Tuesday, 24 January
I set out during the first six months of my
Presidency to go out and meet with all external partners, and for
the following six months to meet with as many as possible of our
major partners, such as NHS Foundation Trusts.
I started this last Friday by accepting an
invitation to visit the North Essex Partnership Trust. Like all
Foundation Trusts, in meeting with their Chief Executive, Andrew
Geldard, I learned of the challenges the Trust faces in times
of economic restraint and unprecedented reforms. I also met with
colleagues in CAMHS, who are going through the exciting stage of
being able to develop a new inpatient unit for adolescents. I was
also able to meet with key members of the Trust, including their
inspiring Chair, Mary St Aubyn.
A group of employers from across the whole
breadth of the Trust listened patiently to me whilst I laid out my
vision for a campaign on ‘resilience and recovery’. I think we
also had one of the best honest, open and frank discussions
on the part that psychiatrists should play within NHS
Foundation organisations, and in particular, how we have to be key
in explaining to commissioners what we do - whatever the
future may hold for the structure and framework of the
commissioning processes. It was also particularly good
to meet with fellow psychiatrists - many of whom I have
known in other roles at the College - out in their
workplace, and witness the influence they have in shaping and
meeting the visions of their Trust.
For the next two weeks, I am trying to achieve
a balance between what is happening in Parliament on the Health and
Social Care Bill and Welfare Reform, and to get on with all my
other tasks. To this end, Tom Brown and I will be presenting
to the Medical Education England Board our final report on
what we are doing about recruitment, which we very much hope will
be accepted. There are many other meetings in my diary, but I am
particularly looking forward to going to the meeting of the RCPsych
in Scotland in Glasgow at the end of this week.
My mail bag at the moment, as you can imagine,
is very mixed; some highly supportive and some highly critical with
respect to the Health and Social Care Bill. This week, myself and
the Policy Unit are trying to ensure that we glean every bit of
sound evidence from the many meetings that we will be
attending.
Yesterday started with the Mental Health
Collaborative meeting, working with the Leads from the Royal
College of Nursing, the British Psychological Society and
the College of Occupational Therapists. Lucy Thorpe, Head of
Policy, represented me yesterday at the Future
Visions Coalition meeting.Today, I attended a meeting of the Royal
Medical Colleges at the Academy. Watch out for a
new statement tomorrow.
The final survey on the Health and Social
Care Bill is out today (see previous Blog). We will also be putting
together a survey of users and carers in the next two weeks which
will be both on the Health and Social Care Bill and Welfare
Reform - their ‘lived experience’ feedback is very important
to us.
On Wednesday, I have a meeting with Paul
Burstow MP on Public Health England and will be
emphasising the important contribution we can make to
this area. Lucy Thorpe and Professor Kam Bhui, our Public Health
Lead, will be at this meeting with me. Our Public Affairs Manager,
Will Pickering, will be attending a meeting that is being
officiated by Lord Owen. And it just continues from there.
The way we can most influence policy is by
having evidence of how we have scrutinised the Bill, by emphasising
all the active work we are doing to make sure that whoever and
whatever the framework is for commissioning, that they understand
the needs of our users and carers, across mental health, health and
social care.
As a College, whatever the outcome of the
Bill, we want to be at the forefront of influencing and shaping
Policy at every level. We are not only an England College; we are a
UK College. I would therefore be very grateful for the views of the
other countries about the likely impact the proposed changes in
postgraduate education could have on members from across the
UK.
Thank you for your continuing support and
constructive criticism, and again watch out for an Academy
statement tomorrow (25 January 2012).
Sue
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