Lived Experience Partners panel

Who?

The Lived Experience Partners panel are a group of people who have accessed speech and language therapy services for themselves or someone they care for and have an interest in being involved in the training process of future Speech and Language Therapists.

What?

The members meet with staff at the University of Reading a few times a year to contribute to the course planning to ensure clients’ perspectives are considered at all levels of training. Panel members also meet directly with students at open days, during the interview process and also during ‘meet the clients and carers’ workshops.

Why?

It is a requirement of our governing body ‘The Health Care Professions Council’ that we involve service users in our speech and language therapy degree programmes. Information we receive from the panel influences our teaching and helps students connect what they learn in the classroom with real people. The students benefit from meeting with service users and hearing what it is like to be on the receiving end of an assessment or therapy. Members of the group have shared that attending the group and being listened to makes them feel valued and they are pleased to be able to give something back to the service.

How?

If you or someone you care for has had involvement with a Speech and Language Therapist and are interested in joining the group so you can share your experiences and contribute to the development of future speech and language therapists, please contact the Clinical Tutor team