Building on past success

Since the establishment of the Health Professions Council (HPC), the RCSLT has successfully redefined its purpose and what we have to offer our members.

Over the last few years, the RCSLT has developed:

• Revised Clinical Guidelines for speech and language therapy, published 2006
• Position papers to help set speech and language therapy in context, eg Supporting children with speech language and communications needs within integrated children's services, published January 2006
• A new version of Communicating Quality - third edition published May 2006.

Why the need for change?

Recognising our successes, but keeping an eye on the future, Council undertook a review of the activities done by the RCSLT and how they fit with the changing environment in which speech and language therapists work.

Council identified new areas of work emerging that the RCSLT needed to address and that we needed to reshape our staffing at HQ, in order to meet our members' future needs.

Making change happen

• We employed an external consultant to get an objective perspective and expert advice on our organisational restructure, at a cost of £24k. We held consultations with staff at HQ and with Council and Board members
• Staff were offered support through surgery sessions and were encouraged to consult with Union representation.

New priorities

Three areas of work were identified as priorities for the RCSLT, within the existing strategic plan:

• To fully represent members' interests across the UK
• To support members in their continuing professional development (CPD) activities
• To tackle the threat of declining income for the RCSLT.

Addressing these issues will ensure the RCSLT's ability to keep pace with changes in the health sector and to continually strengthen support for members.