The College’s 2023 Annual General Meeting (AGM) was held as a virtual event on 12 September. All eligible RCPCH members were invited to vote through online voting. Eligible members voted on the following motions (numbers 2-4 having two parts each – one to amend the Bye-laws and one to amend the Regulations).
- To reappoint Sayer Vincent as the College’s auditors – passed with 98.4% in favour.
- To add a second Beneficiary Trustee (now to be known as a Youth Trustee) to the Board of Trustees – passed with 92.06% and 93.65% in favour.
- To change the composition of Council with the introduction of four categories of Council members. These are Executive, Geographic, Grade and Specialty - passed with 87.69% and 83.33% in favour.
- To offer an additional post-nominal designation of Theory examinations of the RCPCH (ThRCPCH) – did not pass. Votes in favour were 69.70% and 65.67% - the latter was not above the needed 2/3 majority.
The full voting results can be downloaded as a PDF from the bottom of this page.
Responding to the results, RCPCH President Dr Camilla Kingdon said:
As President, I am particularly proud to see confirmation of a second youth voice on the Board of Trustees. This additional ‘youth trustee’ role, as the post is now known, is fundamental to ensuring children and young people are truly at the heart of our community and, most importantly, ensures they have a real say in how the College is run. We will now put in plans on how to take this forward. The changes to the composition of our Council are also important and, for the first time, allow our many members outside the UK and Ireland to have direct representation on our most senior professional body.
You may recall that at the 2022 AGM, we had put forward a proposal to introduce the new post-nominal the Diploma of RCPCH (DipRCPCH). This was linked to our strategy to uphold the highest clinical standards in the UK and abroad and develop our committees, throughout their careers, while also ensuring the College is financially stable. Although this did not pass in 2022, we used members’ feedback from AGM 2022 to reexamine our offering. Based on your comments and concerns we modified our original proposal to offer a post-nominal that we felt was more inclusive for current and prospective members and developed the Theory examinations of the RCPCH (ThRCPCH) post-nominal.
We note with disappointment that the proposal to introduce a new ThRCPCH post-nominal has not passed as a whole. The changes to the Bye-Laws had passed by 69.70%, but the changes to the Regulations received votes below the threshold with 65.67% of the vote, which is short of the required 66.6% majority. As a result, the proposition as a whole can’t be taken forward from this AGM. This motion arose from discussions with our international examinees about their needs and ambitions, and it does sadden us that, by another incredibly narrow margin, we will not be able to support these doctors. Given this is the second year of a similar style post-nominal, we will now take due time to reflect on this placing the proposal on pause to consider next steps for how we support our international and wider examinations community.
We are grateful to all those who joined us and voted at the AGM this year – and were pleased to see colleagues join from across the UK and around the world. We are extremely aware that this is a busy time for all.
Next year’s AGM will take place at our Annual Conference in Birmingham, which will take place from 25-27 March 2024, and we also plan to offer remote participation options. I’d strongly urge you to join the meeting and use your right as a member to attend and hold us to account.