MINUTES OF ACC COUNCIL MEETING

Held at:

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

On:

Tuesday 12th March 2002 at 11.15 a.m.

Carol BAIRD, Mike CREASY, Lyndsey CONNELL, Teresa DAVIES, Val DAVISON, Richard HALL, Rod HOWELL, Simon LARKINS, Debra LILLINGTON, Una MAYE, Tony POTTER, Selwyn ROBERTS, Kim SMITH and David STEVENSON.

1. Barbara GIBBONS and Jonathan WATERS.

2

Minutes of the Previous Meeting held on Tu. 4^th December 2001

i

Item 6 iv). The quoted website should be :-
http://www.rcpath.org/activities/publications/transitional.html

ii

Item 12 ix) Delete last sentence.

iii

Item 14) Second sentence change ‘Les’ to ‘Council’

3

Chair’s Report I - Changes to Council

Council Members standing down this year are Barbara Gibbons, Teresa Davies, David Stevenson as ordinary members, the Assistant Secretary, Gordon Lowther and the Treasurer, John Wolstenholme. Les Butler’s term as President also comes to an end this year and a new Trustee needs to be elected following the retirement of Tony Potter.

Professor Malcolm Ferguson-Smith was proposed and seconded as nominee President and Val Davison as nominee for Trustee. These proposals will be placed before the membership at the next AGM.

Council was also reminded that the Chairman’s term of office ends in 2003.

ACTION  Secretary to approach Malcolm Ferguson-Smith to confirm willingness to become ACC President.

4

NEQAS/CPA

It was considered appropriate that a small group should undertake a full ‘option appraisal’ to consider both interim measures to ensure the continuance of the scheme and its CPA status, and in the longer term, restructuring of the NEQAS scheme to enable easier management and organisation. This appraisal could report back to a (proposed) Heads of Departments meeting. Council suggested that Val Davison and Teresa Davies could lead this task on behalf of the NEQAS Steering Committee.

ACTION  Val Davison and Teresa Davies to steer an ‘options appraisal’.

5

Professional Standards Committee/Best Practice Guidelines

It was agreed that Council would approach Edna Maltby so see if she was willing to serve as Chair of this committee. It was also suggested that it would be useful to have a description of the role of the Chair.

ACTIONS
i)  Katie Waters to write to Edna Maltby.
ii) Existing Committee to draft a document describing the role of the Chairman.

6

Education and Training Committee.

i

Lorraine Gaunt expressed disappointment that only two responses had been received concerning the document sent out with the agenda for proposals for a revised ETC. Comments received were in support of the proposal and of aspects within. Council accepted the document and it was agreed that it would be discussed at the Heads of Departments meeting.

ii

Kim Smith agreed to take on the remit of Higher Specialist Training.

iii

As part of workforce planning, the government had commissioned a workforce survey for all Scientists and Technologists in NHS Trusts at 31^st March 2001. The DoH are now trying to verify the data for individual professional groups following an 80% response. Stuart Imrie (Manpower Data Manager) had written to the DoH to inform them of a substantial discrepancy between ACC manpower and DoH workforce survey figures. ACC manpower figures were forwarded.

ACTIONS 
i)  Lorraine Gaunt and Kim Smith to organise an ETC meeting to cover urgent business.
ii) Secretary to distribute revised ETC proposals prior to a Heads of Departments meeting.

7

Newsletter Editor for the ACC

Following the resignation of Gordon Steven, Jonathan and Katie Waters have volunteered to take joint responsibility for this role. It was suggested that the JLC nominate one of their members to join an editorial team and that the JLC submit an article of interest for each edition.

ACTIONS
i)   JLC to identify an individual member and inform Katie Waters.
ii)  Secretary to write to Jonathan Waters to thank him for volunteering
iii) Secretary to write to Gordon Stevens to thank him for his contribution over many years.

8

 ACC Membership

Following a meeting of the working party, and informed discussion within Council there was agreement that any proposal to open membership would require a number of rule changes. Council agreed that the time scales were too tight to progress this for the 2002 AGM, however, an article explaining this decision would be included in the next newsletter (copy deadline 13^th May).

ACTION  Mike Creasy to write article for newsletter.

16

Treasurer’s Report

The Treasurer drew Council’s attention to the fact that travel expenses had risen considerably in the last year. The adoption of the accounts was proposed by David Stevenson and seconded by Katie Waters.

9

Chair’s Report II (continued)

i

Registration. Council was informed that the Registration of Clinical Scientists had now passed through the Privy Council so there was now a route for State Registration. CPSM would cease on 31^st March however the HPC will continue to use the CPSM framework most likely for a period of not less than one year. CPSM will inform individuals applying for State Registration of the process. The official launch of the HPC is likely to be 17^th April.

ii

ACS. The ACC is to be invoiced for £500 for membership of the ACS. There was discussion as to whether this was an appropriate time to re-discuss with the BSHG the level of return of subscription money made to the ACC

ACTION  John Wolstenholme to discuss with John Old and the treasurer of CMGS

The chairman of the ACS reported that a Workforce Numbers Advisory Board Sub-group was currently reviewing workforce training needs for all healthcare scientists. The outcome of this may influence A grade training placements and the approval of training schemes.

iii

BSHG and JCMG. Both met on 9^th Jan. and there was much discussion at both meetings concerning the draft Consent and Confidentiality paper. This needs further revision before going to the wider genetics community for consultation.

iv

Contract Currencies. These are currently being piloted to assess their clinical utility and potential usefulness for commissioners. 17 labs signed up to the pilot and the preliminary data is to be presented to GenCAG on 15^th March.

At this point the Chairman left the meeting and the Secretary assumed the chair.

10

GenCAG

Val Davison reported from the GenCAG meeting on 17^th December 2001.

i

The arrangements for Reference Laboratories and Knowledge Parks were now in place. The Department of Health Genetics Development monies had also been allocated.

ii

There is a European legal challenge to Myriad patent for BRCA testing.

iii

There is a change to PCTs (Primary Care Trusts) from 1^st April. PCTs will be bound by Strategic Health Authority decisions.

iv

A quality standards paper is due out soon and will be circulated when available.

v

Cytogenetic Techniques Q-PRC and FISH in screening for Down Syndrome. A meeting of ‘experts’ was held on Feb 8^th that was organised by the Public Health Genetics Unit and the Antenatal Sub-Group of the National Screening Committee. The meeting report will be discussed by GenCAG.

vi

Katie Waters drew Council’s attention to a letter from John Barber and Nick Cross summarising the National Genetics Reference Laboratory (Wessex) initial programme of work.

ACTION  Secretary to email copy of letter to Council members.

11

Safety Advisor's Report

Selwyn Roberts distributed a draft document entitled ‘Prevention of Infection in Cytogenetics Laboratories’ which he had drawn up in response to several queries. It was agreed that Council members would read it and send any comments regarding the content of the document to him.

ACTION Comments to Selwyn Roberts (c.c. Secretary) by 12^th April

12

Scientific Committee Report

i

The bid for a further year’s funding for the CAD had been agreed.

ii

The CVS CPM data collection was nearing completion.

13

RCPath Report

14

Healthcare Scientists and the National Electronic Library for Health

There had been two responses from individuals offering to be involved, these were Rob Morgan and Eddy Maher.

ACTION  Secretary to write to the Director, National Electronic Library for Health and volunteers

15

JLC Report

i

Concern was expressed by Council that the NEQAS Participants meeting was scheduled at the same time as the JLC meeting

ACTION  Kim Smith to investigate with JLC if a re-scheduling of their meeting is possible.

ii

Una Maye reported that a grade A trainee (Stuart McKenna, from Liverpool) had been nominated to attend a parliamentary questions session on 19^th March in London.

17

Correspondence

None.

18

Matters Arising from the minutes of the meeting held on December 5^th not already covered.

None.

19

Applications for Membership

None.

20

Any Other Business

David Stevenson queried whether there could be a ‘Devolved administrations’ agenda item as some issues may differ in Scotland. Chair suggested that rather than an actual agenda item it would be useful if issues were raised under the appropriate agenda item.

21

Date of Next Meeting

Tuesday, 11^th June 2002 at RIPH.

Meeting closed at