North Wales Speech and Language Exchange

North Wales is a beautiful place to live, learn, and work. We know that our population is an ageing one, and one that is growing in most of our counties. We are multi-lingual, with North West Wales having the highest percentage of Welsh-English bilingual residents anywhere in Wales, and North East Wales having one of the lowest with larger numbers of other languages used in local communities. We are served by the largest Health Board in Wales, Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, and our population accesses healthcare across both rural and urban landscapes. We have two Universities, Bangor University and Wrexham Glyndŵr University. Together, we work with the Health Board and other partners across North Wales to shape education, research, and healthcare to meet the changing needs of our unique population and geography.

The North Wales Speech and Language Exchange has been established to foster engagement between the public, clinicians, and researchers with a personal or professional interest in speech, language, and communication needs, with the goal of improving clinical assessment, intervention, and rehabilitation across North Wales. Our focus is broad, and incorporates communication, speech and language needs across the lifespan. We are guided by a number of government agendas including the Talk with me: Speech language and communication delivery plan, the Well-being of Future Generations Act, and the Healthy child Wales programme, which aims to ensure that all children in Wales meet key developmental milestones and are school ready. The Exchange aims to foster collaboration via ongoing communication, frequent seminars and an annual conference.

Our inaugural conference will be held at Bangor University on 17 October 2023. Bangor University is situated across two counties, Gwynedd and Ynys Môn. We have close working relationships with local nurseries, schools, and clinics, making us uniquely placed to develop effective Welsh-English bilingual screening and intervention tools.

The exchange has been developed in collaboration between Bangor University, the Betsi Cadwaladr Health Board and Wrexham Glyndŵr University.

Bangor University

There are numerous researchers within the School of Human and Behavioural Sciences at Bangor University who conduct research related to speech, language and communication. The department houses the Miles Dyslexia Centre, which conducts research into the neurocognitive and behavioural basis of reading and writing as well as providing language and literacy teaching support and assessment for children and adults. The school houses extensive facilities for behavioural, physiological and neuroscience studies, including a brand-new research-dedicated 3T MRI centre, brain stimulation facilities, and sophisticated computing facilities.

Wrexham Glyndŵr University – Speech and Language Therapy BSc

The BSc (Hons) Speech and Language Therapy degree, at Wrexham Glyndŵr University, has been long called for in North Wales. It will grow the next generation of SLTs and increase the workforce in this region, including graduates whose first language is Welsh. Our brand new curriculum champions lifelong learning so students are encouraged to continually engage in the evidence base informing our knowledge on speech, language and swallowing conditions, best clinical practice and the impact on the individual throughout their lifetime. Students are part of a journal club and will be working towards a research project in their final year. The North Wales Speech and Language Exchange is a wonderful opportunity to engage with professionals and service users and share in the passion for improving lives.

Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board – Speech and Language Therapy

The Health Board is the largest health organisation in Wales, with a workforce of over 19,000 serving a population of more than 700,000 people across the six counties of north Wales (Anglesey, Gwynedd, Conwy, Denbighshire, Flintshire and Wrexham). Speech and language therapy services are organised across North Wales within the 3 Integrated Health Communities of the Health Board – East (Wrexham and Flintshire), Centre (Conwy and Denbighshire) and West (Anglesey and Gwynedd). They provide services across the lifespan: their teams of speech and language therapists and SLT technical instructors work with partners across health and social care and education to improve the lives of people with communication and swallowing needs.

Please direct any questions to: NWSLE@bangor.ac.uk