1

Apologies

No apologies were received.

2

Minutes from the previous AGM held on 16 September 2003.

Approved without amendment.

3

Chairman’s Report

The chairman’s report was given by Tony Parkin. A written version of the report was provided at the start of the meeting.

3.1

Election Results

Secretary                 Teresa Davies (replacing Katie Waters)

Ordinary Member  Jonathan Waters (Vacant position)

Junior Member        Fiona Harding  (replacing Lyndsey Connell)

3.2

Technical Membership

Consensus feedback on the Consultation Paper was to admit graduate technical staff as Ordinary members, and non-graduates as Associate Members. Council endorsed this approach since it can occur under existing rules.

Michelle Fenlon and Frankie Shaw (both MTO3) have sent a questionnaire to technical staff (with the support of council) concerning technical registration, and asking technical staff if they wished to be represented by the ACC. The consensus was “Yes”. The ACC has written to Cytogenetics laboratories asking them to encourage technical staff to join. All ordinary members are entitled to stand for election to council and its offices: but council also includes Junior B grade Scientist Representatives. The structure of council and technical representation need to be considered, and if necessary proposals for rule changes will be brought to a SGM in September 2005. As an interim measure, Michelle Fenlon has been invited to attend council meetings. Council has also approved the formation of an ETC subgroup of technical members to examine technical training requirements.

3.3

Technical Registration

This will probably occur in 2007. The ACC has met with CMGS (technical representatives and council members) and agreed to have a joint Voluntary Registration Council (VRC) for Genetic Technologists. The VRC is supported by the DoH via EBS (Executive Business Services Ltd). Details of registration still need clarification, eg. Qualifications for registration, mechanisms for joining the VRC, code of conduct, grand-parenting etc. The HPC are also consulting on a registration route for Support Healthcare Staff, and we need to clarify if these various routes overlap or are distinctive, so that our staff are registered appropriately.

3.4

ETC (Chair Kim Smith)

Two national A Grade training courses have been established and run during 2003/4, and they will be repeated in 2004/5. Cytogenetics was allocated 3.5wte trainers from the Genetics White Paper (3.0wte Regional Trainers, 0.5wte national coordinating trainer). The Regional Trainer posts have been advertised, but the response was poor. The delay in advertising was due to complications at the DoH, it was hoped to complete the process before the next wave of A grade trainees join their laboratories. The ACC is now considering its position. A grade trainee posts funded from the White Paper initiative have been allocated £5,000 each by the DoH for a microscope.

Sue Hill, the Chief Scientific Officer, has appointed two Project managers to take forward the establishment of vocational MSc degrees as the registerable qualification for Clinical Scientist disciplines. The ACC expects to be involved in agreeing syllabus, and assessment mechanisms, to ensure fitness to practice. The work on this project is likely to occur during the next two years.

3.5

Professional Standards and Best Practice Committee

The first Best Practice Workshop was held in October 2003 on FISH scoring in Oncology, the resulting guidelines were ratified by Council in December 2003, and were published on the ACC website. In April 2004 a joint workshop was held with CMGS on QF-PCR, draft guidelines have not yet been ratified by the ACC. The next ACC workshop will be held later this year to revise the Best Practice Guidelines in Clinical Cytogenetics (2001).

3.6

Agenda for Change

Three Clinical Scientist (Cytogenetics/Molecular Genetics) job profiles have been agreed and published to aid matching, Consultant Head of Department, Principal, and Registered Clinical Scientist. Profiles for technical staff are still required, but we are still waiting for feedback from the early implementer site at Guys.

3.7

Shortage Profession

As there have been problems with recruitment and retention, enquiries will be made at the Home Office to explore identifying Cytogenetics as a shortage profession. This may assist granting of work permits to employ suitable persons from abroad, and/or offer a possibility to attract recruitment and retention premia.

3.8

Healthcare Scientist Career Pathway

Standardised job titles have been suggested by the Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) for when existing designations disappear following Agenda for Change. These are Assistant (1-2), Senior Assistant, Associate Practitioner, Qualified Practitioner, Specialist Practitioner, Advanced Practitioner, Consultant Practitioner and Consultant Director. There has been some work to map the draft NOS onto these grades. Consultant Practitioner is a new development, which could lead to an increase in the number of Consultants (ie with full MRCPath) in Clinical Cytogenetics, to lead clinical teams/sections without the management burden of the traditional C grade role.

Roughly:

Qualified practitioner º Registered Technologist

Specialist Practitioner º Registered Clinical Scientist

Advanced Practitioner º Principal Clinical Scientist

We are awaiting a formal rollout of this structure by the DoH.

There are currently 650 scientific and technical staff in cytogenetics, and only 30 C-grades.

Some concerns from the floor were expressed over the CSOs plans for training. TP responded that it was an opportunity for the profession to put in place the training it required, eg strengthen molecular training, and he did not see it as a threat. Concerns over the 4 year training period were also expressed, however TP replied that trainees would not be in the laboratory for all of the 4 years, as some of the training will be out sourced. TP answered other concerns by stating that the CSOs proposals will provide a fresh pair of eyes to look at training, will give trainees a quality assured qualification and will need to be constructed to provide staff who ‘can do the job.’

3.9

ACC Spring Meeting

Thanks are extended to all of the staff in the Leeds laboratory for a very successful 2004 Spring Meeting held in York. The 2005 meeting is being held in Salisbury.

Future meetings are:-

2006 London (joint GOSH & Kennedy-Galton Centre)

2007 Sheffield

2008 Liverpool

2009 Edinburgh.

Council discussed the best venue for the ACC AGM and decided that this should remain part of the BSHG Conference, but would review the decision periodically.

3.10

Prenatal Diagnosis: Rapid Test or Karyotype (Chair: Allan Caine)

In March 2004, the National Screening Committee issued a “ holding instruction” because demand for prenatal karyotyping for Down syndrome risk referrals was beginning to exceed capacity (due to offering screening to all pregnant women with a risk of 1:250 at term from April 2004, without consequent purchaser investment in the increased cytogenetic workload). This allowed expanding screening programmes to use a rapid screening test for 13, 18 and 21 aneuploidy only.  A decision on whether such testing should replace karyotyping generally is expected later this year. The ACC formed a PND Group that has collected data from 23 UK Cytogenetics laboratories to examine the impact of such a decision:

• On types/frequencies of abnormalities that might be missed

• Experience of accuracy of rapid testing vs karyotyping.

A data set will be placed on the ACC website, and the data and conclusions published in a peer reviewed journal.

3.11

IT in Genetics

During 2004 the Manchester Reference Laboratory commissioned a study of computer systems in Genetics laboratories. As a result of this work, it proposes to produce an Output Based Specification for Genetics IT Systems, which should support standardisation and communication. Many ACC members have contributed to these discussions.

4.0

Resolutions

4.1

Emeritus fellow

The resolution that Professor Pat Jacobs should be elected as an Emeritus Fellow was accepted unanimously.

4.2

Trustee

The resolution that John Crolla be elected as a Trustee of the Association was accepted unanimously.

5.0

JLC Report

The JLC report was presented by Hazel Harvey-Smith

5.1

Laboratory Contacts

The JLC has established contacts with representatives in each laboratory, helping to raise the profile of the JLC.

5.2

Questionnaire

The questionnaire established that most junior staff were members of the ACC.

Most of those eligible for registration were registered. Junior members who were not registered felt unprepared, but felt well supported by their laboratory. All would like to see more information on registration on the ACC website. Many would like to see more guidance on content, and wondered whether a successful portfolio could be published on the ACC website.

There are moves to facilitate this and concerns about lack of standardisation are being addressed at assessor level.

5.3

Flyer

The JLC have produced a flyer to explain the role of the ACC to potyential new members.

5.4

Spring meeting

The JLC organised two workshops at the Spring Meeting in York. A registration workshop was led by HHS. It dealt with the process, the options and the experiences and problems encountered during registration.

An informal session was also held to raise the profile of the JLC, this was sponsored by Genial Genetic Solutions. Copies of the flyer and contact details were distributed. Both sessions were well attended and the feedback received was very positive.

The JLC thanked the Leeds laboratory for accommodating the two sessions.

5.5

Acronym List

The JLC has produced a list of acronyms used in council minutes and other documents, this will be published shortly.

5.6

Junior Members Concerns

The JLC has continued to bring the concerns of junior members to council. Of most concern has been the introduction of new technologies and the effect this will have on the profession and job security. This was discussed at council and a reply will be sent to laboratory contacts.

5.7

Membership Changes

The JLC would like to say farewell and thank you to Lyndsey Connell, who has served her three-year term, and to welcome Fiona Harding who is starting her three-year spell.

5.8

Contact

The JLC would like to remind junior members that they can contact the JLC about their professional concerns and ideas.

6.0

Treasurers Report

John Wolstenholme, the ACC treasurer, presented the Treasurers report. The accounts of the Association were distributed at the start of the AGM.

6.1

Financial Statement

The Financial Statement shows the current assets are quite healthy, but they are only about the same as the Associations annual turnover. A large amount of income has been generated by the ETC, but they are now beginning to spend more money.

The Spring Meeting at Glasgow showed a profit and the meeting organised by the Leeds laboratory will also probably show a profit..

6.2

Travel Grants

The Treasurer announced that the ACC would be awarding Travel Grants for ACC members to attend meetings abroad. Up to 10 grants of up to £250 will be awarded each year. The funding for the grants will come from the annual interest.

Instructions for applying will be published in the BSHG newsletter and on the ACC website.

6.3

The adoption of the accounts was proposed by Norman Pratt and seconded by Peter Howard. The reappointment of the auditors, Wilkins Kennedy, was proposed by Val Davison and seconded by Lorraine Gaunt.

7.0

Correspondence

There was no correspondence.

8.0

Matters arising from the minutes of the AGM held on 16^th September 2003

There were no matters arising.

9.0

Any Other Business

There was no other business.

10.0

Date of the next meeting

The next meeting will be held at the BSHG conference in September 2005

The meeting closed at 3:15pm