North East Speech and Language Therapy Research Collaboration
Developing and supporting a research culture
The North East Speech and Language Therapy Research Collaboration (NESLTRC) is a partnership of clinicians in Primary Care Organisations (PCOs) and academics from Newcastle University whose purpose is to establish and implement a reciprocal framework between knowledge and practice in order to build research capacity in speech and language therapy. It arose out of a strategic plan to increase research readiness and activity within local speech and language therapy (SLT) services. The aims of the group are:
- To build research capacity in local SLT Services by strengthening links between academic and clinical SLTs
- To integrate audit and service evaluation into the research process in order to incrementally develop research skills and engagement at all levels of the Service
- To develop the strategic use of student SLT placements and projects to support this agenda
- To identify research questions arising from clinical practice to develop into viable projects that inform clinical practice and service commissioning
Speech and Language Therapists as Researchers?
Speech and Language Therapists and Speech and Language Therapy Assistants are involved in research in some way during every working day. It may be using an assessment to evaluate an intervention that has been developed from research, or reading a paper for the Journal Club to give new insight on our practice, or collecting data for research each time we visit a client or planning our own research project. The model of research engagement recognises the role that each individual plays in contributing to a research culture and the support needed to maintain that level of activity.
Who is the NESLTRC?
Everyone working in the SLT services in Newcastle and North Tyneside Community Services; Northumberland Care Trust; and in Newcastle University Speech and Language Sciences Section are part of the collaboration.
The Collaboration was established in 2007 and is led by a steering group: Shona Haining , Head of R&D for NHS North of Tyne; Alison Proudfoot, Sue Welsh and Jane Giles, SLT Service Managers; Anne Whitworth, Helen Stringer, and James Law from Newcastle University; and Sarah Randles and Christopher Plant, Research Facilitators for the Collaboration.
What have we achieved so far?
- Contributed to recruitment and retention of staff
- Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) with North Tyneside Local Authority
- Applications to the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) for funding
- Four service evaluation projects of NHS SLT practice, integrated with student placements
- Patient Access booklet from student project
- Evaluation of the role of the SLT in acute stroke
- Long term conditions evaluation project
- Collaborative planning of research projects
- Collaborative clinical work