News
AAPT Chair Report 2024
It’s renewal time again and I’d like to thank you for supporting us in our work to progress and support the profession
It’s been another busy year, so I hope you’ve all managed to maintain a work/life balance as best you can. It can be easy to overlook your own welfare when the pressure is on, so I would encourage you to take some time to decompress.
You may find the information here helpful. All AAPT Council Members are, or are in the process of, qualifying as Mental Health First Aiders, so please do reach out if you’re struggling and we’ll do our best to signpost you to appropriate support.
As always, AAPT has been working hard on your behalf, including:
Professional Code of Practice
Led by the Vice-Chair, Lydia Judge-Kronis CSci FAAPT, a dedicated working group has been drafting a professional code of practice, which will give clarity to those areas of professional practice not covered by current regulation, such as the scope of practice and qualifications of mortuary staff, technical standards, values and behaviours, etc.
It is anticipated that this will allow APTs to operate with more confidence to insist that appropriate practices are carried out in their own mortuaries and will help to clear up some of the enduring regulatory grey areas that can cause uncertainty. Of course, in the absence of statutory regulation, the code of practice will be only guidance, but we will be looking to gain endorsement from some of our biggest stakeholders to strengthen the standards and aid their adoption.
Exciting New CPD Offer
AAPT are excited to announce that CPDme have been selected to provide our new CPD member benefit.
The CPDme mobile app and web dashboard are designed to easily and quickly allow users to document learning, upload supporting documents such as certificates and other evidence, whilst reflecting on learning activity. Members can easily print off a complete portfolio, selecting what to include or exclude from the printed or digital version, and the portfolios can be output in the required format for both Science Council and Academy for Healthcare Science registration. This new functionality will be available soon to all members.
Academic Partnerships
A key goal of the 2021-2025 strategy was to further open up the world of Anatomical Pathology Technology to research, both by academics and practitioners; preferably in partnership. I’m pleased to see significant progress on this front, which should start the process of equipping APTs with little or no formal academic training with the skills they need to explore our very rich and interesting area of work – look out for announcements in the very near future!
Increasing Income
We continue to look into ways of increasing our income and will be launching some new training opportunities very soon, so keep an eye on the website and social media channels.
Annual Educational Event, webinars and consent training
AEE 2024 will be held at the Village Hotel - Glasgow, G51 1DB on Saturday 28th September 2024 and registration is now open.
The dedicated events page also includes upcoming webinars for members and the popular consent training over Zoom.
Membership Fees - no increase until 1st April 2025
In recognition of the ongoing cost of living pressures, membership fees will remain at the current rate, with no increases for any member grades. This is despite inflationary increases in the AAPT’s costs. The next increase in fees (£10 across all membership classes), will not come into effect until 1st April 2025.
I always encourage comments and suggestions to enable us to improve, so please feel free to drop me a line anytime at chair@aaptuk.org.
Best wishes,
John Pitchers MSc FAAPT FRSPH MIBMS
AAPT Chair