, [Elise C-r-a-i-g-e-n 0:00:52], who has very kindly looked at all of the new MPs to see who might be interested in our issue. So, big shout out to [Elise 0:00:58] for all she’s doing.  

My main point is, as with every election, these results presents both challenges and opportunities – challenges because of the MPs we’ve lost, but opportunities because of all the new MPs and now all the new ministers. So, I think our starting point is that: challenge but also opportunity. Let’s together seize one and not be daunted by the other.  

HOST: 0:01:21 Fantastic, thank you. How will the RCSLT be engaging with the new government parliament?  

PETER: 0:01:27 I think essentially in three ways. Firstly, we’re now writing to all the relevant cabinet ministers, both as RCSLT and as part of coalitions – for example, the Allied Health Professions Federation. And we’re writing to cabinet ministers who cover education, health and social care, justice, and work and pensions. And some of them are already making public statements and comments that are encouraging in relation to our issues, which is good.  

And secondly, when the relevant junior ministers responsibilities are finalised – hopefully soon – we’ll also be writing to all of them, so that’s the first thing. Secondly, in relation to parliament, hopefully next week the Chief Executive is going to be writing to all MPs with some information about how speech and language therapy supports the constituents and how to communicate with their constituents who communicate with difference or difficulty. And everybody will be delighted to know we’re encouraging all MPs to undertake the communication access training. So, if any MPs are listening, please do that, that’d be really great.  

And thirdly, we’ll be doing some more targeted engagement with MPs over the weeks and months to come and, in fact, we’re already in touch with some via social media because of things they have tweeted, which is again, encouraging.  

HOST: 0:02:36 Thanks, sounds like a busy time. And you mentioned the communication access training, so of course, I won’t miss an opportunity to promote that. I’ll put a link to that in the show notes for anyone who’s interested.  

And can our members and stakeholders get involved as well? 

PETER: 0:02:50 The short answer is yes, and the longer answer is yes, and please do, we need you to. Seriously, however powerful or not the voice of the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists is, the more powerful voices are those of our members, and particularly of people having speech and language therapy.  

Just to give you an update of where we are, we’re currently working with members and people who access speech and language therapy on some material and any action that will enable them to contact their MP. The timing of all of this is still to be confirmed, but [once live 0:03:22] we really hope people will use it, because as I said a moment ago, it is their voices – the voices of people listening to this podcast – which are much more powerful than ours. And so, let’s together work to influence MPs, so eventually, we’re able to deliver better lives for people with communication and/or swallowing needs and their families, which is clearly what we all want to see.  

HOST: 0:03:42 Indeed. Thank you very much. That’s a really good summary. Moving on to you, Derek. Of course, apart from all of this, other work continues. What are the key things from this month that listeners need to know about, please?  

DEREK: 0:03:55 Thank you, Vicky, and thank you, Peter. If I may, Vicky, just to pick up a couple more things arising from the election before I go on to other issues. We mentioned last month the wording in the Labour Party manifesto about funding evidence-based early language interventions in primary schools. Bit more detail on that. The financial plan that Labour had gave a figure of £5m for this. It had it coming from the money being raised by VAT on private schools.  

This week, Bridget Phillipson in an online meeting has returned to talking about rolling out the NELI – the Nuffield Early Language Intervention – for those who work in that field, which we think is fine but not sufficient. And she’s also, though, recognised in this online intervention the need for health and education to talk together about speech and language, which is good to hear from Secretary of State for Education.  

King’s Speech this week had justice bills, which we’ll be taking a close interest in, and also the promised return of the mental health [reform 0:05:04] registration, which will be a focus for us in the parliamentary term.  

Moving on to other things. The biggest media that we’ve had, in fact, in the last month was around Parkinson’s, and around a research study on Lee Silverman voice therapy. I just want to mention it because it was one of these cases where, if you looked at the headlines, not entirely helpful. The headline said, Lee Silverman, voice therapy is better than… many of the headlines used the phrase ‘standard NHS therapy’. Now, if you look at what the research has said, and if you look at what Parkinson’s UK said, a lot more nuanced. Recognised that this was about the effectiveness of Lee Silverman, not in itself a comment on NHS therapy. So, the research itself and what the research has said, worth looking at in terms of the efficacy of LSVT. Some of the headlines around reporting really gave the impression that NHS services weren’t… it wasn’t helpful. So, look at the nuance as well as the headline.  

Wider issues – ones that you’ll have heard me talk about before – but we’ve continued to work with the NHSE on workforce, and particularly at the moment on safe staffing – I think we prefer the term ‘effective staffing’ – where we’re working with other AHP bodies quite urgently to influence reviews that are going on within NHSE.  

We also brought together senior members from across the UK, to begin talking about the RCSLT’s own workforce strategy, which I think is going to be important going forward, moving on from previous work and statements we’ve had in that area.  

NHS England children’s communities work strand continues to go. And this is important with a change of government that there are things being done, particularly by agencies like the NHS, which just carry on. And in some cases where they’re good we need to say to the new government, we don’t want you to throw the baby out with the bathwater; there are things here that we need you to carry on with.  

You’ll have seen possibly a story from NHS providers this week. I think it’s continuing the trend we’ve seen in recent years. Every time anybody talks about challenges and waits and delays in the NHS, speech and language therapy is either at the top or very close to the top of the list of concerns. And as we all say, it’s not just us saying it [inaudible 0:07:29] NHS providers. And we continue lots of conversations in the background.  

For members both working in the NHS or the independent sector, or both, who are facing the current heat and challenge around the sheer number of education, health and care plans and the balance between NHS and independent provision, we know that this is a hot issue right now and we are working actively with all sides upon it. I think those would be my top things.  

HOST: 0:07:59 Thank you, Derek. And just to come back to the Lee Silverman story, I believe we had a news story response to that, which I will link to.  

So, what’s the news from around the UK, Derek?  

DEREK: 0:08:10 Just briefly, but of course the devolved institutions didn’t have elections; they carry on as normal, though they have the political challenges that you always do.  

In Wales, the Senedd enquiry that we were particularly pleased to see it was the Children and Young People in Education Committee, and they were looking at how additional learning needs, which is the Welsh equivalent of SEND, is being implemented. We were pleased to report… talked about initial teacher education, which is an important matter. They also referenced the work that we’ve done lobbying on staffing pressures, and recognised speech, language and communication as the biggest area of primary need for kids with [inaudible 0:08:56] in Wales.  

Then there’s a new Northern Ireland Health Minister because the previous health minister, who was a good friend of ours, has now become a Westminster MP. The new Northern Ireland Health Minister has said that, for the next six months, he’s focused on health inequalities, so we’ll work with that.  

In Scotland, the Scottish COVID Public Inquiry we’re engaged with in the background, working on evidence and possible oral evidence in due course. The Scottish COVID Inquiry is focused on the effect of the pandemic on children’s language, and that’s where [inaudible 0:09:29] in that area. But you may also have seen this week that the UK public inquiry has issued its phase 1 report, and the phase 1 report was on pandemic preparedness. And we are engaged, again, in the background with the UK public inquiry, although the proceedings are confidential.  

And there are issues around, if you think back to 2020, about infection control and about protective equipment, and about dysphasia in particular but other environments too that speech and language therapists are concerned about, and we are not confident that the lessons have been learned before any future pandemic. So, I think taking a look at that phase 1 report for the public inquiry will be important for us too.  

HOST: 0:10:17 Wonderful. Thank you very much Peter and Derek today. As I leave, I just want to mention that we do have a feedback survey which I’ll put a link to on the show notes, so please do fill that in if you have time because it helps us to improve for the future, or you can email us on CPD at rcslt.org if you want to feedback to us in that way. And I look forward to the next news podcast which is on 22 August.  

Thank you very much.  

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