1.
Report from the President
2.
College to lead National Recruitment into CT1 Training Posts in
Psychiatry for 2009: Professor Robert Howard - Dean
3.
Psychiatry –The Next Generation: from the Faculty of Academic
Psychiatry
4.
Update from the Communications Department
5.
Fair Deal campaign update from the Policy Unit
6. Implementing
the Mental Health Act 2007
7.
GMC launches consultation on eligibility for inclusion in the
Specialist Register
8. Appointment of
Simon Armson as MHAC Chairman
9. Quality
indicators survey
10. Have you ever
contacted the Samaritans – if yes, can you help them?
11. GMC offers guidance
for witnesses giving evidence
12. Tribunal, Courts
and Enforcement Act Implementation - Tribunal Procedure
Rules
13. General Medical
Council seeks Chair for UK Revalidation Programme Board
14. New from the
Social Care Institute for Excellent: Personalisation: a rough
guide
15. Social factors
of mental ill-health
16. What's new?
1. Report from the President
- Alert: Community Treatment Orders -
your views
- Reminder: RCPsych
Awards
The College will soon be launching a new
initiative to find out from members what they think about CTOs –
the problems, successes and failures. The purpose of this
data collection is to inform the College as to how CTOs are working
on the ground and to contribute to the continuing work of the
Mental Health Alliance in monitoring the use of CTOs.
We will include further information in
the January 2009 enewsletter and hope that members will contribute
actively in reporting their experiences and problems.
I would also like to remind members that about
the RCPsych Awards, an annual event designed to give national
recognition to the contribution made by individuals, teams and
organisations, boost staff and service morale, reward excellence
and innovations in research, teaching and clinical services, and
raise public awareness of excellent mental health services.
See the Call for Entries form in the November
issue of the Psychiatric Bulletin. or go to
RCPsych awards. A panel of judges
will read the applications and they will publish a shortlist of
winners will be published in May 2009, with the winners announced
at an awards ceremony in London in September 2009.
Professor Dinesh Bhugra,
President
2.
College to lead National Recruitment into CT1 Training Posts in
Psychiatry for 2009: Professor Robert Howard - Dean
We are working towards a national system for recruitment
into training posts in Psychiatry. If conducted with
competence, fairness and transparency, this will play an important
role in setting and improving standards for recruitment to the
medical workforce in Psychiatry. We have a proposal to run
recruitment to CT1 in psychiatry in England which has been endorsed
by the College’s MMC and Education Training and Standards
Committee; the DH has agreed to run the 2009 CT1 recruitment.
Key lessons learned from 2007 and 2008 were
that a CV-based application form worked well and that interviews
should be offered to as many candidates as possible. In 2008
multiple applications to different Deaneries led to some of the
strongest candidates being offered multiple interviews in different
parts of the country, while other potentially appointable trainees
were not short-listed. We support a national system which
offers almost all appointable trainees an interview in their first
and/or second choice Deanery.
The new system has an agreed person
specification, application form (referenced to the applicant’s CV)
with an accompanying short-listing scoring schedule and an
interview method operated at Deanery level. Applicants will make a
single application listing their preferred Deaneries.
Applications will be scored locally and entered into a national
database to determine at which Deanery the candidate will be
interviewed.
Interviews will be from 9th -
27th March 2009 with offers from 6th April.
Candidates can accept or decline offers immediately or ‘hold’ an
offer until late April when offers are made for general practice
and medicine. We have agreed to this arrangement because we
know that many FT doctors will apply to more than one of these
specialities; psychiatry can only gain from trainees making the
right informed decision for them and not feeling rushed into a
decision by the timetabling of specialty selections. The
system includes a subsequent clearing process through which
appointable trainees who have not been offered a post in their
preferred Deaneries will be matched with Deaneries with vacancies,
without further interview.
We are testing the water in 2009 with recruitment to CT1; in 2010 we plan to run
national selection to entry at all levels of training. Dr
Nick Brown – College Lead National Selection to Psychiatry
Training
3.
Psychiatry –The Next Generation: from the Faculty of Academic
Psychiatry
The Academic Faculty is concerned about recent
reports of a low recruitment rate into psychiatry and is developing
strategies to improve this situation. As psychiatrists, we all care
about the future of our profession. Many of us have strong views
about how medical students should learn about psychiatry
and who should be teaching them. The way that mental health
NHS Trusts and academic psychiatry departments deliver and support
undergraduate education also varies widely.
We are carrying out a short
survey of psychiatrists’ views and experience of undergraduate
education and recruitment into psychiatry. The results will be
presented at the academic psychiatry meeting in February and will
inform future initiatives in this area.
Please help us to represent your views by
completing this brief
on-line survey and send it to us as soon as possible.
The survey is anonymous and will take no more
than 8-10 minutes
Thank you. Professor Ania Korszun, Professor
of Psychiatry and Education, Barts and The London School of
Medicine.
4. Update
from the Communications Department
The College’s award-winning material on
common
mental health problems and treatments will soon reach
an even bigger audience, following a new link-up between the
College and the BBC website. Our Key Facts leaflets on depression,
self-harm and schizophrenia are already being used by the BBC on
their health pages, with another 20 articles due to appear
over the coming months.
A new season of College podcasts kicked off in
November, giving a broader – and more informal – look at recent
research papers from the British Journal of Psychiatry and
Psychiatric Bulletin. Dr Mark Salter has joined the
podcasting team and, for his first assignment, interviewed Dr
Susham Gupta about his editorial on
alcohol-related dementia. The editorial, which warned
that the 
UK could be heading towards a “21st century
silent epidemic”, was press released and received extensive
coverage from all the major national newspapers, numerous local
papers, and radio stations. Listen to more podcasts, including
Professor Kam Bhui discussing his recent research into
increased suicide rates among older women of South Asian
origin.
The College press office continues to field an
increasing number of calls from journalists. Thanks to our database
of over 200 media experts, we can secure positive coverage about
mental health issues and the work of psychiatrists. You can now see
summaries of our latest media coverage – including links to the
original articles – on the
Press and Parliament section of the College
website.
The Communications department is always keen
to hear from members who are interested in media work and want to
become more involved. Please contact Liz Fox, Press Officer or Deborah Hart, Head of
Communications and Policy.
5. Fair
Deal campaign update from the Policy Unit
The College
is delighted that Dr Martin Deahl, consultant psychiatrist in South
Staffordshire and Shopshire Mental Health Trust, has agreed to
chair the steering group for our new three-year Fair Deal
campaign. The group is due to hold
its first meeting in December, but the Policy Unit has already made
considerable progress since the Fair Deal manifesto.
Across the summer, Dr Ian Hall, chair of the
Westminster Parliamentary Liaison Committee (WPLC) and the
College’s public affairs manager, took the Fair Deal campaign to
the
Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat Party
Conferences. This provided a valuable opportunity to
brief Parliamentarians on the Equality Bill (which ties in with the
Discrimination and Stigma priority of Fair Deal) and the Welfare
Reform Bill (the Recovery and Rehabilitation priority).
They also met with Anna Walker, chief
executive of the Healthcare Commission, to discuss the College’s
continuing concerns about the monitoring and regulation of
in-patient services (the In-patient priority). We hope this is an
initial step towards ensuring more robust monitoring of bed
occupancy and conditions for detained patients by the new Care
Quality Commission, which takes over the functions of the
Healthcare Commission, the Commission for Social Care Inspection
and the Mental Health Act Commission in April next year.
October saw College president Professor Dinesh
Bhugra travel to Belfast for the official – and hugely successful –
Northern Ireland launch of Fair Deal. The Department of Health in
Northern Ireland has committed to using it as “aide memoire” for
all staff working on mental health, believing it sums up the
Department’s vision for future mental health services.
Work is also progressing on a number of other
Fair Deal projects. The care of Black and minority ethnic (BME)
patients on psychiatric wards is a key concern (the In-patient
priority). The College has therefore appointed Melba Wilson,
National Director of Delivering Race Equality in Mental Health, to
chair an expert panel which will review the setting and monitoring
of care standards for BME in-patients. The panel will meet in
February 2009 to consider standards currently used to accredit and
improve inpatient services through the College Centre for Quality
Improvement.
A new working group, Risk to self: self-harm
and suicide, has also been established. The group, chaired by Lord
Alderdice, consists of College members and other stakeholders, and
is due to hold its first meeting in January.
6. Implementing
the Mental Health Act 2007
The bulk of the Mental Health Act 2007, amending the Mental
Health Act 1983, came into effect on 3 November 2008.To coincide
with this, the Department of Health has updated its
key documents and added a new Frequently
Asked Questions section to their website. http://mhact.csip.org.uk/
7. GMC launches
consultation on eligibility for inclusion in the Specialist
Register
NHS consultants, who were appointed before 1
January 1997, but who are not yet on the specialist register, will
again be able to apply to the GMC for inclusion. The restoration of
the ‘existing specialists’ route to the specialist register is a
small, but significant, step towards the introduction of
revalidation, including recertification. A consultation invites
views on the evidence that existing or recently retired
consultants, who were appointed as NHS consultants before 1 January
1997 but are not on the specialist register, should provide to
demonstrate that they are up to date and eligible for entry.
The GMC encourages doctors and patients to
give their views on the proposed specialist registration scheme via
the online consultation. The scheme entitled ‘Eligibility for
Inclusion on the Specialist Register: Restoration of the Existing
Specialist Route.’ explains:
- scheme eligibility criteria
- evidence of the applicant being fit to practise
- evidence of the applicant being up to date
- title of specialty
- communicating the introduction of the scheme to those
affected
- equality and diversity.
The scheme is expected to be in place in the
first quarter of 2009 and any doctor who would like to be contacted
with further information about the scheme should email pre1997scheme@gmc-uk.org.
The consultation is running from 30 October
2008 to 10 January 2009. You can complete your response to the
consultation on the GMC’s new public
consultation site.
8. Appointment
of Simon Armson as MHAC Chairman
The Appointments Commission has appointed
Simon Armson, a member of the Mental Health Act Commission Board
and one-time chief executive of the Samaritans, to be the Chairman
of the Mental Health Act Commission.
The vacancy for Chairman was created when the
previous Chairman, Lord Patel of Bradford OBE, accepted a position
as a member of the Government, making it no longer possible for him
to continue his publicly appointed roles in independent bodies.
Simon Armson has a wide experience of the
MHAC, having served both as a Board member and as the Commissioner
responsible for the organisation’s visiting work in an area that
includes Broadmoor Hospital. He is also a clinical psychotherapist,
making his the first appointment of a mental health practitioner as
chairman of the MHAC.
9. Quality indicators
survey
In September the NHS Medical Director,
Professor Sir Bruce Keogh, asked the College to support a web-based
survey of more than 400 quality indicators. This survey was
launched on Tuesday 11th November and runs until Friday 12th
December 2008.
The survey is aimed at frontline NHS staff,
including members, and asks for comments on the utility of the
indicators which apply to our specialism (not all 400!) and to
suggest other indicators you may already be using, but are not on
this list. Respondents will be asked if a particular indicator is
useful and whether or not they would be able to use it as a
benchmark to measure their clinical team's or organisation's
performance.
There is plenty of space for respondents to
leave comments and all submissions will be collected and analysed
by the NHS Information Centre. It will identify which of the
proposed indicators commanded greatest support as national
indicators, and follow up on promising alternatives that may have
been suggested. The results will be published in the New Year.
This
survey is part of a wider programme called
Measuring for Quality Improvement that every SHA will be taking
part in to develop local, organisational, regional and national
indicators that are meaningful and relevant. The SHA process
finishes at the end of January 2009 when they will report back to
the Chief Executive of the NHS.
10. Have you ever
contacted the Samaritans – if yes, can you help them?
The University of Nottingham is carrying out
an independent evaluation of Samaritans telephone, e-mail and text
messaging services. If you have ever used any of the services
and could help us by telling us what you thought about the service
and the support you received, we would like to hear from you.
All contact is completely confidential and
anonymous.
Visit our website: http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/SHELP;
Telephone Michelle on 07825 753816; E-mail Shelp@nottingham.ac.uk
11. GMC offers guidance
for witnesses giving evidence
The GMC has launched a ‘Help for
Witnesses’ booklet designed to guide witnesses through the
GMC’s hearing process. The recently published guide takes witnesses
through the sequence of events, before, during and after the
hearing. Key information covered in the booklet includes:
- what will happen on arrival at the hearing centre and whilst
waiting to give evidence
- information on who will be attending the hearing
- the public ‘gallery’ which is where the press and public sit to
watch the proceedings (as most GMC hearings are held in public) and
what happens if there are any confidential matters to discuss
- explanations of terminology that witnesses may not be familiar
with
- images of the hearing centres and hearing rooms at GMC offices
to allow witnesses to familiarise themselves with the
surroundings
- directions and maps to GMC buildings
In addition the booklet also gives witnesses
an opportunity to give feedback and any comments on their
experience as a witness to help improve the service the GMC
provides.
‘Help for Witnesses’ and ‘Acting
as an Expert Witness’ can both be found at http://www.gmc-uk.org/
12. Tribunal, Courts and
Enforcement Act Implementation - Tribunal Procedure
Rules
The Tribunal Procedure Committee has submitted
the following Statutory Instruments which have been agreed by them
and the Lord Chancellor (now available on http://www.opsi.gov.uk/). They were
laid in Parliament on the 15 October 2008.
The Tribunal Procedure (Upper Tribunal) Rules
2008 SI 2698/2008
The Tribunal Procedure (First-tier Tribunal)
(Health, Education and Social Care Chambers) Rules 2008 SI
2699/2008
The Tribunal Procedure (First-tier Tribunal)
(Social Entitlement Chamber) Rules 2008 SI 2685/2008
The Tribunal Procedure (First-tier Tribunal)
(War Pensions and Armed Forces Compensation Chamber) Rules 2008 SI
2686/2008
Each Instrument came into effect on 3 November
2008.
13. General Medical
Council seeks Chair for UK Revalidation Programme
Board
The General Medical Council is currently
recruiting for a chair of a new programme board that will oversee
the delivery of revalidation. The board will include
representatives from the four administrations, the Academy of
Medical Royal Colleges, the GMC, BMA and patient organisations as
well as the NHS and other healthcare providers, will ensure
revalidation is delivered in a co-ordinated and consistent way in
all four countries of the United Kingdom.
Revalidation is a new approach to medical
regulation that aims to improve patient safety, encourage the
professional development of doctors, and increase patients’
confidence in the medical profession.
Sir Graeme Catto, President of the GMC, said:
“We are looking for an exceptional individual who can help to
coordinate and oversee plans for the delivery of medical
revalidation; someone who can work independently and with integrity
to command the confidence of key interest groups.
“We are already working very closely with the
organisations that will be members of this new board. However, we
look forward to the opportunities that this board will create for
even closer cooperation and coordination.”
The UK Revalidation Programme Board will
report directly to the GMC.
14. New from the Social Care
Institute for Excellent: Personalisation: a rough guide
This new
guide aims to tell the story so far about the
personalisation of adult social care services. It is intended to
set out current understanding of personalisation at a very early
stage of implementation, exploring what personalisation is, where
the idea came from and placing the transformation of adult social
care in the wider public service reform agenda.
15. Social
factors of mental ill-health
The recent report Foresight
Mental Capital and Well-being: Making the most of ourselves in the
21st century highlighted the link between mental
ill-health and social factors, especially debt - particularly
important given recent financial events. Previously, periods
of high unemployment or severe economic problems have had an
adverse effect on mental health and have been associated with high
suicide rates.
16. What's new?