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.

Opportunities to get involved:

• Frailty task and finish group.
• Capturing evidence on the impact of Additional Learning Needs legislation for a Senedd committee inquiry.
• New survey for independent members.

Around the UK:

• Behind the scenes on SEND reform and workforce matters.
• News about waiting list levels (people coming off) and graduate guarantee for nurses and midwives – AHP concern.
• Co-signed a letter to PM on oracy, Oracy 21.
• BSL plan for English education; Guernsey communication boards
• Book your place at the RCSLT Conference 2025: https://www.rcslt.org/news/book-your-place-at-rcslt-conference-2025/ 

This interview was conducted by Victoria Harris, Head of Learning at The Royal College of Speech and produced and edited by freelance producer Jacques Strauss.

Please be aware that the views expressed are those of the guests and not the RCSLT.
 
Please do take a few moments to respond to our podcast survey: uk.surveymonkey.com/r/LG5HC3R

Please be aware that the views expressed are those of the guests and not the RCSLT.

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

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 of Learning at The Royal College of Speech and produced and edited by freelance producer Jacques Strauss.

Please be aware that the views expressed are those of the guests and not the RCSLT.

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

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 importance of the report and issues it raises including the:

• Challenges disabled SLTs and SLT students face in the workplace;
• Impact of ableism;
• How colleagues can engage;
• Value their disabilities bring to the profession.  

With thanks to panellists:

• Jodee Simpson - Highly Specialist autistic Speech and Language Therapist and Masters Research student and co-founder of the Neurodivergent SLT network
• Claire Westwood - Designated Clinical Officer for SEND - Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust 
• Suzi Willis – Senior Lecturer in Speech & Language Therapy & MSc (pre-reg) SLT Programme Lead, Manchester Metropolitan University 
  (All the panellists are members of the RCSLT's Disability Working Group and Jodee also represents the RCSLT's Neurodiversity Working Group)

Please be aware that the views expressed are those of the guests and not the RCSLT.

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

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:

• What was the research question you wanted to ask? 
• Why is this of interest to you?
• What do we mean by disability and who are we talking about?
• What did you find? 

Interviewees:

 Mélanie Gréaux, Consultant on disability, World Health Organisation

Resources:

https://www.rcslt.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/SLTs-on-the-tightrope-Learning-from-disabled-SLTs.pdf

Please be aware that the views expressed are those of the guests and not the RCSLT.

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

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 committee; Integrated Care Board blueprint; and the Northern Ireland curriculum.

- Voice Box competition in Scotland: winner of the best joke is announced.  This year’s winning joke came from Ezra: “I bought 10 bees, but I was given 11 bees. So, I said to the beekeeper, ‘Why is there an extra bee?’ The beekeeper said, ‘That one’s a freebie.’” 

- #RockingAphasia https://www.facebook.com/RockingAphasia/?locale=en_GB 

- Inspire Leadership programme for RCSLT members: https://www.rcslt.org/news/rcslt-leadership-programme-applications-open/

This interview was conducted by Victoria Harris, Head of Learning at The Royal College of Speech and produced and edited by freelance producer Jacques Strauss.

Please be aware that the views expressed are those of the guests and not the RCSLT.

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

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. 

Derek Munn shares some exciting wins for the profession around the UK and outlines some areas of focus for the policy team over the coming months.

This interview was conducted by Victoria Harris, Head of Learning at The Royal College of Speech and produced and edited by freelance producer Jacques Strauss.

Please be aware that the views expressed are those of the guests and not the RCSLT.

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

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 updates in Northern Ireland
- What's happening around the UK

This interview was conducted by Victoria Harris, Head of Learning at The Royal College of Speech and produced and edited by freelance producer Jacques Strauss.

Please be aware that the views expressed are those of the guests and not the RCSLT.

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

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 by aphasia severity and time pressure demands, and to explore predictors of PWA's functional numeracy.

The paper is:

Which blueberries are better value? The development and validation of the functional numeracy assessment for adults with aphasia' https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1460-6984.12867

Kerri Ichikowitz, Carolyn Bruce, Vanessa Meitanis, Kelly Cheung, Yekyung Kim, Esther Talbourdet, Caroline Newton

First published: 13 March 2023

This paper was awarded the IJLCD student prize.

Resources:
If you would like access to the online version of the Functional Numeracy Assessment, please contact the study authors.

The intervention study: Newton, C., Meitanis, V., Bruce, C., & Donlan, C. (2025). Evaluation of the SWAN game-based approach to re-building numeracy skills in aphasia: Feasibility and preliminary findings. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/f7d39_v1

The survey of SLTs: Newton, C., Brancamp, D., & Brancamp, T. (2025). The rehabilitation of numerical processing and calculation in aphasia: An international survey of speech-language pathologists. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/g63j9_v1

Please be aware that the views expressed are those of the guests and not the RCSLT.

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

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: https://www.rcslt.org/news/response-to-curriculum-and-assessment-reviews-interim-findings/
• Education select on SEND and white paper.
• Scottish rights report.
• Voicebox competition in Scotland – send in your joke by 1 April https://www.rcslt.org/scotland/voicebox/

This interview was conducted by Victoria Harris, Head of Learning at The Royal College of Speech and produced and edited by freelance producer Jacques Strauss.

Please be aware that the views expressed are those of the guests and not the RCSLT.

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

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) to synthesise extracted barriers and facilitators; 
and (4) to identify potential implementation strategies to address the most frequently identified barriers and facilitators.
 

Authors Kirstine Shrubsole, Emma Power, Marie-Christine Hallé were awarded the IJLCD 2023 Editors' prize for this paper. 

The paper is:
Communication partner training with familiar partners of people with aphasia: A systematic review and synthesis of barriers and facilitators to implementation

Kirstine Shrubsole, Emma Power, Marie-Christine Hallé

Examples of free, brief online training programs (less than 2 hours)

Aphasia Institute Community Hub: Introduction to SCA™ eLearning Module, The Aphasia Institute, Canada

• https://www.aphasia.ca/health-care-providers/education-training/self-directed-elearning/ 
• An aphasia-focused, 40 minute module centred on Supported Communication principles. 

interact-ABI-lity, University of Sydney and University of Technology, Australia

• https://abi-communication-lab.sydney.edu.au/courses/interact-abi-lity/
• An acquired brain injury focused module (Stroke, Traumatic brain injury and other neurological conditions) covering cognitive communication difficulties, aphasia, dysarthria and alternative and augmentative communication.

For the article referring to online versus face-to-face here is the IJLCD article reference.

Power, E., Falkenberg, K., Barnes, S., Elbourn, E., Attard, M., & Togher, L. (2020). A pilot randomized controlled trial comparing online versus face-to-face delivery of an aphasia communication partner training program for student healthcare professionals. International journal of language & communication disorders, 55(6), 852–866. https://doi.org/10.1111/1460-6984.12556

First published: 
23 November 2022

Please be aware that the views expressed are those of the guests and not the RCSLT.

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