Ms Vickie Kirkpatrick:

In retrospect, when documents have been produced, we have.

In terms of the role of the professional body to support its members on the front line and ensuring they are working within best practice guidelines to support families, our advice has been sought through the National Health and Social Care Professions Office. That structure has worked well in hospital settings for clinical care programmes where clinicians who represent a professional body contribute to documents which are then implemented. Our recommendation would be for a similar sort of relationship for governance and reference. It is important to ensure that changes called for by clinicians on the ground can happen.

On the document in question, as a professional body we are not consulted about it. Speech and language therapists in the HSE contributed to that document but it has yet to be circulated. We suspect that, again, it is about changing our practice. We know that there are always ways to move forward to improve services, reduce waiting lists and work more efficiently. Working efficiently also means effective representation and being invited to contribute in a meaningful way.