Party Conference 2012

The Royal College of Psychiatrist’s activity at the party conferences was led by Dr Adrian James, the Chair of the Westminster Parliamentary Liaison Committee (WPLC), and organised by Will Pickering, the College’s Public Affairs Manager.

As in previous years, members of the College’s Westminster Parliamentary Liaison Committee attended all three conferences. Dr Arun Chopra attended Labour Party conference, Dr Andrew Hill-Smith attended Liberal Democrat conference and Diane Goslar attended Conservative Party conference as a member of the WPLC and SURF (Service Users Recovery Forum). College President, Professor Sue Bailey also attended all three conferences

We met with politicians from all parties including Ministers, Shadow Ministers, Peers, back-bench MPs and stakeholders from the mental health and wider health and social care sector.

The Government’s health reforms and the effect on patients and clinicians working in mental health and the wider NHS were key themes for last year’s conference and now that the changes are in place this remained an issue at the forefront of debate.

The conferences gave us a good platform to discuss the work the College is doing with other stakeholders on parity of esteem as well as wider College priorities. Welfare reform was high on the agenda at many of this year’s conference meetings and was recognised as being an issue of importance by MPs of all parties.

The College carried out a programme of activity that enabled us to meet with parliamentarians on a one to one basis, attend high-level, invite only roundtable meetings with stakeholders and parliamentarians, and develop links with new and interested MPs and Peers. Our activity also focused around engaging with other professional and voluntary organisations to maintain coalitions around our priorities to use for future work.

Full report of College Party conference activity