You will know that our college is a membership organisation, but did you know it is also a registered charity? At the Board of Trustees meeting last week, trustees had an update from the Global team who in recent years have attracted external funding worth approximately £12.5 million to support child health in some of the world’s poorest countries. This funding has supported programmes which enhance clinical care for mothers, newborns and children, reduce avoidable mortality and support timely interventions for early developmental delay and reduce associated disability.
Although the Global team’s strategic focus is on secondary hospital-based care, they work with and through local partners to maximise impact at primary and community levels, as well as supporting tertiary capabilities where needed.
At present our Global team is supporting programmes in Lebanon, India, Nepal, Nigeria, Myanmar, Rwanda, Sierra Leone and Rwanda. In some of these regions the support is remote due to the dangers of conflict and civil unrest. In many programmes, the team work with paediatricians as well as other child health clinicians, including obstetricians, midwives and nurses. Staffing is inevitably different to the UK but I was amazed to hear that there are as few as eight fully trained paediatricians for the whole of Sierra Leone (population 8.6 million). For more details, you can find the team’s impact reports from the last decade and you can read about our thirty-year-old project in Palestine.
These programmes provide benefits to local children, families and clinicians. Our UK and non-UK based members also have the opportunity to become involved. And the Global programme helps us towards our vision of a world where every child is healthy and well.
#WDYCD4U: Our free online ‘Research Essential’ day for trainees
This event on 24 September is especially for paediatric residents with little or no experience in research but are keen to learn. Delegates will be able to dip into interactive talks throughout the day, with topics such as finding mentorship, understanding different research types and data, presenting work and the wider impact of research in practice.
If you’re a trainee why don’t you get involved? And if you know a trainee would be interested, please ask if they know about this opportunity.
Learn more about Research Essentials Day
Our annual conference is fast approaching
It is now just three weeks to go until RCPCH Conference! The event runs from 11 to 13 May, in Birmingham and online. The and I’m looking forward to seeing many of you there, both in person and online. We will be celebrating our 30th anniversary and aim to leave you feeling inspired, energised and informed on a variety of important child health topics. If you haven't yet registered, do take a look at the programme and and .
This event is made possible by sponsorship from organisations including pharmaceutical companies, med tech companies and service providers, none of which have influenced the event content or the choice of speakers. Sessions delivered with input from these organisations will be marked as such on the programme. See a
A welcome to our new Vice Presidents
I’m delighted to announce our two incoming Vice Presidents, elected by members around the world.
Dr Yincent Tse will be VP for Education and Workforce, to start on 24 May. Yincent knows our College well: he was Area Officer for North England for five years, co-chairs the medicines committee and is a lead on our fantastic Grand Round webinars.
Dr Vasanta Nanduri will be VP for Training and Assessment, from 1 July. Vasanta recently demitted as our Exams Officer and has also been Head of School, so brings all the right experience with her to this post and has enthusiasm in abundance.
Of course, this means we’ll soon say farewell to our outgoing VPs, Dr Jonathan Darling and Dr Cathryn Chadwick. I have thoroughly enjoyed working Jonathan and Cathryn over the last five years; on behalf of the College I am hugely grateful to the both for their time, expertise and hard work. I’ve known Jonathan for many, many years and it has been great to work alongside him, as he was instrumental to the launch of RCPCH Learning, Thrive Paediatrics and our Leading the Way podcasts. Among many achievements in her term Cathryn has established the Progress+ curriculum for training and embarked on the assessment review.
We’ll be sharing more information soon.
Urging political parties in Scotland and Wales to prioritise child health
National elections are in just a few weeks in Scotland and Wales, and hundreds of you have signed our open letters to the leaders of each political party asking them to place the health and wellbeing of all babies, children and young people at the heart of their priorities.
We’re also asking that, if elected, they meet with us in the first 100 days of the term so we can work together to ensure every child in Scotland and Wales has access to timely, equitable and compassionate care.
Read our open letters in Scotland and Wales.
In case you missed it...
Your insights are sought on a whole range of important topics including:
- The new Modern Service Framework for Children and Young People is seeking to deliver a step-change in child health over the next decade. To identify interventions that improve outcomes, quality of care or system performance, a call for evidence has been launched. by this Friday, 24 April at 17:00.
- As governments consider new approaches to regulating social media and shaping the online environment, it’s vital that the voice of paediatricians actively informs the direction of travel. That’s why we’re asking you to take part in designed to capture the voices and experiences of paediatricians working at the frontline by next Monday, 27 April.
- The wants to hear from College members in the UK to understand their clinical experiences and views on the prevalence, trends and inequalities associated with these conditions. by 10 May.
Best wishes all round,
Steve
This message was emailed on 20 April to all RCPCH members who are opted in to receive College updates / professional updates. You can update your contact preferences at any time - log in to your RCPCH online account, go to My account | Your contact preferences, then make sure you've ticked College updates / professional updates.