Other developments have been the undertaking of a concerted overseas recruitment drive on behalf of all health boards, the introduction of a fast track working visa scheme for health and social care professionals, the streamlining of procedures for the validation of overseas qualifications and the planned significant expansion in the number of training places in speech and language therapy and occupational therapy referred to above. The success of these measures is reflected in the increase in the numbers of speech and language therapists and occupational therapists employed in the public health service over the three-year period to the end of 2002.