Speech Pathologists in Education Practice Guideline - Survey results September 2020

Speech Pathologists in Education Practice Guideline

Survey results September 2020

Background to the Project

• Speech Pathology Australia clinical guidelines and position statements have timeframes for renewal

• The Clinical Guideline: Speech Pathology Services in Schools will be renewed, and there has been agreement amongst the Speech Pathology in Education Working Party (the working party) and Speech Pathology Australia that this update will require a significant redevelopment.

• This guideline will be geared towards speech pathologists who work in education settings (e.g. schools, preschools)

• The guideline will describe comprehensive, best practice reflecting the best available evidence on what works for children in education settings.

Desired Project Outcomes

Note: decision pending to rename clinical guideline to practice guideline

Long term • To present best practice in order to inform the work of speech pathologists in education • To ensure service users and stakeholders receive consistent quality service Medium term • To provide a basis for development of targeted / consistent / curated professional learning opportunities • Speech pathologists feel that the updated clinical guideline adds value to their work Short term • The updated guideline meets several quality indicators including (source: https://www.nhmrc.gov.au/guidelinesforguidelines/standards )

Overseen by a guideline development group Make actionable recommendations

Relevant & useful for decision making

Transparent and accessible

Focused on key need and outcome

Evidence informed

Background to Survey

• To gather awareness data on the current clinical guideline e.g. are speech pathologists aware that a guideline for school practice exists? • To gather use data on current clinical guideline –e.g. what do they use the guideline for? • To understand needs of speech pathologist working in schools – what do they want from the new Guideline?

Survey Timeline

August 2020

July 2020

August 2020

July 2020

Survey distributed by working party members, targeted email to members & national e-news.

Survey closed 31 st August

Development of survey approved by SPA Professional Standards Team

Feedback gathered from working party & draft survey edited

Draft survey developed by Project Officer

Current Member Snapshot Source: Speech Pathology Australia

All states & territories were represented

• Most respondents were from VIC, QLD and NSW, making up 80% of all respondents with a total of 493 speech pathologists. VIC had the highest number of respondents. • NT & ACT had the lowest numbers of respondents. • 85% of respondents were members of SPA. 15% were not members of SPA • A total of 618 speech pathologists engaged in the survey. This fluctuated per question.

9%

1% 4%

18%

NSW VIC QLD NT WA ACT TAS SA

-1% 6%

28%

34%

Do these findings reflect the proportion of speech pathologists employed by states and territories?

There was an even distribution of experience Both practising SPs & leaders responded

• Approximately one third of respondents new to working in schools (35%). • Approximately one third of respondents had 5-10 years experience working in schools (27%) • Approximately one third of respondents (38%) of respondents had over 11 years of experience working in schools • No students responded to this survey

3% 1%

Practising Speech Pathologist Practising Speech Pathologists & Leader Leader

17%

Not currently Practising

79%

A range of workplace settings were represented

Setting

Proportion

Number

Early years only

5%

31

Primary school only Secondary school only

32%

194

3%

19

Primary & Secondary

26%

163

Early years & Primary

20%

123

Early years & Primary & Secondary

14%

86

Total

616

• 61% of respondents work in primary and secondary settings • 39% of respondents work in early years settings in some capacity (e.g. either combined or solely)

Early years settings representation by state

State Proportion Number NSW 50% 55 ACT 33% 1

• SA had the highest proportion of speech pathologists engaged in early childhood education settings • Zero respondents from NT indicated they worked in early childhood settings

WA

61%

23

VIC

29%

61

TAS

32%

7

QLD

25%

43

SA

84%

49

A range of employment types were represented

• Most respondents (84%) were employed by schools or early education providers (e.g. education offices, contracted or employed directly) , rather than seeing students directly through private arrangements. • The majority respondents were employed by an education office (e.g. Catholic, Independent or Government sector), made up primarily by QLD, VIC and SA. NT, WA and NSW had zero respondents represented in employment offices (Government positions). • Other employment included: • SP seeing students through private arrangements (46%) • NGO arrangements (10%) • Public Heath (7%) • NDIS (3%)

Number 618

16% 97

Education Office

294

Employed Directly by Schools Employed as a Contractor Other

48%

138

22%

14% 89

Range of employment by state (%) State Employment Office Employed Directly

Has a contract with schools/ early childhood

Other

Number

QLD

77%

7%

8%

8%

173

VIC

42%

28%

21%

10%

209

NSW

0%

11%

53%

36%

108

SA

71%

2%

17%

10%

58

WA

0%

16%

39%

45%

31

TAS

86%

0%

5%

9%

22

NT

0%

50%

0%

50%

2

ACT

100%

0%

0%

0%

2

Clinical Guidelines (CG) are important to SP work Most SPs understand the purpose of a CG to a reasonable amount

Number 599

Level of Importance

Level of Understanding of Purpose

10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50

10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45

0 5

0 5

Extremely

Very

Somewhat

Not so

Not at all

A great deal

A lot

A moderate amount

A little

Not at all

Most SPs knew of, and had accessed the Clinical Guideline for Speech Pathology Services in Schools

Number 600

Existence of Guidelines

Accessed Guidelines

Yes No

Yes No

19%

30%

70%

81%

The current Clinical Guideline is used for a range of purposes

Note : there is some concern that the reflections on the current Clinical Guideline are, in fact, reflections on the school facing document, Speech Pathology in Schools (2017) or the Literacy Clinical Guidelines. Please take this into consideration for the following findings.

Number: 295

1. To communicate the roles of responsibilities of speech pathologists in schools 2. To check the evidence base for school practice 3. To design service models 4. To shape responses for responding to student referrals 5. Assist other speech pathologists in their practice

How do these responses connect to the purpose of a clinical guideline and its intended use ?

What SPs want from the new Guideline

Number: 426

1. To be evidence informed. 2. To describe the desired outcomes for students with speech, language and communication needs in education settings 3. To make actionable recommendations for practice 4. To be accessible (e.g. clearly structured and easy to read) 5. To describe what stakeholders want from speech pathology services in education 6. To describe aspirational practice 7. To offer transparency in terms of how the guidelines were developed.

The top 10 areas speech pathologists want from the Practice Guideline Additional Quality Indicators for the Working Group

Number: 253

1.

Evidence based ways of working in education settings (50)

2. Collaborating with others, including education staff, students and external speech pathologists (38) 3. Leading with influence and effective change management (34) 4. Outcomes driven practice (31) 5. Designing effective service models (Inc. resourcing and caseload management) (24) 6. Role clarity – what do speech pathologists do in education contexts? (21) 7. A clear vision for speech pathology practice in education (‘why do speech pathologists work in education?’) (16) 8. Effective planning and implementation of interventions (15) 9. Responding to a variety of needs in education context (14) 10. Curriculum based practice (13) 10. Practice improvement (13)

Most respondents to the survey (63%) experienced barriers to implementing best practice

Number: 392

1. Buy in from leadership was the number one barrier identified (54%) 2. Access to resourcing (e.g. money and staffing) was the second highest reported barrier (31%) 3. Availability of professional support for speech pathologists own practice ranked third (16%) Other barriers identified: • Insufficient time to collaborate with teachers and parents • Inconsistent understanding of best practice between speech pathologists and employers • Challenges with time management and large caseloads • Lack of role clarity

Summary and Recommendations for the New Practice Guidelines

Summary

Recommendations

Speech pathologists work in education settings in all states and territories Speech pathologists with a range of experience access clinical guidelines Speech pathologists across settings access clinical guidelines

• The Guideline considers federal and state advice for practice

• The Guideline to include actionable recommendations for those new to working in education, and how to continually improve service delivery and optimise outcomes for students for those with more experience • The Guideline to address mainstream and special schools descriptions of best practice – differentiating where needed • The Guideline to address early years, primary and secondary setting descriptions of best practice – differentiating where needed • The Guideline’s intended audience is practising speech pathologists in education contexts. • The Guideline also contains actionable recommendations for speech pathology leaders.

Speech pathologists work in mainly practising roles. Some speech pathologists are engaged in leadership positions

Summary and Recommendations for the New Practice Guidelines

Summary

Recommendations

Speech pathologists experience barriers to implementing best practice

• The Guideline to include evidence based implementation and change management strategies. • The Guideline to include common barriers to implementation of best practice and effective, evidence based strategies for maximising for responding to the top 5 reported barriers. • Speech Pathology Australia develops an implementation approach for introducing the practice guidelines and supporting practice. • The Guideline to define evidence based practice. • The Guideline to use the best available evidence in development. • The Guideline to describe how to engage in evidence based practice. • The Guideline to define outcome driven practice in education contexts • The Guideline to describe how to engage in outcome driven practice including, how set up services with outcomes in mind, and how to measure outcomes. • The Guideline to define and describe collaborative practice, including student voice in decision making and effective team based practice.

Speech pathologists are guided by and value evidence based practice Speech pathologists are guided by and value outcome driven practice Speech pathologists are guided by and value stakeholder centred practice