Back in London

after a long journey on the East Coast mainline, with detour via Leeds and Wakefield.

A good meeting in Edinburgh. It is such a stunning city!

For me, the meeting really took off when we had an opportunity to talk about BSA's (and by extension BSA Scotland's) values, as listed on our website. I've felt for a long time they were a bit 'motherhood and apple pie' - but at the meeting on Saturday we were reminded that they should act as a benchmark to see if the way we work and behave towards others measures up to the standards we set ourselves. I somehow doubt they fulfil that purpose now. I always have to look them up!

A paper was tabled which outlined, under the heading of each 'value', a kind of mission statement. That was a very interesting approach and I think I'll have a go at redrafting this in the light of comments on the day to be clearer in my own head what are the standards we are setting ourselves.

Flying the flag for school-age children

The Bercow Review on children with speech, language and communication needs in school is limbering up to the publication of its interim report on March 25th. BSA is one of five charities invited to serve on the Review's advisory panel.

The needs of children who stammer are one of BSA's priorities and we have been working to hard to ensure that the issues we feel strongly about will be reflected:

1. every child's chance to a lifetime of speaking with ease, through early identification and (where necessary) intervention. Early intervention has a success rate of 90% in terms of completely overcoming stammering
2. more training for teachers and school staff to raise awareness of the needs of the stammering child; supporting a stammering child in class requires only minor adjustments which will create a climate of good communication at school, benefitting all children
3. transparency of funding for support schemes like School Action and School Action Plus which many of our children could benefit from; every school gets extra funding for children on these schemes but at the moment it's not ringfenced and often vanishes in the general 'funding pot'
4. better and more consistent provision for pre-school and primary school children and especially children at secondary school-age, with referral to specialist centres where necessary.
   

The outcome of this review will be an excellent opportunity for BSA to raise the issue of stammering at the highest level - we are currently preparing an Early Day Motion for the House of Commons to alert MPs to the issues.

On-line training

Mark Onslow of the University of Sydney has started a new enterprise - online professional development for speech and language therapists.

Naturally, this is of interest to the BSA as we are keen to ensure that therapists in the UK base their therapies on the latest research findings. We will be reviewing the site in the next issue of Speaking Out and are spreading the word about its existence - e.g. on this blog:

www.stutter-ed.com

BSA Scotland

On the train to Edinburgh as tomorrow is BSA Scotland Committee.

BSA's Scottish branch (BSAS) has been successful in establishing a real presence, delivering services, organising events like Open Days and intensive courses and informing and influencing the Scottish Executive and members of the Scottish Parliament. They have secured a grant to review their strategic plan for services and growth over the next five years.

It would be nice to have something like BSAS in Wales and Northern Ireland. Watch out for the Cardiff Open Day in September.