SLPs in standalone speech pathology clinics must collaborate more with health & education professionals to help clients – and to stay in business
In 2025, SLPs must collaborate more with paediatricians, OTs, psychologists, physios, exercise physiologists, learning support teams, and other health & education professionals.
The big picture:
To support children and adults with functional communication challenges, multidisciplinary collaboration has always been an important part of good practice. But it’s never been more important to build your networks with other health and education professionals.
Why it matters:
Under our professional standards and ethics rules, SLPs must:
- engage in interprofessional practice to achieve partnerships across disciplines and safe services;
- use person-centred, family-centred and community centred approaches, as relevant to the context; and
- develop partnerships with individuals and communities.
What to watch:
Two things make interprofessional collaboration more important than ever in 2025:
- The Scope of Practice Review Final Report (October 2024) included recommendations that:
- our regulator include principles for interprofessional education and collaborative care in our standards, guidelines and CPD; and
- our regulatory model should be strengthened to enable us to work to our full scope of practice in multidisciplinary teams.
- Consultation papers released in 2024 relating to the proposed Foundational Supports system stress the need for a change of approach from one-to-one therapy models in clinical settings, towards supporting children with functional needs in everyday settings where they live, play and learn, with the support of multidisciplinary teams.
Bottom line:
It’s good clinical practice to collaborate with other health and educational professionals to support clients as part of a multidisciplinary team. Given likely reforms, it’s also good business practice. For standalone SLPs and speech pathology clinics, strengthening relationships with other health and education professionals is a key strategic priority for 2025.
Read more:
Unleashing the Potential of our Health Workforce – Scope of Practice Review Final Report, recommendations 4.2, 8
See, also, SPA Code of Ethics, 1.2; and Professional Standard 1.4.
