Our presenters

Rachel Barton is a UK-based Speech and Language Therapist in her 30th year of practice. After 22 years in the NHS, she moved into independent work, dividing her time between clinical practice, supervision, and training.

Since 2023, Rachel has been at the forefront of exploring how generative AI can be safely and meaningfully integrated into healthcare. Through workshops, online resources, and collaborations with national bodies like the RCSLT, she has become a leading advocate for using AI to support practitioners’ wellbeing, improve efficiency, and maintain the highest standards of care.

Rachel developed the RCSLT’s “Introduction to Integrating Generative AI in Speech and Language Therapy” eLearning module and has presented at national conferences and events.

In November 2024, Rachel Barton published a ‘Pledge for Responsible Generative AI use in Speech and Language Therapy’. While this free resource was initially aimed at practising SLTs, it has relevance for anyone using generative AI within healthcare.

Contributing author: https://www.routledge.com/Supervision-in-Speech-and-Language-Therapy-Personal-Stories-and-Professional-Wisdom/Sparkes-Simpson-Harding/p/book/9781032293424

AI blog https://www.chatterboxsussex.com/blog

Instagram: @rachelbartonSLT

Ruth Merritt qualified as a Speech and Language Therapist (SLT) in 1982. She has worked most of her career developing specialist skills in the field of deafness.

She has worked in a range of schools, clinics and hospital settings. This has included the Great Ormond Street Hospital Paediatric Cochlear Implant Programme as the Joint Principal Speech and Language Therapist from 2002- 2011. Ruth has taught for many years on the Deafness Module at the London SLT undergraduate training courses as well the equivalent training in both Sir Lanka and Hong Kong.

Ruth Merritt is also regularly instructed as an expert witness in medico-legal cases and SEN Tribunals related to children and adults with deafness and cerebral palsy.

Sarah Beazley has worked with deaf people since 1983. She organised a specialist service in Leeds. She has also worked as a lecturer on a range of undergraduate and postgraduate courses for Speech and Language Therapists and teachers of deaf children.

In tandem with her academic work, Sarah worked as a Specialist Consultant Speech and Language Therapist in the NHS for many years. She also developed a service for deaf students in a bilingual post-16 setting.

Sarah currently works with a local not-for-profit organisation providing residential and other services for young people with complex needs. She contributes to the development of a whole school approach to service delivery in addition to taking the lead in training.

Sarah Beazley has done some professional work in the Middle East. She is an Executive Editor for the international journal ‘Disability & Society’ and has written many publications in deafness and disability.

Tara Gretton (she/her) has a background in social work and was introduced to the Solution-Focused approach in 2002. Prior to that, Tara was an aspiring actor working in Fringe theatre in Dublin. Tara worked with adults with learning difficulties until 2010 and then made the transition to Children’s Services in Bath. She worked in a social work team that used Solution-Focused Practice with adolescents and their families to prevent family breakdown and reduce the number of young people coming into care.

Tara has extensive experience in using the Solution-Focused approach with young people and their families. Since becoming a freelance Solution-Focused practitioner in 2014, Tara now works in many schools in her local area as a freelance Solution-Focused practitioner carrying out 1:1 work and group work with children and young people.

Tara is also a Solution-Focused consultant to schools and trains all staff within schools in the Solution-Focused approach. Tara has recently worked with a school that now calls itself a Solution-Focused school.

Tara Gretton runs an international Solution-Focused school network with a German colleague and delivers workshops internationally. Tara also runs a private practice from her family home in Bath.