Last week saw our colleagues in Speech and Language Therapy (SaLT) receive a special visit from the CEO of The Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (RCSLT), Steve Jamieson. He attended the SaLT Shared Practice Event to answer questions from our colleagues. The event was organised by Therapy Service Manager, Carly Hartshorn.

Our Speech and Language colleagues were able to share their questions, concerns, challenges and successes with Steve and with one another, providing an opportunity for discussion and learning between the attendees.    

Feedback from the team included feeling glad to have met Steve, and that they felt really listened to by him. They described having felt that the Royal College can sometimes feel like a remote entity, but that meeting Steve and listening to his priorities helped to increase that sense of professional belonging.

The event included discussion from members of the SaLT teams as well as senior leadership, commissioners and the wider Allied Health Professional Team. Topics included recruitment and retention, best practice, wellbeing and children’s therapies pathway redesign.

Carly said: “The day felt like a great success to me. It was wonderful bringing together Speech and Language Therapists from all three of our teams and providing a platform to share our challenges and to take pride in our successes. 

“The event allowed us to describe the reality of working within the profession in a northern acute trust, and to ask questions to our professional body whilst feeding directly into the priorities being set by the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists.”