College launches 2024-2026 Strategy

We’re delighted to announce that the College’s 2024-2026 strategy has been published today.

The strategy was set following an extensive collaborative process including the Honorary Officers, Council, Board of Trustees, Presidential Leads, as well as College management and staff.

The strategy sets out high-level ambitions to improve the working lives of psychiatrists and secure the best outcomes for people with mental illness and their families.

Presidential priorities

The six presidential priorities that the College will be focusing on during the next three years are:

1. Addressing the treatment gap

   We will strive to reduce the gap between the number of people who need care and those who are receiving treatment which is high-quality, safe, timely and therapeutic.

2. Fairness for all

   We will continue to oppose all forms of discrimination and promote equity, diversity and inclusion for patients and carers, all our members and staff. We will ensure that effective policies and procedures around equity and equality are fully embedded into our systems and become part of how things are routinely done.

3. Nurturing and supporting psychiatrists

   We will nurture and support psychiatrists so that we can retain and strengthen our workforce. We will strive to ensure every psychiatrist, regardless of their background, feels safe, valued and is able to thrive at work in order to deliver better patient care.

4. Promoting research in mental health

   We will work to contribute to the growth of mental health research and ensure mental health receives its fair share of health research funding.

5. Advancing international psychiatry and wider mental health services

   We will continue to promote psychiatry and wider mental health services globally and will consolidate the College’s role as the leading international partner in raising standards of care for patients with mental illness.

6. Ensuring excellent member experience and engagement

   We will support our members and affiliates to achieve their professional potential by delivering an excellent membership experience, and ensuring they feel engaged with by the College, in a way that is transparent and open.

Core objectives

Additionally, we will maintain two core objectives:

• Being the voice of psychiatry

  We will be the strong voice of psychiatry and wider mental health services, to ensure we win the argument with decision-makers that psychiatry, and better funded mental health services, are essential to the delivery of high-quality person-centred care.

• Delivering effective use of College resources and excellent staff experience

  We will ensure the College continues to be governed in accordance with best practice and manages its resources effectively, as well as delivering an excellent staff experience.

Next steps

The purpose of the strategy is to help us know where we need to focus our energy and resources for the next three years. It will guide us and give us the strategic clarity we need to make important decisions at a time when our work as a medical royal college is more important than ever.

The College is committed to supporting excellence in psychiatry – and continuing to support you. our members, mental health teams and patients across the four UK Nations and globally.