#INVESTinSLT
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gillianrudd.bsky.social
"The current system is underfunded, overstretched and unprepared for the future."

Sureena Brackenridge @sureenawne.bsky.social, MP, speaking at the #InvestInSLT speech and language therapy debate on 27 January 2025.
November 10, 2025 at 6:58 PM
gillianrudd.bsky.social
"The current system is underfunded, overstretched and unprepared for the future."

Sureena Brackenridge MP speaking at the #InvestInSLT speech and language therapy debate on 27 January 2025.
November 8, 2025 at 9:21 PM
gillianrudd.bsky.social
"Recruitment is one side of the coin, but retention is the other."

During the #InvestInSLT debate on 27 Jan 2025, Dave Robertson, MP for Lichfield, recognised the issues with burnout, insufficient support and unsustainable workloads in speech and language therapy.
November 8, 2025 at 5:17 PM
speechandlanguage.bsky.social
It is so important that the issues affecting access to speech and language therapy services are tackled. We fully support this campaign - children and young people with communication needs should not have to wait any longer
#InvestInSLT
carolinebowen.bsky.social Caroline Bowen, Speech-Language Pathologist 🇦🇺🇳🇿🌻 @carolinebowen.bsky.social · 9d
Hello 🦋 #bskySPEECHIES, SLT advocates, parents of children & young people with #SLCN & other dedicated #childSPEECHdis #devLANGdis 💃🕺movers & shakers. The #INVESTinSLT push has important implications internationally. Please amplify📣 this message 🇬🇧 #budget2025🇬🇧 #budget25🇬🇧 @ukparliament.parliament.uk
November 5, 2025 at 11:14 AM
carolinebowen.bsky.social
Hello 🦋 #bskySPEECHIES, SLT advocates, parents of children & young people with #SLCN & other dedicated #childSPEECHdis #devLANGdis 💃🕺movers & shakers. The #INVESTinSLT push has important implications internationally. Please amplify📣 this message 🇬🇧 #budget2025🇬🇧 #budget25🇬🇧 @ukparliament.parliament.uk
RCSLT letterhead Statement on the need to Invest in SLT - 27 October 2025 This statement is issued on behalf of Mikey Akers, Louisa Akers, Francesca Beard, Samantha Berry, Dave Harford, Georgia Leckie, Karen Massey, Sharon Oliphant,Gillian Rudd, Pam Slater, and the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists.* Nine months ago today (27 October) the House of Commons debated the Invest in SLT petition. We were delighted that our briefing for the debate was supported by over 40 organisations and by the very powerful contributions from MPs of all parties calling on the Government to increase investment in services and better plan for the speech and language therapy workforce. We were also encouraged by the Government’s response and by the pledge the Government made to the Invest in SLT team in March that they would work with us on an action plan to tackle the issues affecting access to speech and language therapy. We regret that seven months on that action plan has not yet appeared. So, today, and with the Budget on 26 November in sight, we are calling on the Government to do two things: 1) Ensure that the forthcoming Budget provides sufficient resources to the Department of Health and Social Care, the Department for Education, and other relevant Government Departments, so they can increase investment in speech and language therapy. 2) Publish the speech and language therapy action plan which they discussed with us in March. People of all ages with communication disability, difficulty, or difference, and those with eating, drinking, and swallowing difficulties, and their families and carers have already waited too long for the barriers to accessing speech and language therapy to be removed. They should not have to wait any longer. Working with you, we will do all we can to make things better for people with communication and/or swallowing needs. But we need the Government to act – and to act now. Those we work with and represent deserve no less.
November 1, 2025 at 9:35 PM
peterdjust.bsky.social
🚨 9 months since the #InvestInSLT petition was debated in Parliament, we are calling on the UK Government to:

1️⃣ Use the Budget to ensure sufficient resources for services
2️⃣ Bring forward its SLT Action Plan

➡️ Read our statement in full: www.rcslt.org/wp-content/u...

#Budget25 #Budget2025 #SLT
Statement from the Invest In SLT home team dated 27 October 2025 marking nine months since Mikey Akers' petition was debated in the House of Commons.
November 1, 2025 at 5:25 PM
peterdjust.bsky.social
📢 RCSLT highlighted the need to #InvestInSLT in our submission to The Treasury's Autumn Budget 2025/Spending Review consultation and referenced @mikeys-wish.bsky.social's petition.

▶️ Read our submission in full:
rcslt.org/wp-content/u...
Screenshot of RCSLT submission to the Autumn Budget 2025/Spending Review consultation. Screenshot of RCSLT submission to the Autumn Budget 2025/Spending Review consultation. Screenshot of RCSLT submission to the Autumn Budget 2025/Spending Review consultation.
October 31, 2025 at 9:02 AM
mikeys-wish.bsky.social
Mikey's MP @saqibbhattimp.bsky.social has written to @skinnock.bsky.social asking for an update on the action plan that was promised to the #InvestinSLT team for improving speech and language services
@peterdjust.bsky.social @gillianrudd.bsky.social @bammo44.bsky.social @dharford79.bsky.social
October 27, 2025 at 12:23 PM
gillianrudd.bsky.social
Thank you @saqibbhattimp.bsky.social for our unplanned meeting today. Great to catch up about #InvestInSLT, #BabyLoss, #InclusiveParliament and other issues.
A photo of Gillian (on the left) and Saqib (on the right), both smiling at the camera.
October 20, 2025 at 12:49 PM
peterdjust.bsky.social
😊 Great to catch-up with Dave Harford earlier to discuss the #InvestInSLT campaign and much more.
Two men smiling.
October 3, 2025 at 12:37 PM
peterdjust.bsky.social
😍 Am so proud of the #InvestInSLT home-team for being shortlisted for 'Best Lobbying Campaign' at today's Memcom Excellence Awards.

❤️ Thanks to everyone who made it possible.

➡️ You can read more about why we've been shortlisted here: www.memcom.org.uk/blog/success...
Best Lobbying Campaign
Recognising influential campaigns that effectively shaped public policy, legislation, or professional practice.
www.memcom.org.uk
September 25, 2025 at 6:16 AM
peterdjust.bsky.social
🚨 Check out this update on the #InvestInSLT campaign and the non-update (😔) on the SLT Action Plan.

#WaitUpSLT

waitupslt.blogspot.com/2025/09/miss...
Where is the Government action plan for Speech and Language Therapy services?
Earlier this year, the UK government committed to developing an action plan to address long ‐ standing concerns about the availability of ...
waitupslt.blogspot.com
September 24, 2025 at 3:07 PM
peterdjust.bsky.social
😊 It's been a total honour and pleasure to be involved in the #InvestInSLT campaign these last 18 months.

🏆 It's one of the best things I've worked on at the RCSLT - and indeed anywhere and everywhere.

🙏🏻 Massive thanks to everyone who's been involved.

💪🏻 Let's keep up the great work!
Screenshot of a tweet by Mikey Akers on 5 September 2025 marking 18 months since the tabling of the #InvestInSLT petition.
September 5, 2025 at 2:44 PM
peterdjust.bsky.social
🚨 #BreakingNews

📋Here's RCSLT's analysis of Rachel Reeves's Spending Review: rcslt.org/policy-and-i...

#SpendingReview #InvestInSLT #FundSLT #SEND #SENDReform
Section of RCSLT statement on the 2025 Spending Review.
June 13, 2025 at 6:44 AM
hlh17.bsky.social
Much needed #InvestInSLT #communityNHS
May 18, 2025 at 11:53 AM
peterdjust.bsky.social
❤️ Fabulous for RCSLT to see this write-up of the #InvestInSLT team's meeting with Stephen Kinnock.

😍 Thanks to @mikeys-wish.bsky.social, Louisa, Chris Kamara, Saqib Bhatti, and @gillianrudd.bsky.social for attending!

mikeyswishfoundation.org/f/meeting-wi...
Meeting With The Minister of Health and Social Care
On Monday 24th March 2025, Mikey and Louisa alongside Chris Kamara, Gillian Rudd and Steve Jamieson (CEO of RCSLT) attended a meeting with Stephen Kinnock (Health and Social Care Minister), at the DHS...
mikeyswishfoundation.org
March 26, 2025 at 10:22 AM
gillianrudd.bsky.social
Thank you Stephen Kinnock and colleagues for a positive and productive #InvestInSLT follow-up meeting today. We were pleased to speak to colleagues across DHSC and DfE and discuss issues relating to funding, service provision and workforce. Next step: action planning.
A photo of (left to right) Saqib Bhatti, MP for Meriden, Chris Kamara, Gillian Rudd, Steve Jamieson, Louisa Akers, Mikey Akers and Minister Stephen Kinnock. Everyone is stood up and smiling. The background is a wall of wooden panelling with two framed pictures on the wall and windows at the top.
March 25, 2025 at 5:49 AM
mikeys-wish.bsky.social
Today’s the day some of the #investinslt team meet with Stephen Kinnock to discuss more investment in SLT

I know that those who can’t make the meeting will be there in spirit. We would’nt be here without each and everyone of you. 💙

Here’s hoping for something good to come from this. 🤞
March 24, 2025 at 9:33 AM
peterdjust.bsky.social
😊 Presentation for Lord Norton of Louth's students is done.

#PublicAffairs #PolicyInfluencing #ParliamentMatters #Parliament #InvestInSLT #SENDInTheSpecialists #PrescribingNow #ExPremiers #ThatcherAfterDowningStreet #Influencing #ExternalAffairs #Campaigning
PowerPoint presentation first slide reading, 'External affairs and influencing inspiration, infrastructure, impact - and issue' - Peter Just, February 2025.
February 26, 2025 at 8:36 AM
peterdjust.bsky.social
🚨 Tonight's job.

📢 Preparing a presentation to Lord Norton of Louth's students on my (second) career: trying to influence
@ukparliament.parliament.uk.

📋 It will feature:
1️⃣ Advice from Gillian Shephard & Sir Patrick Cormack
2️⃣ English Heritage & the RCSLT
3️⃣ #PrescribingNow & #InvestInSLT
Parliament from the Albert Embankment.
February 25, 2025 at 6:59 PM
pamslater26.bsky.social
If you've not had chance to listen to the #investinslt debate in UK Parliament on 27th Jan, the transcript is in in the below link

hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2025...

Well worth a read!
Speech and Language Therapy - Hansard - UK Parliament
Hansard record of the item : 'Speech and Language Therapy' on Monday 27 January 2025.
hansard.parliament.uk
February 20, 2025 at 11:05 AM
mikeys-wish.bsky.social
Following the #investinSLT debate, I have a meeting pencilled in, on Monday 24th March, with Stephen Kinnock (Minister of State at the Department of Health and Social Care).

10 years of raising awareness, making connections and campaigning and finally those who can bring are starting to listen.
February 13, 2025 at 7:36 PM
atimetotalk-salt.bsky.social
The #InvestInSLT debate was a great moment of recognition for speech & language therapists across our broad + brilliant profession! A massive achievement! Thanks @mikeys-wish.bsky.social 🙌 🙏 Dave Robertson MP did us proud! 👏 (Poignant for me - I cut my teeth as a therapist in his neck of the woods!)
February 3, 2025 at 11:20 PM
mikeys-wish.bsky.social
A write up in Parliament News about the speech and language debate last Monday. #InvestInSLT

“Speech therapy is a bridge between isolation and inclusion - It must be properly supported as we repair our NHS.”

Click the link to read more…

parliamentnews.co.uk/speech-thera...
Speech therapy is a bridge between isolation and inclusion - It must be properly supported as we repair our NHS | Parliament Politics Magazine
If I asked you to read this sentence aloud, chances are it would be remarkably easy. Speech is something most of us take for granted—every day it allows us to
parliamentnews.co.uk
February 3, 2025 at 5:24 PM
speechandlanguk.bsky.social
Amazing to see such vital issues raised in yesterday's debate on Mikey's Wish's #InvestInSLT petition!

Huge thanks to David Robertson and Sarah Smith for highlighting the 1.9 million children struggling to talk and understand words in the UK.

Missed the debate? Read our blog ➡️ bit.ly/3WEWCxQ
January 28, 2025 at 2:35 PM