Latest President's Blog

News Story from 4th Jul 2016

Latest President's Blog

As my tour of UK organisations continues I have just returned from Gloucester, and unlike Dr Foster I had a great time. I had been invited to give a lunchtime seminar to Horizon Nuclear Power and Peter Bryant and I had a marvellous opportunity to talk with them about nuclear new build, the benefits of SRP membership and the value of CRadP. I look forward to another opportunity to go back there again.

Over the last six months I have had a number of discussions and meetings with the regulators, UK Partner Societies, and QPSC on the future of RPE and MPE recognition in the UK and what it all might look like under the implementation of the BSSD. This has culminated with the production of an options appraisal on the harmonisation of RPE/MPE recognition which was requested by the regulators. This was submitted to the regulators for their consideration at the end of June, once Council had reviewed it. I will keep you posted.

In other news, the Governance Working Group has now completed their remit and they have disbanded. Key amongst their suite of deliverables is a proposed new structure for the SRP. I am very pleased with this. But more importantly I am proud of the carefully considered process by which the proposed new structure was reached. Starting from a blank sheet of paper we looked at roles and responsibilities, what the Charter requires us to do, and what we want to achieve. Once Council have had a chance to review the proposals and make comments it will be rolled out to all committee chairs and the membership for consultation. At this stage nothing is set in stone but rest assured that it doesn’t look significantly different to what we’ve already got – which is heartening – but we hope it will provide a more efficient Society.

At IPEM’s invitation, on 8th June I was pleased to give another SRP schools outreach lecture entitled “The Importance of Radiation in Medicine” at the UK Radiology Congress in Liverpool. This was followed by a short schools exhibition session in which SRP participated and which was attended by approximately 150 school students. I can report that it was a great success and my thanks go to the group of SRP volunteers who helped me on the day.

More recently I was lucky enough to attend one of the RGG’s RPA portfolio preparation meetings in Birmingham on 16th June. This was well attended and there were informative talks from RPA2000 assessors as well as great tips from persons who have recently completed their portfolios and passed the assessment. As you know I am very keen to support any endeavours to help early and middle career members and well done to RGG for organising such a useful event.

My congratulations go to Roger Coates on two counts. At the recent IRPA14 Congress in Cape Town Roger was appointed as the President of IRPA. But to top that Roger was very recently awarded an OBE in the 2016 Queen’s Birthday honours. Well done Roger – I am delighted.

Talking of IRPA14, I would like to extend my thanks to all members of the UK delegation for all their hard work in Cape Town. Several members of the delegation, amongst other duties, gave presentations, chaired sessions, displayed posters, and attended meetings with IRPA Associate Societies with the aspiration of promoting SRP’s international profile. In particular I would like to thank Claire-Louise Chapple who was a member of the Scientific Programme Committee – an onerous task. I was a judge on the Young Scientist and Professionals Award and I am extremely proud to say that the UK candidate – Adam Jones – won the award. This is a tremendous achievement. Adam was competing with 20 young professionals from different countries from all around the world. Well done Adam. The whole UK delegation were proactive at the Associate Societies Forum on the Sunday before the main congress began and it emerged that radiation safety culture, ethics and public engagement are central themes to IRPA’s programme of work over the next four years.

Finally, I was very pleased with the way our own national conference and AGM turned out in Llandudno. Attendance was up on last year and there was a larger exhibition. Many thanks go to all of you who participated, and I look forward to Aberdeen.

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