Petition for Scottish Speech Therapists - please look

[muddaofsuburbia]

Hi everyone. Hope you don't mind me posting this here.

My best friend is a (very good) SALT in central Scotland who would apprecitate as much support as possible. I've copied and pasted her email. If you agree with her petition then please support her and her colleagues by signing it. If not, then thanks for reading it anyway.

Dear All,

sorry to bother you all again, but our petition to the Scottish Parliament is closing next week, and I would be very grateful if you could read the following and visit the petition site if you agree with us.

Cheers

The ability to communicate is central to all that we do - to who we are, how we learn and how we relate to each other at home, at school and at work. Thousands of people fail to access education, social, economic and career opportunities due to communication difficulties. In the UK, approximately 2.5 million people have a communication disorder of some kind. Of those, 800,000 have a difficulty so severe that it is hard for anyone outside their immediate family to understand them.

People with communication difficulties include;

o Children ? at least 2 in every classroom
o Older people
o Young offenders
People with
o Aphasia, for example following a Stroke
o Progressive neurological conditions such as Multiple Sclerosis, Motor Neurone Disease, Parkinson?s.
o Head Injury
o Autistic Spectrum Disorder
o Dementia and Alzheimer?s
o Mental Illness
o Learning Disability
o Cerebral Palsy
o Dysfluency, e.g. a Stammer
o Dyslexia
o Cancers ? oral and laryngeal cancers, brain tumours
o Specific Language Impairment
o Voice Disorders

If you have ever experienced one of these problems or knbow someone who has, then you may appreciate what SLTs do. Government proposals changing the way we work will affect uus, BUT THEY WILL ALSO AFFECT YOU - OUR PATIENTS!!

If you share our concerns, please visit:
SALT petition

and click on 'agenda for change & speech & language therapy'

Thanks.

thanks for posting that, i've signed up! what a clever way of doing petitions - don't spose the uk parliament has anything that sensible?

PS - once you're on the petition itself. Click "information" to view the petition contents.

Bump!

Done!

Done too!

Done too!

Bump!

You don't have to be Scottish to sign!

"The petitioner requests that the Scottish Parliament considers the implications of the proposed Agenda for Change legislation for Speech and Language Therapy Services within the NHS. Agenda for Change will affect all NHS departments but for Speech and Language Therapy it poses the following concerns, for both service users and therapists

· results emerging from Scottish ?Early Implementer? sites indicate substantial pay cuts for Speech and Language Therapists. The basic pay of experienced therapists is set to be reduced by up to £10,000 per year. This results in therapists being on pay protection. Thereafter their salary is effectively frozen, without even cost of living increases. This amounts to a year on year pay cuts. For many therapists therefore, a promotion would mean a pay cut. Therapists on short-term contracts automatically lose payment protection at the end of their contract.

Weekly working hours are set to increase with no increase in salary ? in practice this represents a pay cut

Agenda for Change will give short-term gains for newly qualified therapists but the wider implications negate this advantage. As a result of pay protection senior therapists will be ?trapped? in their current posts leaving limited scope for progression for their more junior colleagues.

Speech and Language Therapy is already considered a shortage profession and Agenda for Change will do little to reverse this. In a recent phone poll conducted by the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists nearly 90% of respondents said they would consider leaving the profession if Agenda for Change was implemented in its current form.

The implementation of Agenda for Change with the above consequences would also have serious implications for the service users. Clients already face extensive waiting lists and the loss of experienced staff (to early retiral/private practise/other careers) could compound this problem.

We would urge the Scottish Parliament to debate this matter and consider the possible effects of Agenda for Change on Speech and Language Therapy in Scotland.

Although Agenda for Change will happen in all areas of the NHS, the implications for Speech and Language Therapy are disproportionately devastating and unrecognised outwith the profession. Approaches have been made to MPs and MSPs but with no satisfactory consideration of the problem."

Done.

done...As i believe in what they do...

"In a recent phone poll conducted by the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists nearly 90% of respondents said they would consider leaving the profession if Agenda for Change was implemented in its current form."

done!

Keep lobbying!

have done

message withdrawn

Doesn't matter if you're not in Scotland- plenty of English folks have already signed (Irish and Welsh and anyone else for that matter welcome too!). Just need to agree with the petition and put your name to it

Shameless bump!

Done!!

also done

Added my name too.

Done!

Mudda, added my name, and my mum's - she lives in Edinburgh, also forwarded it to my brother whose son is deaf, so I assume this will affect them.

Another bump - Speech therapists are dropping like flies in Scotland - hence the horrific delays in being assessed and seen. This proposal will only drive more SALTs away from the profession. Please sign!

Another signature in the bag. Good luck.

Done.

Done - do you think they'll wonder why so many people from England signed it?