PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, 4 DECEMBER 2003

ROYAL COLLEGE OF SPEECH AND LANGUAGE THERAPISTS WELCOMES AGENDA FOR CHANGE PROFILES

The Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (RCSLT) has welcomed the new Agenda for Change speech and language therapy profiles signed off by the Amicus Speech and Language Therapy Occupational Advisory Committee on 1 December.

RCSLT CEO Kamini Gadhok says the approved profiles will provide a career structure for both clinical experts and professional managers with clinical expertise.

Ms Gadhok says that, from a position in February when speech and language therapy had no profiles that were either appropriate or agreed, RCSLT has worked hard with Amicus, the lead union, to enable us to get to a point where we have five profiles for clinicians and three professional manager profiles. RCSLT can see the impact and improvements on the earning potential and career structure of speech and language therapists (SLTs).

According to Ms Gadhok, specific SLT concerns include:

1 that principal level SLTs will be expected to have some management responsibility.

“RCSLT understands this will be in respect to clinical supervision rather than line management.”

2 that the consultant profile has scored seven and not eight for the knowledge, skills and experience factor.

“College understands that if it is found that there are a number of SLTs who have PhD and above knowledge and skills, this scoring will be reviewed. If, however, there are only a handful of SLTs who have this level of knowledge, this will result in local evaluation.”

Ms Gadhok says it is important that guidance is issued to support SLTs to understand the terminology used and to support the SLTs in the early implementer sites.

“The early implementer sites will be crucial in ensuring the profiles are appropriately tested and will enable us to see what the issues are with regard to consistency.”

SALARY IMPLICATIONS OF THE APPROVED AfC PROFILES FOR SLTs

Clinical experts (no management responsibility): Current bands 1-4

The current maximum salary for SLTs in bands 1-4 is £52,867.

Under the approved AfC profiles the maximum salary potential under AfC is now £55,742, an increase of £2,875.

RCSLT hopes this will support the government agenda to keep expert clinicians in the front-line without having to take on management responsibility. It will also ensure the profession has clinicians coaching the next generation of experts, developing research and policy at local levels based on best available evidence.

Professional manager: Current bands 3/4/5

The current maximum salary is £64,322. Under the new AfC profiles the maximum will be £67,096, an increase of £2,774.

This will enable professional managers with a high level of clinical expertise to develop into some of the key leadership roles required for the future of the NHS.

“Given the position in February 2003, when RCSLT first got involved with AfC, we are very pleased with the resultant profiles,” Ms Gadhok says.

“However, we are not complacent. The focus and energy must now be on the early implementer sites and support to SLTs via guidance, which we hope to produce with Amicus. This has been an important landmark achievement and we hope it will provide the basis we need to move forward positively.”

ENDS

Notes for editors:

The Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists is the professional body for speech and language therapists in the UK and has over 11,000 members.

RCSLT has been working hard with Amicus since February 2003, to support the development of the profiles that were signed off by the NAC on 1 December.

RCSLT has not taken part in any of the discussions on the other terms and conditions; including hours worked and does not have any comments on these.

Clearly, SLTs need to be involved with their union representatives to identify what the issues are and look at the ‘package’ as a whole.

For more information contact Steven Harulow,

email:

tel: 020 7378 3004 mobile: 07950 715 954