‘Not just service bashing’ was one of our absolute favourite pieces of feedback from a course we delivered in Bury in April 2025. It captures exactly what we aim for at Born at the Right Time (BatRT). Training that shares lived experience and raises awareness but also gives practitioners the evidence and tools they need to affect change. 

The Trigger for Change 

In Bury, the Speech and Language Therapy (SLT) team at the Northern Care Alliance (NCA) reached a turning point. Following a Local Area Inspection by Ofsted and CQC, it was clear that things needed to change. Specialist services like SLT were specifically named in improvement plans regarding waiting times and advice not being sufficiently tailored to individuals.  

Bridging the Gap 

As a result of the inspection results the SLT team booked BatRT’s flagship ‘Bridging the Gap: Reimagining Communication and Co-production with Parents/Caregivers’ for the whole team.  

The course was led by Rachel Wright (Nurse and Founder/Director of Born at the Right Time) and Joanna Holmes (Non-practicing SLT) who are both parents with lived experience.  

They talked about: 

  • Lived Experience: What it actually feels like to be the parent on the other side of the bed.
  • Underneath the Surface: The trauma, the conflict, and the bias that we all carry into the room. 
  • The Power of Small Things: How tiny shifts can make a massive difference. 

White woman at the front of a classroom holding paper find a courseDriving service change

After the course the team in Bury really took on board the training and worked on embedding it into their service systems and practices.  

  • Using Preferred Names: Moving away from the generic “Mum” or “Dad” and using and recording using a parent’s name. Making sure parents’ names were recoded has also been include in case note audits.  
  • ‘Care Plans’ to ‘Our Plans’: Moving from the clinical ‘Care Plans’ to the collaborative ‘Our Plans’. This was a shift in language and also a shift in culture to more collaborative planning and working with families goals.  
  • Accessibility: Making documents easier to read and being more accessible by phone. 
  • Equity over Equality: Moving away from prescriptive pathways to goals that support what a family actually needs, rather than just giving everyone the same generic offer.  

A Work in Progress 

This is just the beginning. The team is now looking at longer-term transformation, like co-produced child-friendly surveys and focus groups to better support all families. 

It’s not service bashing. It’s service transformation.  

The collaboration between the Bury team and Born at the Right Time has continued. This blog is a summary of the content in a recent shared presentation at the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists Conference. If you were registered at the conference and want to see more, you can still view the session online until May.

It’s been so wonderful to work with the team and see the impact of the training over the longer term. 

Bring Born at the Right Time to your service. If the Bury SLT team’s experience resonates with you, we’d love to help your staff feel more equipped and your families feel more heard. To find out more about our training that is rooted in lived experience, informed by research and delivering solutions. Click here to view our training brochure or email training@bornattherighttime.com.