RCSLT’s workforce, education and training programme was a collection of projects which were designed to support the ongoing educational priorities for speech and language therapists (SLTs) through all stages of their careers.
Back to Speech and language therapy
Introduction
RCSLT’s workforce, education and training programme was an ambitious programme which ran from March 2024 – March 2025 to support the ongoing educational and career development priorities for speech and language therapists (SLTs).
The programme was funded by NHS England as part of a wider NHS plan to improve the allied health professional (AHP) workforce, however our plans included all four nations and we engaged with SLTs from the entire UK on the following key areas:
- Career pathways into speech and language therapy
- Curriculum and placements review
- Support workforce
- NQP goals and guidance
- Professional development framework embedding and evaluation
- Advancing practice
- Paediatric waiting lists
Although the programme delivery has now come to an end, implementation and embedding will continue beyond, to ensure the sustainable legacy of this work, and ongoing benefits felt across the workforce. Any queries about the ongoing work can be sent to william.christopher@rcslt.org.
SLT careers
Careers advice for teachers
This workstream aimed to develop resources for teachers and career advisors which raised the profile of speech and language therapy, and provided a broader understanding of the profession and routes in.
A webinar was held to raise awareness of the profession with nearly 400 live attendees from the UK and abroad. Resources were also developed including presentations and posters which are available for members to use for outreach and to promote the profession. 700 copies have been sent to careers hubs and 50 copies to SLTs attending school careers fairs.
Justice
Speech and language therapists work in settings across the UK, some better known than others. The justice system is complex, with multiple levels, working with many different types of people, and the need for speech and language therapy within these settings is only increasing. To ensure the needs of this sector are met, this project workstream aimed to:
- Increase awareness, inspire interest, and build confidence in this field
- Support and represent SLTs in this sector, and strengthen their connections
- Enhance external understanding and amplify policy needs
Our factsheet on supporting children and young people in the justice system was updated and is available on the website.
SLT training
A curriculum review is being conducted which will produce a refreshed course fully adopted by universities. The work will provide clear professional body guidance on clinical placement hours including the proportion of which that can be delivered through simulation.
This work is ongoing and members can find out more about this project and how to get involved.
Support workforce
The RCSLT support worker hub was launched in 2023 to provide speech and language therapy support workers and the SLTs who manage them with vital information, tools, and resources, aiming to support equitable and consistent training with clear progression routes, and guidance on training and development. This piece of work aimed to evaluate the resources, ensure they are meeting the needs of support workers, and provide recommendations for future work.
NQP and preceptorship
The NQP process is a long and established uni-professional offer providing structured transitional support for newly qualified speech and language therapists. This updated resource provides guidance on what structured support looks like for newly qualified practitioners (NQPs) – through the established and revised NQP goals process – alongside ways to provide support for other key moments of career transitions.
The purpose of the project was to refine and revise the process to align with the new professional development framework, the HCPC Standards of Proficiency and the revised pre-reg curriculum.
The project included members throughout with 61 signed up for virtual listening events, 70 consulted in a local authority event, 43 as part of a virtual development group, and 44 in final consultation, across the four nations of the UK. As part of the stakeholder engagement work, we were sighted and mindful to ensure the new offer aligned with multi-professional preceptorship work (across the four UK nations), including evolving quality assurance work within the NHS England context.
The engagement and feedback from RCSLT members resulted in the project evolving to become a multi-purpose document: a two-section guide covering NQP goals and guidance, plus a transitions guide for other phases of the career e.g. returning to practice. It connects to the professional development framework bridging the initial stages of an SLT career with ongoing progress.
Services, HEIs and individuals will need the time to understand this new process and RCSLT have work to embed the work so this guidance will be released in the near future.
SLT career development
Enhanced roles
This project involved developing an enhanced practice apprenticeship, with the goal of bridging the gap, upskilling the workforce, and improving the care offer for service users. In collaboration with Coventry and Salford Universities leading a piece of coproduction work, we developed a schema which provides the foundations for higher education institutions (HEIs) to develop the course. Our ongoing work will support alignment with other AHP enhanced practice schema and will be published soon.
Advanced roles
There are growing number of SLTs working within advanced practice, who have followed a traditional route in and are leading the way for enabling SLTs to be recognised in the advanced space. However, there is a drive to open advanced practice and encourage more roles in less traditional clinical areas. The RCSLT partnered with the Royal College of Occupational Therapists (RCOT) on a coproduction project to develop advanced practice for the profession.
The purpose of the work was to:
- Elevate advance level practice from profession specific lens across sectors and nations
- Re-imagine advanced level practice and provide clarity and purpose within speech and language therapy profession at a national level
- Look at the future of advancing practice, recognising that this requires thought and action from diverse perspectives and drawing on expertise and experiences from a range of sectors.
Led by professionals from Coventry and Salford Universities, this collaborative piece of work has allowed both professions to consider alternative role progression. There was fantastic engagement from the membership on this project, and we are incredibly grateful to everyone who contributed. The initial documents can be found here and please do look out for further work on this topic.
Consultant roles
The role of a consultant SLT can be extremely varied and there are many approaches and journeys to reach consultant level, so it is important to take an open and understanding approach.
We recently published an SLT Voices article of consultant Roganie Govender, which showcases her unique story of becoming a consultant. We are keen to share other examples of consultants so if you would like to get involved please contact william.christopher@rcslt.org.
Professional development framework
In 2023 the RCSLT launched its Professional Development Framework (PDF) and following this a process of disseminating and embedding took place. The aim of this work was to design and undertake an evaluation of the framework and its use to date, via a nationally disseminated online survey.
Questions driving the evaluation were:
- How well is the framework known and used in the profession?
- How has the framework been used by the profession?
- How might the framework be refined?
Following on from the evaluation we are continuing to evaluate the professional development framework by taking a deeper dive into the feedback provided in the general survey with the aim of improving the framework. Thank you to all our members who offered their feedback previously. Qualitative interviews are ongoing with Dr. Sam Harding from Bristol Speech and Language Therapy Research Unit. These should provide more in-depth recommendations for PDF amendments to further positively impacting career progression, satisfaction, and retention.
Professional stewardship
Community paediatric dysphagia
Children and young people services are experiencing significant waiting times preventing children from receiving support in a time frame needed to increase the chances of positive outcomes of therapy. There are issues recruiting appropriate staff, gaps in opportunities to develop competencies exist and a need for peer support and supervision.
In a previous project by RCSLT, a series of recommendations were made following a survey to understand the gaps and challenges faced by speech and language therapists working with children and young people with eating, drinking and swallowing needs.
This document is currently being reviewed and will be shared within the next month.
Children and young people waiting times
As part of this project, we conducted a survey of SLTs across the UK, to gather information about the factors that were influencing them to stay in or leave their roles. SLTs who work with children and young people were asked additional questions to explore the workforce implications of waiting lists in children and young people’s speech and language therapy services.
1,168 speech and language therapists completed the survey between September and October 2024, evidencing both the significant level of interest in this issue and the desire for change. The results are due to be published shortly and provide an overview of the experiences of SLTs across the four UK nations.
The survey results show that real change is urgently needed to support the speech and language therapy workforce. We have made a number of recommendations as a result of the findings.
Responsible clinician
The aim of this project was to investigate the potential for change that would grant SLTs greater clinical authority, a role that they are keen to embrace. This current barrier excludes SLTs from taking on this role; a profession which has the clinical skills, expertise, and leadership to support service users to meet their individual rehabilitation and recovery needs. The final version of the paper was submitted to the Department for Health and Social Care.
This ask has been quoted in:
- Mental Health Bill briefing
- Invest in SLT Parliamentary Petition response
- Response to the 10-Year Plan.
- House of Lords resulting in a meeting being requested with RCSLT policy team
