Speech Pathology Australia Annual Report 2023

CEO's report

With this, my inaugural report as CEO of Speech Pathology Australia, I wanted to share how deeply honoured I am by the opportunity to lead this organisation. It is with a profound sense of privilege that I guide our mission to make meaningful strides for our vast community of over 15,000 dedicated member speech pathologists and the individuals they serve. Together, we are committed to enhancing the lives of Australians with communication and swallowing needs and ensuring our collective efforts result in positive and lasting impacts. Having started as Chief Executive Officer in July 2023, I would like to recognise the efforts of all who have contributed to the many successes achieved in 2023. I would especially like to thank my predecessor Gail Mulcair for her leadership over many years to build the Association. Throughout the pages of this Annual Report, you will see the important impacts that our work in 2023 achieved. KEY HIGHLIGHTS Supporting professional education Our work at the Association is guided by member feedback, and to help us do this, we engaged external consultants Survey Matters to conduct the important work of capturing member feedback on how we can improve their experience and services. Increased accessibility and affordability of CPD were key themes from the survey. To support this, in 2023 we launched a new Learning Hub to increase access to member events and learning. The highly successful virtual summit launched in 2023 is an example of one of the innovations that the team are working on to support members' further learning. Our annual National Conference in Hobart was a great success, with 825 delegates attending. We continue to work on developing the conference with a new, member informed, plan to be fully launched in 2026. Growing member value Aligned with our strategic priority to strengthen pathways for professional connection collaboration and networking, we redeveloped the SPA website and launched the new Member Portal in response to member requests for a dedicated website with everything they need. In 2023 we also established a dedicated member engagement team focused on supporting members, especially our many volunteers. This team works to enhance engagement between members and National office. Political advocacy Throughout 2023 our work to advocate on behalf of our members and the profession continued with 28 National submission, 11 state submissions made to governments and several meetings with MPs and advisors. Over the past year we have strengthened our policy and advocacy team to work towards greater impact with government and political leaders in influencing changes that will assist speech pathologists to deliver the best services possible to all those who need them; regardless of location or background, to optimise quality of life for Australians with communication and swallowing support needs.

Jodie Long Chief Executive Officer

8 Speech Pathology Australia | 2023 Annual Report