Council

Headlines from the most recent meeting on 26 January 2024

1. Nominations for the President’s Annual Re-Election

The Honorary President is elected by the members for a 3-year term. The Bye Laws of the College, however, require annual elections for the Honorary Officers. The current President is in the first year of their term of office and is eligible for re-election.

There was unanimous agreement for the re-election of Dr Lade Smith CBE as President.

2. Treasurer updates

The Treasurer Professor John Crichton’s items included a reflection of the publishing portfolio’s achievements during 2023 from the College Editor Professor Gin Malhi. Gin mentioned the appointment of two new Editors-in-Chief: Asit Biswas and Marinos Kyriakopoulos. The commencement of the second phase of development for the BJPsych Journals app, was also mentioned.

The Treasurer discussed the previous challenge about the sustainability of our banking and outlined work being done on a draft framework for assessing banking partners, including suggestions for how to establish a validation criterion for any data used to complete the assessment.

3. Dean update

The College Dean Professor Subodh Dave talked about how the College has changed the way it delivers learning over recent years and has developed new types of educational products, blended eLearning, and live events to ensure that education and training is directly in the service of patient care.

The International Diploma, certification courses, National Autism Training Programme and the RCPsych Webinar Library are all examples of this. To provide a home for these new types of learning, it has been suggested to introduce a new umbrella brand, ‘RCPsych Learn,’ which encompasses existing and new collegewide learning and educational activities which sit outside of SIGs, Faculties, Divisions and CCQI. Council approved the introduction of ‘RCPsych Learn.’

Further updates from the Dean included – the development of a new Public Mental Health Leadership course; a four-tier programme to create a community of practice and achieve long-term change, including setting standards on what good public mental health provision looks like. The course will formally launch at the House of Lords on 6 March.

It was also noted that three Aggrey Burke Fellows have been appointed, the Medical Training Initiative is going well, and changes have been made to the Certificate of Eligibility for Specialist Registration (CESR), now called the portfolio route, which should enable more doctors to demonstrate their competencies as psychiatrists.

4. Devolved Councils update

A summary was provided by Dr Maria Atkins, chair of RCPsych Wales and Vice President of the College, who noted the useful intelligence the recently enhanced data team in the College had provided to the Devolved Nations, and spoke about the data requirements the Devolved Nations have in future. Referring to the Devolved chairs meeting, she said they also discussed the processes for setting up new SIGs and noted that the Vice Presidents in Northern Ireland and Wales are due to step down in the summer.

Dr Maria Atkins, continued with updates about activity in Wales, including the Dr Hilary Cass webinar, the support of a new Private Members’ Bill post Mental Health Bill being shelved, appointing a Women’s mental health lead, and asked the Council for expressions of interest.

Dr Richard Wilson, chair of RCPsych Northern Ireland, gave updates about activity in Northern Ireland, including their success in amplifying opportunities for participation for members in Northern Ireland, especially in terms of influencing. However, there continues to be lobbying challenges due to the abeyance of Government. The next meeting of the Devolved Council in Northern Ireland will be in Stormont building and planning has started for the 2024 Northern Ireland conference, following the success of the 2023 conference in October.

5. Divisions update

Professor Rafey Faruqui presented the English divisions update, which included news about two pilots to support trainees undergoing research activities, acknowledgment that more members are attending divisional events, but a spotlight on encouraging engagement is required. The development of a toolkit of standards to be used when recruiting and supporting IMGs was also spoken about and will be coming back to Council later in the year.

6. Chief Executive Officer update

The CEO Sonia Walter included in her presentation information about the College’s first listening exercise, which took place in December, where members met with the Honorary Officers and the CEO to express concerns directed at the College.

Sonia also spoke about the National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health (NCCMH) being successful in a bid to become the lead partner in a programme to improve the culture of care in the NHS and private settings. The programme will be the biggest of its type in mental health anywhere in the world.

The final version of the international strategy was presented and approved by Council.

Council also approved the Memorandum of Understanding on Collaboration between RCPsych and Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons, to enable the College to advance sub-specialty psychiatric education in Ghana, building upon a previous Ghana project from 2022.

7. President update

The President, Dr Lade Smith CBE presented the new College Strategy 2024 – 2026 to Council and thanked everyone involved in its development, explaining an action plan is now being developed to implement the aims of the strategy.

The College’s General Election Manifesto was presented to Council. The Manifesto is being used by Officers in relevant meetings with decision and policymakers to highlight the need for their manifestos, work, and priorities to be about mental health. The call for the members' help will be the second stage of this work, following the election and after the new government is in place.

Lade spoke about the College work around Physician Associates (PAs) and the need to have ownership about the scope of practice for PAs working in mental health and emphasised the College are in the process of a review.

There was also an update to the Council on her visits to a range of trusts and asked the Council to inform her of any other Trusts she could and would be helpful to visit.

8. General Medical Council (GMC)

The meeting concluded with a presentation from the GMC about changes to Good Medical Practice and its additional guidance. This most recent guidance was developed over many years, following feedback from over 5,000 respondents, also considering qualitative research with patients and carers from hard-to-reach groups.