The Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists are currently updating their guidance on eating and drinking with acknowledged risks. This update was partly due to the case of JJ vs Spectrum Healthcare in which the Court of appeals ruled that JJ could not demand his carers to feed him foods which placed him at considerable risk of choking and that in this case they considered oral intake as a medical treatment which could be refused by JJ but not demanded. The ruling identified that the court could not guarantee the carers would be free from the risk of prosecution should JJ die as a result of the foods he was requesting. The update is also needed as there is currently no guidance for SLTs working with children and young people who are eating and drinking with acknowledged risks.
This sent ripples through the Speech and Language Therapy community with far reaching consequences. Some health and/or social care providers set down that no one could choose to eat and drink with acknowledged risk within their setting and some determined that any support with oral intake was considered a medical treatment. This has led to discrepancies across the UK in how the case has been interpreted and has led to confusion amongst professions working in this area, namely consultants, SLTs, and other allied health professionals.
As part of the guidance update we have three specialists in this area supporting us namely Alex Ruck Keene KC, Helen Kinston from DAC Beechcroft, and Rob Tobin, partner at Kennedy’s law. Alex suggested that in order to resolve this inequity that we host a legal round table event with the 6 biggest NHS legal providers to ensure everyone is in agreement about how the guidance will be interpreted and implemented.
We feel you are a key component of this and would like to invite you to the event. The event will be 4 hours in total held online. It will be hosted by Alex with the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists supporting him to do this. Please note as a charity we are unable to provide any payment for your involvement in the discussion. The guidance covers both adults and children within all settings.
Please complete the following poll to let us know which dates you have availability. IF you have any further questions or would like to discuss this on a call please email kathleen.graham@rcslt.org.
