Minutes of Council Meeting

MINUTES OF ACC COUNCIL MEETING

	Held at:	Canterbury Hall Cartwright Gardens LONDON WC1H 9EE
	On:	Tuesday 3rd June 2003 at 11.15 a.m.

Present

	Lorraine Gaunt	Chairman
	Katie Waters	Secretary
	John Wolstenholme	Treasurer
	Malcolm Ferguson Smith	President
	Rob Morgan	Assistant Secretary
Caroline Baird, Mike Creasy, Richard Hall, Rod Howell, Debra Lillington, Gordon Lowther, Una Maye, Tony Parkin, Kim Smith, Nick Telford.

Apologies

Lyndsey Connell, Val Davison, Ros Hastings, Simon Larkin, Edna Maltby, Selwyn Roberts.

Minutes of the previous meeting held on Tuesday 18 March 2003

Present 1 "Carol Baird" should read "Caroline Baird"

Minute 6.1 "HCS lead East Region" should read "HCS WDC representative"

"A review of the A Grade training programme has been undertaken…" should read "A review of the A Grade training programme is being undertaken…"

Page 3 Paragraph 1 delete ACC ETC from "Subsequent assessments will be performed internally, by ACC ETC assessors who…."

Para 4 Add sentence to start of paragraph "As an interim arrangement ETC assessors will act as internal assessors in their own laboratories whilst internal assessors are being trained."

Para 7 Second sentence "Assessors will be B17+ with MRCPath Part1." It was contested as to whether this statement was an accurate record of what was said by ETC chair.

A majority agreed that the sentence should be deleted. See matters arising.

Item 10.2 Fourth Para Sentence ending "…and therefore rejected the idea." Should read "…and were unable to help."

Safety Adviser's Report

No report had been received.

NEQAS

Tony Parkin (Chair of Steering Committee) reported.

4.1 Dr Ros Hastings took up the post of Scheme Manager on 1 June 2003.

4.2 The steering group is meeting on 12 June 2003 to plan the timetable for the next 18 months.

4.3 Ros Hastings has written to all Heads of Department informing them of the increase of fees to £1,200 for each scheme (constitutional and haematological).

4.4 There is an outstanding haematological round to complete.

4.5 The scheme is to re-apply for CPA/EQA accreditation.

CPA

No Report.

Education and Training Committee

6.1 ETC

Report by Kim Smith.

6.1.1 Two short courses for the delivery of A Grade training are being arranged. The first course in late autumn will cover an introduction to cytogenetics, bloods and FISH. A second course in the following spring/summer will cover the other modules.

6.1.2 Training for Trainers course will take place in Oxford during July. Two laboratories still have to reply to the invitation to register participants. There are twenty places available, and the course is already over subscribed.

6.1.3 Internal assessor training venues are being booked.

6.1.4 Discussion of technical training issues has been deferred while waiting for feedback from council.

6.2 Professional Standards Committee

Report by Rod Howell

6.2.1 The Professional Standards Committee met and discussed the format of the best practice meetings. The format will be of a single day with a group of invited speakers, who are experts in their field presenting in the morning followed by group sessions including the meeting participants. The day will be preceded by collating current practice. There will be a single participant from each laboratory invited, who will be of senior standing. The session will be the subject of a report by the organiser and the invited speakers.

**************************

Training of Internal Assessors:
Val Davison is organising a two day training course for assessors in collaboration with local WDC. The options for training internal assessors will be discussed at the next ETC meeting.

It is intended that eventually all accredited laboratories will have two or three trained assessors within their departments. Internal assessors trained by the ACC will be B16 and above, MRCPath part 1 is desirable.

Council ratified the changes to the assessment process and Kim Smith undertook to inform Heads of Departments of the changes.

6.4 Delivery of Training for A grades:
Lorraine Gaunt reported that she has been exploring the option of an academic partner. This is being taken forwarded by Sue Hill (CSO). Heather Ward is scoping options for centralised training of groups of trainees eg short residential courses and study days are being considered. Trainers from various departments will be asked to contribute. This will be discussed at the next ETC meeting on 14^th April.

It was noted that if there was a change to the delivery of A grade training which resulted in an increase in cost then the extra funding would need to be identified and flagged with WDC prior to budget setting.

6.5 John Wolstenholme reported that North Eastern and North East Thames regions had received funding to produce material to aid recruitment to the NHS for England and Wales.

6.6 Technical Training – Val Davison

The technical training report that had been previously circulated to Council describing the outcome of the 2 year pilot of the competence based training of Genetic Technologists was discussed. Val reported that in the labs who had participated the pilots had been very successful and that there had been favourable feedback from the technical staff involved. As a result of the pilots a revised set of competencies have been produced and comments from Council were invited prior to the next ETC meeting on 14^th April.

ACTION Val Davison to email secretary revised competency document for circulation to Council. Comments to Val Davison copied to Secretary by 8 April.

Technical report to be appended to minutes.

It was agreed that if there were no negative comments from Council to the revised competences it could be ratified at the next ETC meeting and then distributed to the profession. The status of the final, revised document is as a document approved by the profession which can be used as guidelines or a proforma by training laboratories wishing to do so.

The pilots had shown that there is inter department variation in the job descriptions of MTO 2s in particular whether this grade of staff was able to perform chromosome analysis.

There is also variation in the entry qualification for MTOs. Most departments recruit graduates but this is not the case in all laboratories. It remains to be seen what changes may occur as a result of the proposal for these staff to become State Registered in the future.

A certificate to be issued on completion of competencies would be desirable.

With respect to Professional Representation of technical staff, Council discussed the possible role of the ACC in representing technical staff. There was consensus that the ACC recognises the immediate need of technical staff to have representation and that in principal the ACC is willing to explore incorporating MTOs into their professional group. It was decided however that prior to any consultation of the membership a working party will have to be formed to explore the key issues. A temporary sub-group of Council was proposed to decide on the remit and membership of the working party. The sub-group will be composed of Kim Smith, Lorraine Gaunt, Katie Waters and Val Davison. Council agreed this.

ACTION Working group to agree remit and membership.

Professional Standards Committee

The first meeting of the Best Practice Guidelines Group is to be held on the 29^th April. Fiona Ross and Ros Hastings have accepted invitations to join the committee. Council will invite Edna Maltby to next council meeting to give a progress report. This will be in an ex officio capacity.

ACTION: Secretary to invite to Edna Maltby to council.

8a: Election of a new chair

–As required by rule 10.1.

Tony Parkin was the only candidate nominated and was elected unopposed.

8b: Chair's Report

8b.1 ACS

The next meeting is on Friday 21^st March and there has been no meeting since the last Council meeting. The directors of the ACS will need to be informed as to the appointment of our new chair.

ACTION Secretary to write to Dr P Sharp.

A subgroup of the ACS has drafted the Standards of proficiency for Clinical Scientists as required by the HPC.

8b.2 BSHG

Last met on 28^th February. There have been some changes on the committee. The Chair Elect is now Professor Julian Sampson who will take over from Prof Neva Haites at the AGM in York (September). The new secretary is Graham Taylor (Head of the Molecular Laboratory in Leeds). He is replacing Rob Elles with immediate effect.

Joint Committee on Medical Genetics (JMCG). The membership is being reviewed, however, there needs to be some clarification from the chair as to how many places the BSHG is allocated.

The Green Paper in Genetics is likely to be further delayed, however, there is a possibility that it may be released on the 25^th April (anniversary of the Watson & Crick publication). The BSHG will prepare a response in anticipation. This would involve the chair, vice-chair, secretary and the chairs of the constituent organisations. The Nuffield and Scottish and Welsh offices are already preparing responses.

Membership of GenCAG. Naomi Brecker has written to Neva Haites as chair of the BSHG. The BSHG nominates six representatives. Current members have been asked if they wish to continue or not. Most do and this is supported by the BSHG. It was however thought that some mechanism to ensure rotation into the group should be put in place.

The ACC has been asked to submit the names of the top ten UK cytogeneticists to Neva. This is to enable Peter Harper to compile a history and archive of Genetics. The JLC agreed to draw up a list.

ACTION: JLC to prepare a list of top 10 UK cytogeneticists.

8b.3 Joint Committee on Medical Genetics (JMCG)

Katie Waters attended the latest meeting on 14^th January and reported that Dr S Morgan has been appointed as the new RCPath Training Representative.

The Consent and Confidentiality Report has not yet been finalised

Requirements for training posts for A grade training. Steve Abbs has drafted a report on Recruitment and Retention, which highlighted the shortfall in the number of trainees trained compared to requirements. The report also reported the difference between cytogenetics and molecular genetics. The document will be sent to CEOs of WDCs. The final version will be sent to the ETC and from there circulated to Heads of Departments.

Contract Currencies progress is slow but still on going.

RCPath SAC. John Crolla reported that more people are sitting MRCPath part II.

8b.4 Parliamentary and Scientific Committee.

The ACC has received an invitation to attend a meeting on the 7^th April on the UK Bio-Bank. If available a representative may attend.

8b.5 Federation of Healthcare Science (FHCS)

The life sciences division met on the 13^th January at the IBMS to discuss a strategy, which would allow the groups, represented to work together. A proposal was made, discussed and later circulated. This was circulated to all council members and effectively accepted.

The next meeting of the entire representation is on Monday 24^th March when two members of each professional body/group are invited to attend. Katie Waters and Simon Larkins are to attend.

8b.6 National Occupational Standards (NOS)

Discipline Specific Assessment Guidance. Three day residential meeting to discuss the occupational standards post field-testing. It was suggest that council ask the six key members who had been most involved in this to date i.e. Stuart Imrie, Rod Howell, Ros Hastings, Eileen Roberts, Carolyn Campbell and Tony Parkin.

Nominations are required additionally for two workshops with ACC representatives at each (papers had been circulated prior to this meeting).

1: Cross Discipline NOS Review Group (June 9^th one day)

Council will ask Stuart Imrie

2: Assessment Guidance Development Workshop (Generic NOS)

Seven representatives are requested for various generic groups the following were suggested by council:

Health & Safety/Equipment	Selwyn Roberts
Develop protocol/Interpret Report	Kim Smith
Co-ordinate Specimen Handling	Rob Morgan
Management	Katie Waters
Training & Development	Gordon Lowther
R&D	Val Davison
Patient Care/Advise and Inform	John Emslie

ACTION Secretary to invite nominees to attend workshops on behalf of the profession.

GenCAG – Val Davison

No meeting since December 2002. Membership is under review and Val Davison has been returned for 1 year by the BSHG. The next meeting is on 8^th May.

ACC Scientific Committee

10.1 Rod Howell placed an item in the BSHG newsletter canvassing for a potential new chair. The response was limited so Council has decided not to continue to have this committee. Individual projects such as CAD and the CVS database work well independently and regularly report back to Council. It was felt that new projects when identified could receive ACC support on an ad hoc basis, which will involve recruiting suitable members to form Working Groups as necessary.

10.2 Chromosome Abnormality Database (CAD)

Kim Smith made an appeal on behalf of this important project. Funding is now sufficient to continue the project for about four months only. The only source of funding which now appears to be available is from Grant bodies and charitable organisations. Unfortunately this process is being frustrated by the fact that no publications have resulted from CAD in its ten-year history. This is difficult because of the information collected does not include clinical details.

Kim made two proposals to council

1. That CAD changes its title to the "UK National Karyotype Register" to improve its national profile.

2. That clinical information also is collected. This would be limited to the information available on individual laboratory databases but would enable studies looking at chromosome abnormalities in specific clinical groups to be undertaken. This could be done on a retrospective basis without too much difficulty.

Council reiterated its support for the database.

The prospect of possible collaborations with European based data collections was also discussed. It appears that Albert Schinzel has secured funding for a "European Register of Unbalanced Chromosome Abnormalities". This has been established by the European Cytogenetics Association (ECA). If the funding is time limited for this project then collaboration may not be a suitable option. Kim agreed to look into the possibility of possible collaborations in return for funding to sustain CAD.

The question was raised as to why the reference laboratories had not agreed to pick up this vital work. Kim Smith reported that they had been approached but they did not have the necessary funding and were unable to help. Val Davison agreed to raise this issue with the DoH via GenCAG when the opportunity arose.

10.3 UKCCG

No report

10.4 CVS Database – report from John Wolstenholme

It is hoped that there will be access to the database information soon. There has been interest expressed from Australian laboratories in adding their data to the database. John and Kim Smith are to pursue this.

SAC in Genetics, Royal College of Pathologists

No report (have not met).

JLC Report

Richard Hall submitted a written report on the "Healthcare Science Awareness Week Update" meeting that was held on the 10^th February.

Topics included were:

l The Healthcare Science Recruitment Resource Centre,

l Sue Hill gave an update on the progress made by the FHCS
l National Recruitment Campaign
l Update on ideas for activity and public relations
l Requests for further support from the DoH

Richard included some suggestions to council following the meeting i.e. that Council should be more actively involved in HCS awareness. This is possibly a role suitable for the JLC e.g. as in producing pamphlets, attending local career days or being involved in visiting schools and colleges.

Concern was raised as to how funding for recruitment and retention initiatives could be identified. Departments may be able to access funds from local WDCs. Professional groups will probably have to pay for their own projects. Richard suggested that collaboration with other bodies such as the CMGS be considered as a more effective way to attract interest.

Treasurer’s Report

A copy of the financial Statements for the year ending 2002 was circulated to council members prior to the meeting. At the end of the year we were in profit to the amount of £19,046. This significant amount was primarily due to increased cash-flow resulting for ETC income for trainees.

The possibility of funding assessor’s training was discussed, it was considered that funding the course expenses but not travel could be an option. It was noted that the A grade fee does already include a laboratory training element and that this could be used to train internal assessors.

The accounts for 2002 were accepted by Council.

ACC Registered Office

John Wolstenholme has contacted the Friendly Societies to find out how we can change our registered office from the Royal Institute of Public Health to the BSHG Office, Birmingham Women’s Hospital. This is a straight forward process requiring paperwork which John has completed but also requires the ACC to hold a special general meeting to consult and gain consent from the membership. The special general meeting will be held just prior to this year’s AGM at York. It will be necessary to mail all members to inform them of the rule changes and the meeting at which it will be discussed. The specific rules are 2.1 and 2.2.

25^th Anniversary of the ACC

Mike Creasy and Malcolm Ferguson Smith are organising an event for the ACC Spring meeting in Glasgow

: BSHG elections

This has been covered in the Chair's Report.

Correspondence

The ACC has received a subscription invoice of £250 for the Scientific and Technical Organisation for Parliament. It was agreed that the subscription would not be renewed.

Matters Arising

Council minutes 7c "Rapid Prenatal Diagnosis". Kim Smith believed this not to be correct. Val Davison said she would clarify the situation with Naomi Brecker (DoH).

Applications for membership

Several had been received including some applications for Overseas. These were all accepted.

With respect to membership of the BSHG, John Wolstenholme informed the council that the ACC contributed the largest proportion with 518 members (compared to 428 for the CGS and 377 for the CMGS).

Date of Next Meeting

Tuesday 3^rd June 2003. Venue – Canterbury Hall, Cartwright Gardens, London

ACTION Rob Morgan to book venue.

ACC COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES
Canterbury Hall, Cartwright Gardens, London, WC1H 9EE

Tuesday 3 June 2003

MINUTES

6. Education & Training

6.1 ETC

6.2 Professional Standards Committee

6.2.2 Six topics have already been suggested. Fiona Ross will organise a meeting on the appropriate use of FISH in haematological malignancies in 4-5 months time. Ros Hastings will collect sample volume and reporting time data in next 2-3 months. This data collection will be undertaken every two years.

6.2.3 Guidelines will be ratified by the ACC council and published on the ACC website. Lorraine Gaunt reminded the council of the standing that guidelines have in law.

6.2.4 The PSC is to check on the progress of the publication of the Professional Guidelines which were to be published in the Journal of Medical Genetics.

Action Rod Howell

6.3 MTO Registration

Report by Rob Morgan

6.3.1 Meeting attended by Rob Morgan and Val Davison at Friendship House, London on 22 March 2003. The meeting was called for those Healthcare Scientist groups who would be seeking registration in the near future. The ACC and CMGS were invited to represent MTOs working in genetics laboratories. Other groups included Clinical Physiologists and Medical Illustrators. Dr Sue Hill, the Chief Scientific Officer, confirmed the DoH commitment to registration, which they would like to see groups adopt initially on a voluntary basis, but they would make it mandatory for those groups where they see it as essential. Pat Saunders from the DoH Regulatory branch outlined the timetable for registration. Parliamentary time has been booked for the legislation to enable further registration of HCS in 2005. While not all groups will be ready by this time, it is envisaged that the legislation will be flexible enough to allow further groups to be added as they meet the criteria for registration. Marc Searle, Chief Executive of HPC outlined the conditions that groups need to meet to become registerable, and the role that professional bodies have within HPC. The meeting finished with presentations from the professional bodies describing how far they met the criteria for registration.

6.3.2 Meeting attended by Jon Wolstenholme and Rob Morgan at Quarry House, Leeds with Dr Sue Hill, Chief Scientific Officer and Pat Saunders (DoH Regulatory branch). The meeting was also attended by CMGS. This was a follow up meeting to explore how near the MTOs in genetics are to being able to be registered.

6.3.3 Following the Council meeting 18 March 2003 the ACC executive committee chaired by Lorraine Gaunt prepared a remit for the working group to draw up a consultation document reviewing future membership of the ACC. The group is to meet and prepare a document for publication on the ACC website by the end of August. Comments will be accepted during September and October, and the group will report back to Council at the December meeting. Prof. Ferguson-Smith asked if it was possible to bring the MTOs together as a group. It was commented that at present not many are associate members of the ACC, making this impossible. Prof. Ferguson-Smith asked if it was possible to bring them together to form their own professional group. Lorraine Gaunt said that the ACC had arranged one technical day for the MTOs which had been well received. In the future it may be possible to bring them together at the ACC Spring Meeting, or to arrange a day with senior members of the profession. Both the ACC membership and MTOs would be consulted about changes in membership of the ACC. John Wolstenholme pointed out that the ECA had a medical technologists group.

Action Working group (Lorraine Gaunt, Val Davison, Rob Morgan, Lyndsey Connell)

7 Chair's Report

7.1 ACS

Cathy Savage from HPC reminded members they must not use the title State Registered Clinical Scientist, or letters to that effect after their name. The title Clinical Scientist is protected and members of the ACS are asked to inform all registered members.

Action Secretary to put notice to this effect in BSHG newsletter

As a qualifying institute the ACS must have a robust QA process in place for state registration process. Mike Hallworth is to chair a group to advise on this.

Lorraine Gaunt is to sit in on both ACB and ACC state registration interviews to ensure that they are broadly similar in standard.

BSHG report by John Wolstenholme

There will be a 30% increase in registration fees for BSHG conference in York this year. This is due to the way York University is now selling its conference packages. Warwick University has been considered as a venue, but was thought to be too small.
Stuart Payne, the conference organiser is due to step down in 2004.
The CAD has obtained funding from Birth Defects for one year, and there will be discussions about longer term funding.

JCMG

A clinical scientist training document has been prepared by Steve Abbs and will be circulated to the Strategic Health Authorities and to the Chair of the WDCs. There were concerns expressed that it did not address Higher Specialist Training.

7.3.2 The final version of the Consent and Confidentiality report is still not ready.

7.3.3 The practice of cytogenetics laboratories informing Clinical Geneticists of abnormal results was raised. It was discussed as to whether this practice contravened Caldicott Guidelines. Dr Mike Pearson, the RCP Caldicott advisor had been consulted for advice. He commented that until the guidelines expected next year are formulated that laboratories should continue with their current practice. There is currently no case law on this matter.

The issue of genetics reports being copied by Pathology laboratories was also discussed. There was evidence that there had been transcription errors leading to errors in the reports. It was agreed that the JMGC condemned this practice and the chair would write to the Royal Colleges asking them to address the issue.

7.3.4 Contracting Currencies. Molecular genetics WLU appear to be the most advanced, and are due to be signed off by Chair of CMGS. Clinical and Cytogenetics are further behind and awaiting feedback from GenCAG.

7.3.5 The Genetics Green Paper is now to be a White Paper and is due to be presented by the Secretary of State to Parliament during June.

CPD

Katie Waters reported from an ACS CPD project meeting held on 7 May which she attended on behalf of the ACC.

7.4.1 Meeting was chaired by Mike Hallworth. The meeting was also attended by Dawn Wheeler, who is the Chartered Society for Physiotherapy (CSP) project field worker for the CPD project that has been undertaken on behalf of the Allied Health Professions to develop an outcomes based approach to CPD. It is a model which looks at what an individual gets out of the CPD activity in terms of benefit to practice rather than just a point collecting exercise. The model has received good feedback from the disciplines that have piloted it. The HCP is developing proposals for re-registration based on maintenance of competence. HPC are aware of the CSP work and are likely to make use of it. The purpose of the meeting was to decide whether the CSP model would be applicable for Clinical Scientists. It was agreed to trial the CSP model and the chair undertook to draft a model for clinical scientists that will be presented at the next ACS meeting on 20 June.

Details of various AHP CPD pilots can be found at:-http://www.baat.org/cpd_ahp_project.html BAAT

http://www.cot.co.uk/public/publications/intro/ahp/intro.asp BAOT/COT

http://www.csp.org.uk/lifelonglearning/cpd.cfm CSP

Katie Waters reported on a meeting of the Federation of Health Care Scientists held on 24 March in London.

Dr Sue Hill talked about progress with NOS. She was looking for volunteers to help take this forward, however how this was to be funded and organised was unclear. The FHCS is currently propped up by the IBMS. The DoH will only talk to the FHCS about Healthcare Scientists, but is unwilling to fund FHCS. This is in contrast to the AHP which is funded by the DoH. The size of the two groups is roughly similar (AHP 51,000, FHCS 49,000)
There was also some discussion over who should register for CPD with the Royal College. The Royal College view is that it should only be members and fellows as everybody else is in training. Membership is seen as the exit qualification to training.

Una Maye is to attend the Workforce Development Conference for HCS and meeting to discuss the HCS awareness week at Chester Race Course on 2 July.

Lorraine Gaunt informed council that the National Screening Committee had published a document ‘Antenatal Screening for Down’s Syndrome – National Guidance on Policy and Quality Management’ and also the SURRUS report is now out for consultation. If the guidelines are implemented it will have an impact on amniocentesis rates. Using all the screening techniques it should be possible to detect 85% of Downs pregnancies for a 1-2% false positive rate. The guidance expects that amniocenteses and CVS rates will drop, with the resources released transferring to the screening laboratories. Copies of the report and guidance can be found at:

http://www.nelh.nhs.uk/screening/dssp/Guidancepolqual.pdf (Guidance document)

http://www.hta.nhsweb.nhs.uk/fullmono/mon711.pdf (Full HTA report)

Katie Waters also advised Council that the RCOG green top guidelines on recurrent miscarriage have been published and are available at:-http://www.rcog.org.uk/guidelines.asp?PageID=106&GuidelineID=46

7.7 ACC elections

There were three vacancies for JLC members, and three nominations received, so they have been elected unopposed.

Katie Waters was the only nominee for Secretary and is returned unopposed.

There were four vacancies for ordinary members, and only two nominations received. The two nominees will be returned unopposed. A second call for nominations for the two vacant positions will be made by the secretary.

NOS

The profession specific National Occupational Standards have been completed and will be distributed shortly.

Genetics Commissioning Advisory Group (GenCAG)

Marcia Fry has left her post and the next meeting will be chaired by Elizabeth Woodeson.

Scientific Committee

Debbie Lillington reported that UKGCC was due to meet at the BSH meeting on 4 June.

DL also reported that Dr Christine Harrison was on the ISCN Standing Committee.

John Wolstenholme reported that he had attended a meeting in Washington on CPM, UPD and growth retardation. He met with Laird Jackson and has been encouraged to apply for funding jointly to NIH for an international CVS database on the internet. A letter of intent is required by 23 June, with a full bid in by 23 July. This would involve the CVS database being incorporated. Council supported this proposal and John Wolstenholme is to continue developing the bid.

No Spring Conference venues have been arranged for 2005 onwards.

Action Secretary to email Heads of Departments requesting volunteers.

RCPath

10.1 Teresa Davis is coming to the end of her term of office as RCPath representative.

10.2 Kim Smith reported that in the recent MRCPath part 1 examination, 63% of candidates passed the written exam, as did all 15 candidates who sat the practical exam. The council congratulated all those candidates who now have MRCPath part 1.

JLC

The JLC has drawn up a list of the top ten UK cytogeneticists on behalf of the BSHG. The list was accepted by council and will be passed on to Peter Harper.

Treasurer's Report

The Spring Meeting was profitable and provided a surplus of about £9,000.

ACC finances are presently very healthy due mainly to ETC funds.

The internal assessors training course in Birmingham will cost approximately £5,000. Two further courses are planned.

ACC registered office

No longer required on agenda.

Correspondence

There was no correspondence

Matters arising from the minutes not covered elsewhere on the agenda

There was some discussion about the person specification required for ACC ETC Grade A ‘internal assessors’. The current specification for ETC Grade A assessors is that they are B17 or above with MRCPath part 1, or B20 and above. An ETC meeting subsequent to the March Council meeting had considered that B16 with experience of Grade A training would be the essential criteria for ACC ETC internal assessors, with MRCPath being ‘desirable’ and invitations for persons meeting these criteria had been sent to HoD to attend a training course in assessment techniques.

At the council meeting there was discussion about this decision, whether it could be construed as an erosion of standards, whether it further moved the ACC training apart from the other Clinical Scientist disciplines, the implication of Agenda for Change, whether the course was truly modular in its assessment or whether greater emphasis and rigour would need to be placed on the final assessment and whether there would be sufficient cytogeneticists with MRCPath part 1 to act as ‘internal assessors’ (approximately 45 out of 270 Cytogeneticists graded at B12 +).

The ETC members present at council clarified that the assessments carried out by the internal assessors would be at the same standard as the external assessments, but that the responsibility for ensuring quality lay with the external assessors.

Following the discussions two proposals were put to council:-

1. The standard required of internal assessors who will be trained by the ACC for A Grade trainees will be MRCPath part 1.

For: 3 Against : 7. The proposal was defeated

2. Internal Assessors trained by the ACC will be B16 and above, with MRCPath part 1 desirable. The proposal was carried.

Council agreed that the person specification essential criteria for ACC ETC ‘internal’ assessors would be B16 or above with experience of Grade A training.

Lorraine Gaunt stated that the ACS would need to be informed of the changes in the A Grade training scheme. She asked for a letter from the chair of ETC to the chair of the ACC which could be forwarded to the ACS. The next meeting of the ACS is June 20.

Applications for Membership

Four applications have been received, three of which are acceptable.

AOB

ACC expenses claim forms are now available on the ACC website.

The ACC computer is no longer up to spec. Mike Creasy has bought a new PC and is using this. The treasurer offered to buy a new ACC PC and Mike Creasy is considering the offer.

Date and Venue of Next Meeting.

Tuesday 2 September

Main Lecture Theatre, Royal College of Pathologists, 2 Carlton House Terrace, LONDON