RCSLT - Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists

In our update this month:
 
For Wales:

• Preparing for the Senedd elections in 2026: https://www.rcslt.org/wales/#section-2 
• Work has begun on a Welsh language version of CAUK training, funded by the National Lottery. (See original CAUK training: https://communication-access.co.uk/) 
• What’s happened following the launch of the State of the Nation report (See here: https://www.rcslt.org/wales/#section-2 ) in January.

Oppo...

In our update this month:

• Exploring the workforce implications of waiting lists in children and young people’s speech and language therapy services.
• Response to the 10-year health plan for England.
• Continued focus on SEND in England and proposals in Northern Ireland.
• Report from RCSLT Scotland with an experimental analysis of additional numbers of SLTs needed in education.

This interview was conducted by Victoria Harris, Head ...

A report, ‘SLTs on the tight rope: Learning from the experiences of disabled SLTs in the workplace’ (April 2025) by Mélanie Gréaux explores the experiences of disabled Speech and Language Therapists and what we can do to promote disability inclusion in the speech and language therapy profession. (You can hear more about this in the first podcast of this set of two.)

In this second podcast some of our members with disability discuss ...

This podcast is the first of two podcasts looking at the experiences of disabled speech and languages.

We open in this episode with an interview with Mélanie Gréaux, author of a report  published early April,  ‘SLTs on the tight rope: Learning from the experiences of disabled SLTs in the workplace’. The report explores the experiences of disabled SLTs and what we can do to promote disability inclusion in the profession.

We cover:

• ...

The June news podcast for the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists featuring Derek Munn, Director of Policy and Public Affairs. Published 16 June 2025. 

In our update this month:

- What the Chancellor's Spending Review means for speech and language therapy;

- Developments across the UK covering children; the Health Select Committee First 1,000 days of Life  inquiry; involvement in the UK Parliament modernisation commit...

The May news podcast for the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists featuring Derek Munn, Director of Policy and Public Affairs, and Steve Jamieson, CEO for the RCSLT. Published 27 May 2025.

In this month’s news podcast RCSLT CEO joins us to talk about the 80th birthday celebrations; the Equality, Diversity and Belonging (EDB) work with members; the leadership programme; applications for new governance roles and more. 
...

The  early May podcast for the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists featuring Derek Munn, Director of Policy and Public Affairs and Ruth Sedgewick, Head of the RCSLT's Northern Ireland office.

Featuring:

- Language Launchpad, launching Tuesday 6 May https://www.rcslt.org/northern-ireland/language-launchpad-project/
- RCSLT Northern Ireland awards - Policy and campaigns in Northern Ireland | RCSLT
- General upd...

People with aphasia can have problems understanding or using numbers in everyday life - known as functional numeracy difficulties. However, testing this is hard because there are limited published assessments for functional numeracy difficulties for people with aphasia. 

This study aimed to explore, validate and pilot a wide-ranging, aphasia-friendly functional numeracy assessment to investigate how functional numeracy is impacted b...

The March news podcast for the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists featuring Derek Munn. 

• Potential impact of the scrapping of NHS England.
• Primary Progressive Aphasia event in Parliament and awareness today 4 April. https://www.rcslt.org/news/parliamentary-event-to-shine-a-light-on-primary-progressive-aphasia/
• Hopes for the Spring statement.
• Curriculum and assessment review published their interim findings. See more: h...

How can we best implement communication partner training with familiar partners of people with aphasia?

In this International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders paper the authors set out to:
(1) determine the perceived and/or observed barriers and facilitators to implementing CPT with familiar partners of adults with aphasia;
(2) to map extracted barriers and facilitators to a common theoretical framework; (3) t...

The February news podcast for the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists featuring Derek Munn. Published 27 February 2025.

We look at recent concerning news about growing waiting lists in adult community speech and language therapy in England, and also see how waiting lists compare across the UK.

See statement: https://www.instagram.com/p/DGBH1T1IdnW/ 

Derek gives an update on key topics keeping his team busy right ...

Welcome to the fourth episode in our RCSLT AI series. In this episode we chat with Dr Richard Cave, Project Manager SLT at MND Association and Consultant Speech and Language Therapist, about his work in the field of Artificial Intelligence. Richard has backgrounds in both computing and speech and language therapy and he brings these together in his work with voice banking and AI, working with Goggle, MNDA and most recently in his P...

The January news podcast for the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists featuring Derek Munn, Director of Policy and Public Affairs, Cara McDonagh, Director of Communications and Engagement and Pippa Cotterill, Head of Wales for the RCSLT. Published 24 January 2025.

It's the RCSLT's 80th anniversary! In this podcast our guests tell you all about a launch of the birthday year which was held in the Welsh Senedd and ...

In this, the third of our conversations around AI in speech and language therapy, we look at AI as a tool for people who have aphasia - a language disorder that affects a person's ability to speak and understand. Caitlin Longman, Accessibility Lead at the Stroke Association tells us about her work with people with aphasia and we hear from some of them about how they are using AI and also what are their concerns. Dr Abi Roper, ...

The December news podcast for the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists featuring Derek Munn, Director of Policy and Public Affairs. Dated 16 December 2024.

• Derek reflects back on 2024, looking at some of the big changes.
• Campaigns and how to get involved. Including Mikey Ackers' petition to Parliament which will be debated in the House of Commons on 27 January.
• What's happening around the nations of the UK.

What is the role of AI in AAC (Augmentative and alternative communication)?
In this episode Professor Annalu Waller, Professor of Human Communication Technologies at the University of Dundee and Alan McGregor, ex UK team paralympic swimmer and honorary researcher at the University of Dundee take us through what it can do now and developments they'd like to see.

We cover:

• What is AI's role in AAC?
• How can we...

In this, the first of our conversations around AI in speech and language therapy, we chat with Rachel Barton, speech and language therapist about her journey from AI sceptic to AI advocate. 

Rachel shares what she has learned and offers ideas on how others might approach AI in their work. Rachel also advises on areas of caution and talks about her pledge for responsible generative AI use in speech and language therapy.

The November news podcast for the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists, guest starring new chair Irma Donaldson.
Irma talks about what motivates her and her journey to being the chair.

She describes her vision for the profession and also some of the big challenges it faces.

Derek gives an update on key things which are happening right now including:
- Covid Inquiry in Scotland
- Mental Healt...

A group of speech and language therapists (SLTs) tell us why they believe the answer is yes. We hear about a survey of SLTs in the UK on their views of this question and find out about attitudes in Germany, Australia and wider.

Interviewees:
Carol Moxam, Senior Lecturer, Newcastle University & Director of The Children’s Speech & Language Clinic
Claire D’Urban-Jackson, Dually qualified SLT with a postgraduate certific...