Published

24 October 2024

Rachael Tuckley, independent specialist SLT at Sound Talk Speech and Language Therapy Ltd, shares her experience of using the RCSLT Professional Development Framework and how it has helped her develop the service she provides.  

I decided to start using the RCSLT Professional Development Framework after a tip from my clinical supervisor when I was trying to set some CPD goals and I didn’t know where to start. I first heard about it at the ASLTIP conference in March and in Bulletin.

The RCSLT Professional Development Framework supports all practitioners and managers to identify existing knowledge and skills and areas for future learning and development. It articulates the five core components (practitioner wellbeing, impact, inclusion and diversity, sustainability, co-production) and four domains of practice (professional practice; facilitation of learning; evidence, research and innovation; and leadership and management) for learning and professional development.

I started by taking some time after supervision to complete the reflective questions in two of the framework’s core component sections (Practitioner Wellbeing and Impact) and noting the answers down in my bullet journal. This led me to some insights and practical things that I needed to keep doing/start doing/stop doing. At the time I was in the process of setting up an online wellbeing support group for other independent SLTs in my area, so I used the reflective questions with the small group as the activity for one of the sessions.

I also completed the checklist for the Professional Practice and Leadership and Management domains of practice and used these to identify areas I need to develop.

The results of using the framework have been helpful in several ways:

Impact

I knew I was making an impact, but realised I needed to capture this better, which would also help with promoting the profession. I started complementing my colleagues in education more often, such as telling them exactly what they’ve done which has helped a child (for example, their calm nature has helped regulate a child’s behaviour in sessions). This resulted in my colleagues giving me more positive feedback, which in turn has helped my own wellbeing. One said in a meeting “We’ve hit the jackpot with Rachael as our SLT in school”.

Feedback

I bought and started using the Talking Outcomes E-questionnaire (TOE) to capture impact more strategically and gather feedback from parents and act on this – basically quality assurance and service improvement. Many parents have now sent me glowing testimonials outlining what they have gained from speech and language therapy which I otherwise wouldn’t have heard. For example, one parent mentioned my personalised intervention plan document and how much they like it, and how they appreciate me keeping them informed via WhatsApp.

Discussion

I have also been devising ways to ask children what I could do to improve sessions. One has suggested a therapy animal, which has led to ideas from the teaching assistant around having a big, soft toy ‘therapy dog’ present in sessions (I still need to buy said dog, but I’m keeping my eyes out for the perfect pooch). I also asked a Year 6 child how he felt about being observed in class and he said “It’s like someone watching you while you sleep” which suggested he was uncomfortable being openly observed. This led to discussions in supervision about whether gathering information from the teacher about their observations is actually a better therapeutic tool than non-covert observation for some children. I still don’t know the answer but it’s something I think more about now to avoid the pupil feeling uncomfortable.

Essentially my clients and colleagues are now helping to coproduce and improve the service I provide, and I keep looking back at my answers from the reflective questions as a reminder about how to look after my wellbeing and how to keep thinking about impact.

Overall, I think the framework is a really useful tool as a discussion point in clinical supervision, but you need to have dedicated time to think about it beforehand. The reflective questions made the biggest difference for me and I think these would be useful to do in a group setting and revisit further down the line. It’s also a good tool for setting and defining CPD goals.

Find out more

The RCSLT Professional Development Framework is a free tool that puts all your professional development needs in one place. It is designed to help individuals and organisations identify learning needs and career development paths, ensuring the workforce is ready to meet the challenges of the future.