MINUTES OF ACC COUNCIL MEETING

Held at:

The Royal Institute of Public Health,
28 Portland Place, London

On:

Tuesday 4th December 2001 at 11.15 a.m.

Carol BAIRD, Mike CREASY, Lyndsey CONNELL, Teresa DAVIES, Val DAVISON, Maggie FITCHETT, Richard HALL, Rod HOWELL, Debra LILLINGTON, Una MAYE, Tony POTTER.

Barbara GIBBONS, Simon LARKINS, Selwyn ROBERTS, Kim SMITH, David STEVENSON, Jonathan WATERS.

Lorraine Gaunt extended a warm welcome to the new members of Council. She also took the opportunity to remind Council members that the minutes of meetings were confidential until they had been ratified by Council at a subsequent meeting.

John Wolstenholme then expressed his thanks for all the cards, letters of condolence and support, he and the Newcastle Lab. had received. A copy of the letter sent from the ACC to Mrs. Julie Cross was circulated.

2

Minutes of the Previous Meeting 

Item 3  ‘ACPD’ should read ACDP.

3

Safety Advisor's Report

There was no report.

4

NEQAS/CPA

i

Teresa Davies reported that Friday 14^th December 2001 was the closing date for receipt of applications for the post of Scheme Organiser.

ii

Official notification had been received that the UK NEQAS scheme in Clinical Cytogenetics was now EQA/CPA accredited. Lorraine Gaunt congratulated and thanked Jonathan Waters for his work.

5

ACC Membership

Mike Creasy informed Council that the working group meeting had been set for 30^th January 2002.

6

Chair’s Report

i

Lorraine Gaunt reported that she had received a letter from Peter Greenaway (Chief Scientific Officer at the DoH) stating that he would be withdrawing from his role as CSO/Head of Profession on 31^st December 2001. The proposal is that upon replacement the post should be made full time.

ii

National Occupational Standards – The planned series of meetings to look at specific standards has now been rolled into one, two-day meeting on 7^th and 8^th February 2002. Council approved the previous seven nominees as ACC representatives for this meeting. The nominees are Carolyn Campbell, Ros Hastings, Rod Howell, Stuart Imrie, Tony Parkin, Kim Smith and Eileen Roberts

iii

The draft Statutory Instrument, the Health Professions Order, 2001 was placed before Parliament on 14^th November and is expected to complete its’ passage this year which would then mean it would be effective from April 2002. It is available to read on the Government website.

iv

The document ‘Transitional guidelines to facilitate changes in procedures for handling ‘surplus’ and archival material from human biological samples’ was now available. The document can be viewed on the RCPath website –
(http://www.rcpath.org/activities/publications/transitional.html)

v

Maggie Fitchett informed Council that at the last RCPath College Council meeting John Crolla had been invited to collate information regarding retention and storage of samples in genetics.

7

Association of Clinical Scientists

i

The ACS met on 1^st October and is next due to meet 17^th December. The last meeting was taken up discussing strategy. Topics included definitions of a ‘clinical scientist’ and what constituted a ‘relevant degree’. The place of people not working in one of the defined modalities was also discussed as was the rigorousness of workplace assessments and exit examinations. The ACS will appoint assessors for the exit examination. There will be a mechanism to retain consistency in standards between the modalities.

ii

It was reported that the shadow Health Professions Council was progressing.

iii

The Making the Change Implementation Group under the chairmanship of Martin Staniforth met on 25^th October.

8

British Society for Human Genetics

The BSHG met prior to the York meeting and most of the discussion surrounded the Genetics Commissioning Advisory Group. (See item 9).

9

Joint Committee on Medical Genetics / Genetics Commissioning Advisory Group

i

Val Davison reported on GenCAG. The commissioning group had met several times throughout the year under the chairmanship of Sir John Pattinson. A sub-group on molecular genetic testing was set up with Rob Elles as the Chairman. The main discussions have centered on the draft tenders for Reference Laboratories and Knowledge Parks. Another sub-group, the National Standards Group will convene to discuss common standards and benchmarking which will form part of the tenders. There will be a separate meeting to discuss rapid prenatal screening techniques on 8^th February 2002.

ii

Maggie Fichett informed Council that she had written to Sir John Pattinson regarding the continued uncertainty of funding for the Chromosome Abnormality Database. Consequently a bid has been submitted through GenCAG for funding to support the CAD.

iii

Lorraine Gaunt and Maggie Fitchett attended the Joint Committee on Medical Genetics where it was reported that the Green Paper on Genetics was progressing and was due to be presented on 19^th January 2002.

iv

The National Specialised Services Definitions set for Genetics has been published and is available to view at: http://www.doh.gov.uk/specialisedservicesdefinitions/ 

[note added to minutes: or use http://www.doh.gov.uk/specialisedservicesdefinitions/20genetics.pdf
to go direct to .pdf file]

10

Professional Standards Committee / Best Practice Guidelines

Tony Potter reported that the existing members of the working party would meet to look at what was required to establish Best Practice Guidelines, and to suggest a framework and nominate individuals who could be asked to take this forward.

11

Scientific Committee

Maggie Fitchett reported on behalf of Barbara Gibbons.

i

The ESAC study is progressing and a questionnaire is due to be sent to responding labs. in the near future.

ii

John Barber had emailed HoDs in October requesting ideas for the York 2002 planning committee.

iii

John Wolstenholme reported that Sam Connors was now collecting the CVS data and it was hoped to produce an interactive CD of the data for distribution at the Spring meeting.

12

Education and Training Committee

Maggie Fitchett reported from the minutes of the October meeting.

i

MSc – There are a further two people waiting to graduate and the deadline for registered candidates to complete is June 2002.

ii

Dip ACC - The practical has taken place and the results are due out soon. This is the last Dip ACC examination.

iii

The company ‘Harvest’ have taken over A grade recruitment and seem to have very positive ideas regarding the recruitment process.

iv

The ETC proposal to drop the oral assessment following the project module (A Grade Training) was ratified by Council.

v

Val Davison reported that the Technical Training study day had been cancelled and that a new date will be arranged.

vi

Council ratified the proposals for an increase in fees for Study Days, with immediate effect.

vii

MRCPath Part 1 – Following discussion between Cytogenetics and Molecular examiners it has been ratified by SAC Genetics RCPath that the common compulsory question on the second paper should be abandoned and replaced by one common question on each paper. These questions however would not be identifiable or compulsory. MRCPath Part 2 – A cytogenetics or molecular genetics examiner acting in an observer role will be present as appropriate to ensure equality of standard between the two disciplines.

viii

CPD - Teresa Davies reported that following meetings during the last year it was apparent that the current scheme provided by the Royal College of Pathologists was the most appropriate for Clinical Cytogeneticists. This was acceptable to the RCPath.

ix

MRCPath in Oncology - The demand within the profession for such an examination was again questioned by both the ETC and the College examiners. Maggie Fitchett agreed to draft a response to the College.

x

DipACC - Maggie Fitchett reported that she had received a letter enquiring as to the profession’s view of the DipACC. She had replied that it was still viewed as an acceptable qualification which demonstrated competence in Clinical Cytogenetics.

xi

Future of the ETC
Lorraine Gaunt informed Council of the need to restructure the ETC. This was necessary as recently the ETC had, for a variety of reasons, lost six members thus rendering the current structure un-workable. Lorraine proposed interim measures whilst new proposals were drawn up. The interim measures are - Kim Smith to continue A grade training, Gordon Lowther and Heather Ward to cover Ian Cross’s roles, Val Davison to continue with Technical Training, and Stuart Imrie to continue as Workforce Planner.

Lorraine also proposed that the ACC Executive should formulate a proposal for a robust committee which would take the work of the ETC forward. This proposal is to be presented to the next Council meeting. This was agreed by Council.

13

RCPath Report

Some changes in representatives were reported.

i

ii

iii

iv

v

14

Institute of Biology

Les Butler distributed, and spoke to, two papers he had received. Les then queried the continued membership of the IoB by the ACC (an issue raised a the last Council meeting). After a show of hands it was agreed not to renew the ACC membership. Lorraine took the opportunity to thank Les for his attendance at, and reporting back from, meetings of the IoB.

ACTION  John Wolstenholme to inform IoB of decision.

15

JLC Report

Una Maye stated that:-

i

the JLC had received an email from Kim Smith inviting them to have a JLC meeting on the Tuesday of the Spring meeting.

ii

There had been two responses to the request for ideas/contributions for study days and these had been forwarded to Tony Potter.

16

Treasurer’s Report

John Wolstenholme requested:-

i

All outstanding claims were submitted ASAP in order to close the accounts at the year end. He reported reduced spending on A grade assessments.

ii

Alterations to the signatories for the account. Alan McDermott and Maggie Fitchett to be replaced by Gordon Lowther and Katie Waters. This was agreed by Council.

iii

John also enquired if it was possible to change the registered address of the Association. Certain mail would only be sent to the registered address and there appeared to be a problem with it being forwarded on.

ACTION  Katie Waters to investigate with RIPH.

iv

Insurance – John reported that despite taking professional advice and contacting other Societies he was no further forward with this issue. Discussion followed regarding insurance to cover against losses at ACC organized events. It was agreed that Training for Trainers/Assessors courses should be covered as these could potentially have large monetary implications for the Association.

17

Correspondence

Harvest (A Grade Recruitment) requested a link between their and our websites, and requested a named contact. The link was agreed and Lorraine Gaunt was designated as the contact.

ACTION  Katie Waters to contact Harvest confirming contact details.

18

Matters Arising from the minutes of the meeting held on September 4^th not already covered.

19

Applications for Membership

There had been four applications, 3 B grade and one A grade. They were all approved.

20

Any Other Business

i

Negotiations at Whitley Council were ongoing and the most likely time for a salary restructuring is April 2003.

ii

Mike Creasy informed Council that there had been problems (which he was initially unaware of) with updating the ACC website. These had been rectified and he was hopeful that it would be fully functional again in a few days.

iii

John Wolstenholme informed Council that Ian Cross’s funeral had taken place on Fri. 30^th November and was attended by a large number of people with a number of representatives from Cytogenetics being present. At 13.00 on the 5^th there was to be an official recognition within the RVI Hospital in Newcastle and the Newcastle lab. were hosting an unofficial event to celebrate Ian’s life on the evening of Thursday 6^th

21

Dates of next meetings

Meeting closed at 13.20