Wales policy

Wales policy

Wales policy and public affairs team

Read this page in Welsh.

Empowered by members’ expertise, the RCSLT Wales Policy and Public Affairs team seeks to secure you a seat at the top table, influencing Welsh government ministers, Members of the Senedd and civil servants.

We build relationships with Members of the Senedd, Welsh Government and key organisations to change legislation and policy.

We campaign for better lives for people with communication and swallowing needs, including working with service users and service user organisations.

We support you to influence locally, providing you with both strategic advice and practical resources.

  • Pippa Cotterill – Head of Wales office (days of work – Monday)
  • Caroline Walters – External Affairs Manager (days of work – Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday)
  • Naila Noori – External Affairs Officer, (days of work – Monday to Thursday)

Contact us

3rd Floor, Transport House, 1 Cathedral Road, Cardiff CF11 9SB

Telephone us:

Caroline Walters – 029 2002 5585

Naila Noori – 029 2002 5583

Email us: walesoffice@rcslt.org.uk

Follow @RCSLTWales and @RCSLTpolicy on Twitter for latest news and updates.

Priorities for our office

Our priorities for 2023-24 are:

  • Workforce
  • Early years
  • Care Closer to Home
  • Youth justice
  • Communication Access UK (CAUK)
  • Youth justice
  • Equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI)

Opportunities to engage

Do you work with children and young people who are victims of criminal exploitation or have an interest in supporting children and young people on the margins?  The Senedd Children, Young People and Education Committee is holding an inquiry on this issue and are particularly keen to learn more about children and young people who are victims of criminal exploitation:

The inquiry is considering the following questions:

  • Nature and scale: across Wales and regional variations (e.g. traditional, drug related, sexual, financial,).
  • At risk groups: including care experience, children experiencing trauma in the home and children not enrolled in mainstream education.
  • Policy: The effectiveness of devolved policy including Welsh Government oversight. Whether there effective read across to relevant WG strategies such as Child Sexual Exploitation.
  • Practice: Approaches to prevention, community resilience, early intervention, support provided and exit strategies for victims. Practice issues such as information sharing and data collection.
  • Devolved and UK powers: How joined up is the interface between devolved and non-devolved policy such as criminal and youth justice. Are there any points of tension between criminal law and safeguarding.

We would be extremely grateful if you could share any thoughts on this issue by completing this attached proforma.  We will also be holding two member focus groups on this topic if you would prefer to share views verbally on Monday 18th March 4-5pm and Tuesday 19th March at 12-1pm.

Please could you e-mail proformas or requests to take part in the focus groups to caroline.walters@rcslt.org by Friday 15th March 2024.

Our responses are formed by engaging with our members to gain invaluable feedback. We’ll share any opportunities to engage here and on social media.

Find other ways to engage with the wider RCSLT on the get involved page.

Responses and briefings

Read this page in Welsh.

Children and young people

Child poverty
Neonatal
Developmental Language Disorder (DLD)
Early years
Looked after children
Additional Learning Needs reform (ALN)
Neurodevelopmental services
Social emotional mental health
Justice
School of attendance

Adults

Dementia
Mental health
Workforce

General health and social care policy

Equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI)

RCSLT Wales factsheets

Communication Access UK (CAUK)

Communication Access UK is an initiative developed in partnership by charities and organisations that share a vision to improve the lives of people with communication difficulties. Led by the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists, together, we’ve developed the Communication Access Symbol, a new disability access symbol underpinned by a completely free training package and standards. We hope that these will help individuals and businesses or organisations to better support people with communication difficulties.

CAUK is a priority for our office. Our focus currently is the Welsh language version of the initiative.

Who should I try to influence in Wales?

Read this page in Welsh.

External stakeholders in Wales you can seek to influence include:

Resources

Past events

South Wales hub day 

RCSLT Wales held a South Wales member event on Wednesday 8 March 2023.

The theme for the day was building relationships and partnerships.

You can access presentations that took place here:

North Wales hub day

RCSLT Wales hosted a North Wales member event on Wednesday 28 June 2023.

The themes of leadership, building relationships and partnerships were explored, and it was a great opportunity for members to network and share thoughts and experiences.

Download the presentation (PDF).

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