1

Apologies for Absence

Apologies were received from Selwyn Roberts, Malcolm Ferguson-Smith, Kim Smith, Amanda Dixon-McIver, Michelle Fenlon and John Crolla

2

Minutes of the Meeting Held on Tuesday 1^st March 2005

2. Change Batty to Baty

4.6 Change Kochler to Koghler

8.4.2 Delete ‘the’ from …., ‘with the just….’

9.3 Change ‘Clinical Scientists’ to ‘Advisory Group for Clinical Science’

10.1 Delete sentence beginning ‘HHS will put her portfolio….’

11.2 Delete ‘….who are not members of the ACC.’ From end of last sentence.

16.1 Change ‘resigning from’ to ‘involved in’.

3

Safety Advisors Report

There was nothing to report.

4

NEQAS Report by RH

4.1

Website

Both Constitutional and Haematological FISH EQA being assessed currently.

4.2

EQA rounds

CVS case scenario results distributed. Feedback is to be improved allowing for local variation in reporting policies.

CML (case scenario), MDS, Solid Tissues are ongoing.

Postnatal blood to be on line soon

Pilots:- QF-PCR, B-cell CLD (on line) available soon.

4.3

Eurogentest

Forum meeting to harmonise EQA in Europe with European Scheme Organisers successful.

Open meeting about Cytogenetic Guidelines held in Madrid – some feedback. The draft is being rewritteen

LG reported that there will be a meeting on 17 June to discuss accreditation in Europe.

5

Professional Standards Committee

5.1

UK Data  Collection

Data collection is complete and will be available after the next PSC meeting on 9^th July. The online collection was thought to be successful, however some departments have asked to know what data will be collected so that their databases can be set up correctly. Collection of 04/05 data will begin when the proforma has been released.

5.2

Pre-natal Workshop

The draft guidelines were rapidly put together and are out for consultation. Feedback should be returned by 10^th June. The amended guidelines will then go to the Professional Standards Committee. It is hoped to ratify the guidelines at the next Council Meeting. There was some discussion over the release of guidelines, and the consensus was that they should be released as they are ready.

5.3

Haemato/Oncology Guidelines

These have been delayed as Mark McKinlay has gone to Australia. It is hoped they will be launched shortly.

5.4

Banding Scores

TP asked about progress with revision of banding scores. EM has received no feedback, however the new ISCN will be released in October 2005, and the release of the General Guidelines will be delayed until then.

6.0

Education and Training

6.1

ETC Report

KS was unable to attend and the ETC report was circulated prior to the meeting. (Teresa can we just attach the report as an appendix at the end??)

6.1.1

The consensus of Council was to proceed with the recommendations in the ETC report.

6.1.2

JWo reported that no finance had been received for GC, and that there was still no administrative support for him.

6.1.3

The DoH like out workforce data. The RCPath workforce data is also growing in status, although it does have some disadvantages (only covers England, only covers Clinical Scientists and relies on the individual). There is some concern that we are the only discipline not on board, and we may miss out if not involved.

Action TD to circulate DDs notes.

6.2

Technical Staff Group

Report By VD.

Before the indicative register can be formed, the education outline needs to be in place. VD and TP are working with the technical groups to produce a curriculum for a degree course based on the NOSs. Sue Hill is to organise a meeting for all groups with the HE providers. TP reported that work is still ongoing with the solicitors to form the VRC. It is hoped that all the legal loose ends will be tied up by 1 September.

It is hoped to provide as many routes of entry to registration as possible.

It is hoped Genetic Technologists will get HPC registration in the period 2007-09.

6.3

PCCC

TP has signed 11 PCCC since March

6.4

MRCPath Part 1

23 sat the written and 13 passed

10  of these passed the practical and viva

7

Chairs report

7.1

Association of Clinical Scientists

7.1.1

Northgate had problems with the recruitment of trainees.

7.1.2

Standardised management competences have been agreed, and will be officially launched by the ACS.

7.1.3

There was discussion about ACS interview procedures. Most assessors preferred the current flexibility. The introduction of the MSc. May change the assessment.

7.1.4

Still awaiting feedback from the HPC about consultation on CPD and HPC restructuring.

7.1.5

John Old was not elected on to the board of the HPC. Neither of the sitting Clinical Scientists was re-elected so there is some loss of continuity.

7.2

ACC Scientific Meeting

TP congratulated the staff of Salisbury for hosting an excellent meeting. The next meeting will be at ICH on 3-4 April 2006.

7.3

JCMG 17/5/05

7.3.1

BSHG are collating a list of all Genetic training.

7.3.2

The Consent and Confidentiality paper has nor been released yet.

7.3.3

There was discussion on the use of Patient Information leaflets. Some may be produced along the lines of the Green Papers of the Royal College of Obstetrics & Gynaecology and The Royal College of Physicians.

7.3.4

Some concerns were expressed about coroners rules. However these are probably more of concern for Molecular Geneticists.

7.3.5

The Human Tissue Authority (HTA) will release a draft Code of Practice in the summer. It will become the HTB April 2006.

7.3.6

John Crolla has been proposed as the chair and will; take over from Heather. It is the RCPaths turn to chair.

7.4

BSHG 18/5/05

Report by John Wolstenholme

7.4.1

BSHG Website

The new website was demonstrated and was thought to be very good.  The ACC has been offered the chance to participate in the website. We can have control of our own pages, with our own logos and styles, but retain some of the BSHG image. The consensus of council was to look at it further.

7.4.2

Future Conference Venues

The cost of the conference centre at York is becoming very expensive. Canterbury and Exeter are being considered as alternative venues.

7.5

Federation of Healthcare Scientists

There has been no meeting since council last met. It would appear that this group has been parked for a while.

8

GENCAG 25/5/05

Katie Waters was unable to attend, but did feed in some information on the quality marker survey. There appeared to be no other issues that required cytogenetics input.

9

Structure of Council (Trustees)

Rod Howell reported. The profession has not been consulted.

RH made the point that council has evolved over the years, and has become to big and unwieldy. A smaller, central council could receive reports from specialist groups and committees, and would be better placed to make decisions. As examples, it may not be necessary for all JLC reps, or Trustees to attend council. Already agreed is the technical representative feeding in from the technical group. Other suggestions included NEQAS not being represented, but that there should be an ACC representative on NEQAS., and that the Safety Advisor is only invited to attend when specific issues arise.

Council needs to be decisive, with strong and functional speciality groups.

There was discussion about the size and role of council, and the difficulty of reaching decisions in a large group. However if the structure changes, some continuity is required. JWo warned that if the management panel style is used that council may loose contract with its members. JJW suggested that the annual report could be strengthened by chairs of groups preparing their own reports.

TP suggested a discussion document for the 2005 AGM, with any changes voted on at the 2006 AGM. LG suggested that would give council time to test some of its ideas.

TP asked for support  for consolidation of the  technical representatives on council. Council supported the proposed rule change to accept 1-2 technical representatives in 2006.

Action TP

JWo suggested that if all the JLC members were not attending Council, that they could meet separately. It was agreed that this could be tried next year.

10

Council Elections and Nominations for President

Treasurer                     1 nomination

Assistant Secretary     1 nomination

Ordinary Member       2 nominations

The above were returned unopposed.

Junior members           2 nominations, an election will be held

Action TD

There was wide ranging discussion over the nomination of the President.

Action TD to approach Councils preferred candidate.

RCPath SAC ACC representative Jonathan Waters is to serve again.

Action TD

11

Policy on ACC representation in the media

There was discussion on who acts as the spokesperson for the media. It was thought that previously it had been decided that this role was undertaken by the chair.

Action TD to check previous minutes.

It was noted that the Royal College offers a media training course.

John Crolla will talk to the press about the Prenatal paper on behalf of the ACC .

12

Scientific Matters

12.1

UKCCG

The scientific meeting was held in March, and was hosted by Barbara ??????. The next scientific meeting should be in Cardiff in 2006, but this is uncertain at the moment. There will be a steering group meeting in November.

12.2

CVS Database

This is 80% coded, with just some structural work to do.

12.3

Arrays

These are developing fast, and an ACC group is assessing progress. Salisbury are co-ordinating the microarray user group on behalf of the DoH. Nick Cross is arranging a meeting in York. UKGTN also have a sub-committee.

13

Royal College of Pathology

JWa reported on the meeting held 25 May 2005.

13.1

John Barber and John Old are new ex-officio members of the Genetics and Embryology SAC.

13.2

Short presentation from the new College Website Administrator, Daniel Foster

13.3

13.3.1

John Crolla is to chair JCMG in 2006

13.3.2

UKGTN are developing a framework for specialist molecular cytogenetics.

13.3.3

Private laboratories without a clinical component will be accepted into UKGTB provided they are accredited.

13.3.4

Cambridge GKP are examining the ‘utility’ of testing methodology.

13.3.5

Dr Helen Firth, Cambridge/ Cambridge GKP – development of algorhithm for Community Paediatriacians etc for children with unexplained dev delay/congen abn. This will be placed on the BSHG website for comment

13.3.6

The Manchester Reference Laboratory are developing their IT remit

i  Commissioning and upgrading IT systems

ii Appraising document management systems (Q-pulse and Lab Passport)

13.3.7

The DoH have recognised that there have been problems with Northgate.

13.3.8

The matching of NOS and KSF is continuing.

13.3.9

Human Tissue Act: The Human Tissue Authority has been formed and will be responsible for  Regulation, Inspection and Licensing. HTA will enable the Act in April 2006 (not retrospective) and begin enforcement in July 2006.

13.3.10

Examinations. 11 examiners are currently signed up, and examiner training is to be agreed. Part II will be once a year from Spring 2006. New outlines for dissertations are on the RCPath website. This years practical without microscopes was considered to be successful. An image library for future use by examiners is to be developed.

13.3.11

Sian Morgan has stood down as the trainees representative, but is collecting information on HSTs funding.

13.3.12

IVD information has been circulated.

13.3.13

The RCPath Code of Practice for Cytogenetics laboratories is to be revised.

13.3.14

The storage of records guidelines have been updated.

13.3.15

Screening guidelines for the common aneuploidies have not been released yet. The Lancet paper is imminent.

13.3.16

John Crolla is standing down and JWa will be the new representative.

13.3.17

Online submission of CPD is now possible.

14

JLC Report                                       

14.1

JLC have received an enquiry about the standing of DipACC and the old DipRCPath, and if they are a suitable qualification for a Principal post. The DipACC and the old DipRCPath are different qualifications. The MRCPath part 1 (DipRCPath) is the minimum qualification for a principal post

14.2

Spring Meeting

Some disappointment was expressed that some of the trade talks were not as informative as they could have been.

14.3

CW had received an enquiry about the availability of study days and conferences for part time workers, and problems with maintaining CPD. Equal opportunities is a local issue, and problems should be tackled locally. Council believes that there should be equal access to CPD

14.4

The JLC is to run a session at the BSHG meeting in York.

15

Treasurers Report

15.1

The accounts for 2004 have been finished and sent to the Registrar of Friendly Societies.

15.2

The accounts remain healthy, the Spring meeting again made a profit, and more trainee money is being received.

15.3

The treasurer is concerned that Spring Meetings are making too much money and suggested that organisers should send him a draft budget. VD felt that we should protect our money as we may not be receiving the trainee funding for much longer. LG and VD suggested that the ACC should run weekend courses for staff, including a management course for senior members of staff.

There was also some discussion of paying expenses and honorariums for presentations at workshops etc.

Action

JWo to draft guidelines on expenses and honorariums

TP to take high level residential courses for senior staff to ETC.

16

Correspondence

There was no correspondence

17

Matters Arising

17.1

Agenda for Change

There was some feedback on banding for technical grade staff.

17.2

Applications for membership

14 forms have been received, 2 from MTOs, I from overseas and the remainder from Clinical Scientists.

18

AOB

18.1

A-Grade Portfolios

PH reported that about 1/3 are returned for more information. Some are relying to heavily on A-grade training, the portfolio needs to demonstrate the breadth and depth of post A-grade training and development. Also required are new cases, demonstration of decision making and evidence of activity.

Action PH to circulate assessors for common reasons for rejecting portfolios.

18.2

ACC Documents

RH asked how council keeps track of old documents. There was discussion in council. All archived documents are in the safe keeping of the associations archivist.

18.3

Manchester Reference Laboratory Genetics OBS

The draft OBS was launched by Manchester Reference Laboratory. The OBS is to be circulated to all HoDs. Comments to EM and TP by first week in July.

Action TP to circulate OBS

18.4

ECA meeting.

Istanbul 2007

Possibly Edinburgh 2009, but may be expensive. The meeting will include plant and animal sessions and will be run in parallel to the ACC meeting

19

Next Meeting

Birmingham 6 September