Developing a new postgraduate certificate

Highly specialist speech and language therapist (SLT), Amelia Wong, shares her experience of helping to create the first ever postgraduate certificate programme in Speech, Language and Communication Needs (SLCN) for teachers and young people practitioners.

When I was asked to collaborate with Bev Peartree, Associate Professor in Special Educational Needs and Disabilities at Leeds Trinity University, to help create a postgraduate certificate (level 7) programme in SLCN for teachers and young people practitioners, I could not have foreseen how rewarding and positive the experience would be.

The programme is part of a unique partnership between Leeds Trinity University and Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust. Designed for teachers and children and young people practitioners, the course aims to develop practitioners’ advanced knowledge and skills in understanding, assessing and implementing provision for children and young people with SLCN. The course launched in 2023 and is now successfully running its third year. It is delivered predominantly online, outside of school hours, which reduces location and timetable barriers.

Having worked as an SLT in education settings for nearly 15 years, I have witnessed first hand the marked increase of complex speech, language and communication needs (SLCN) in children and young people across the country. 

It is widely recognised that to best meet the needs of children and young people with SLCN, education settings and speech and language therapy services need to collaborate. However, due to numerous complex factors this is often not the reality, meaning that children and young people with SLCN may miss out on the support that they need.

The programme takes a unique practice-based approach to advance the SLCN knowledge and practice of professionals working with children and young people. It is underpinned by the evidence-based four-tiered service delivery model proposed by Ebbels et al. (2019). Practitioners are then able to implement more effective, efficient and sustainable ways to meet the needs of children and young people with SLCN, as well as creating more effective partnerships between settings and their speech and language therapy providers. Course assignments are practice-based, including creating setting-specific, evidence-based resources, for example parent/carer leaflets, SLCN assessment and identification guidance and SLCN provision maps.

While creating the course, I felt a strong sense of responsibility and privilege to advocate for areas of SLCN that are underrepresented in schools and the wider public, particularly developmental language disorder (DLD). DLD is one of the most common hidden SLCN and while many students start the course having not heard of DLD, they quickly become advocates.

“It has been the best course I have ever been on in terms of making a difference to the outcomes for children I support at school.”  – Student feedback

Having such a wide range of practitioners on the programme, including higher level teaching assistants, teachers and specialist teachers, and special educational needs co-ordinators from across the country, has made this a particularly rich experience for me as an SLT. I get to witness them learning from each other and creating new professional connections, as well as learning myself from their varied backgrounds, experiences and models of practice.

Working in higher education has always been an interest of mine. However working across disciplines like this has added a particular depth for me and is something I’d love to be more widely available to other SLTs in their own career progression. The programme could be replicated across the UK and beyond, providing further career opportunities for its learners as well as the speech and language therapy profession.

The student feedback has been consistently positive. Hearing feedback on the direct impacts the learning has had on their daily practice and in turn the children and young people and their families will always be one of my strongest motivators and biggest rewards.

Find out more about the course on the Leeds Trinity university website

References:

Ebbels, S. H., McCartney, E., Slonims, V., Dockrell, J. E., & Norbury, C. F. (2019) Evidence-based pathways to intervention for children with language disorders. Internation journal of language and communication disorders, 54 (1), 3-19. https://doi.org/10.1111/1460-6984.12387