News
AAPT membership renewal 2015-16 Chair's Message
Dear APT Colleague,
Thank you once again for the continued support of your professional body in another exciting year for everyone involved in Anatomical Pathology Technology.
AAPT has continued to prioritise the three areas of importance for members, Education & Training, Best Practise and Regulation. These key areas were highlighted to the professional body as being important to APTs so the AAPT has continued to progress and promote these as a priority.
The AAPT has continued to be involved with the education and training, working to develop the Modernising Scientific Careers Practitioner Training Programme specifically for APTs.
Since last year four Level 3 Diploma courses have commenced and the first cohort of APTs should qualify this summer. Next year it is hoped more Centres will take up the challenge of delivering the training and already there is interest in doing this from across the country. The Level 4 Diploma will commence once these APTs are ready to progress through the next stage of the Practitioner Training Programme (PTP).
Regulation and registration is finding a new momentum with the Academy for Healthcare Science (AHCS). The AHCS has two main aims, registration for all Healthcare Scientists and overseeing equivalence of qualifications. Last year I wrote that AHCS were pushing to ensure that if there was an available register those working in Healthcare Science were registered. Things moved very quickly last summer and the register held by the Voluntary Registration Council closed on 31st August and those current registrants moved to the new AHCS Register as of 1st September. With the Professional Standards Authority for Health & Social Care (PSA) aiming to quality assure voluntary registers of unregulated healthcare professionals and healthcare workers in the UK under the Health & Social Care Act 2012 the AHCS were keen to gain this accreditation.
As of January this year the Register held by AHCS gained PSA Accreditation. AAPT continue to support registration and NHS Employers are being encouraged by the Department of Health to promote registration in the workplace. As ever AAPT will endeavour to keep everyone aware of any developments but it seems likely that being on an accredited register will become part of the criteria for employment. This has four country support so is a national promotion for Accredited Registers.
Applications to join the register are now submitted online and AAPT are working to develop a new CPD scheme which will work with the registration criteria so APTs will not have to duplicate work. We thank Dodge for their generous sponsorship of the AAPT website; this will allow AAPT to develop on-line CPD over the next 12 months.
AAPT have continued to work with many Professional Bodies and Government agencies over the past year and given advice to many committees including cross party Government groups.
Over the past year the single point of contact has proven to work well and hopefully members’ queries are being answered more quickly, although all Council members are still willing to assist with individual queries. Council have also set up a twitter account where we try and keep you up to date with what we are doing on your behalf. Some of us are better than others with IT though!
The Annual Conference, which was held in Newcastle, was again a great success, and I’d like to thank all those of you who organised and attended. Without the organisers there would be no conference and without the delegates support we could not continue to provide such high calibre speakers. I’d also like to thank the commercial exhibitors for their vital and continued support in providing sponsorship without which it would be very difficult to stage such an event.
This year, the Conference is being held in Inverness, on Saturday 19th September, registration is now live: please take advantage of early booking discounts and Student members can also attend at a discounted rate. The programme is being finalised and will be updated on the website as speakers confirm.
Once again thank you for your support and I hope that this year we can continue to take the profession forward and work towards our common professional goals.
How to pay your subscription: Letters will be sent over the next two weeks and payment can be via a cheque made payable to AAPT or by setting up a direct debit mandate. Those members who already have a direct debit set-up do not need to take any action and the collection will be made early May 2015.