Northern Regional Group of
Speech and Language Therapy Managers
(NRGSLTM)

TERMS OF REFERENCE

1. Title

The Group shall be known as the Northern Regional Group of Speech and Language Therapy Managers (NRGSLTM).

2. Membership

2.1  Membership shall be restricted to Speech and Language Therapists who manage Speech and Language Therapy Services in Trusts/Units within the Northern Region (or their named deputy in the event of a prolonged absence by the Service Manager). Such members will have full voting rights.

2.2  The Group as defined at 2.1 above shall have discretion regarding attendance at meetings for specific agenda items by non-members. This may include professional advisors, non-Speech and Language Therapy Managers and others, and would be with the quorate agreement of the group.

2.3  The Committee shall have the power to co-opt additional Members at its discretion.

2.4  Associate Members can have representation by invitation to attend, (e.g. non NHS Speech and Language Therapy Services, Higher Education, Voluntary and Independent sectors) although they may be asked to leave the meeting on certain occasions for closed items. Associate members will not be eligible to vote.

2.5  Attendance is expected and should be included in job descriptions or lists of duties.

3. Meetings

3.1  There will be a minimum of five meetings per year held at times convenient to the Group. The venue will change within the boundaries of the catchment area of the Group.

3.2  The host Manager is responsible for providing a room, refreshments and travel details.

4. Extraordinary Meetings

An extraordinary meeting may be requested by full Members of the Group to discuss a particular topic. Where such a meeting is requested or if an issue is deemed important or urgent by the Chair, the Officers of the Group must arrange for an extraordinary meeting to be held within 30 days of the meeting being requested.

5. Quorum

The meeting will be deemed to be quorate when at least 50% of the full membership is present.

6. Officers

The Officers of the Group shall consist of:

  1. Chair
  2. Vice-Chair - office normally taken by previous Chair for the purpose of chairing meetings in the absence of the Chair.
  3. Secretary
  4. Vice-Secretary - as above

7. Election of Officers

7.1  Officers will be elected from the full membership by a majority vote.

7.2  Officers shall normally be elected at the final meeting of the calendar year, unless an officer leaves before the end of their time in office. A term of office shall be for two years, the first year as a deputy and the second as full officer.

7.3  An Officer may not be elected to the same office until a period of two years has elapsed.

8. Sub-Groups

8.1  Sub-Groups and working parties shall be formed and disbanded as appropriate and report back on a regular basis to the Group. Sub-groups have the authority to co-opt Members within and outside of the Group.

8.2  Relevant members of the Group will elect members annually to represent them on relevant AHP Fora. The Chair will determine whether information and reports from AHP Fora representatives are relevant to the whole Group or to SHA subgroups.

9. Voting Rights

9.1  Each full Member shall be afforded the right to vote (excluding Associate Members).

9.2  A simple majority of those voting will carry a resolution.

9.3  The Chair retains the casting vote in the event of an inconclusive ballot.

9.4  For motions requiring a formal vote, notification will be submitted with the minutes. Members have the right to use a postal or telephone vote if necessary.

10 Aims and Objectives

The aims and objectives of the group will be documented and made available as appropriate (see Appendix 1).


Appendix I

Northern Regional Group of
Speech and Language Therapy Managers

Aims and Objectives

  1. Provide support for Members through the sharing of information and interchange of ideas, thereby enabling the pursuit of best practice.

  2. Provide a consultative source of information and expertise relating to Speech and Language Therapy. This may include providing advice to purchasers of service.

  3. Enable the Members to lobby, jointly initiate proposals, or respond to issues through links with other bodies, e.g. RCSLT, TASLTM and Northern & Yorkshire Region.

  4. Identify and support training needs of Therapists across the region and, where appropriate, respond by providing in-service training.

  5. Promote the training of undergraduate Speech and Language Therapists generally, maintaining and developing links with two regional universities Newcastle and Leeds.

  6. To support research across the region.

  7. The Northern group will liase, meet and work together as appropriate with the Yorkshire group and both together from the Northern and Yorkshire Regional Group of Speech and Language Therapy Managers. There will be a full meeting of Members annually (Associate Members by invitation) and the Chair and Secretary of each group will meet independently as appropriate.


Appendix II

Northern Regional Group of
Speech and Language Therapy Managers

Mission Statement

The Northern Regional Group of Speech and Language Therapy Service Managers exists to provide a forum for the maintenance and development of quality services within available resources which are responsive to the needs of people with communication difficulties and other related disorders and their carers, promoting the Government's aims for effective clinical governance, ie:

The Group is available to act on a consultative basis on managerial and professional issues and service provision.

18th November 2005

Download a copy as an MSWord file

Contact NRGSLTM: