Time seems to have flown by and we find ourselves already in April. There are numerous important College activities and deadlines approaching and I anticipate the next few months will be very busy. For this report I am focusing on key developments across governance, education, accreditation, and strategic planning.
Annual General Meeting (AGM)
Thank you to the members who took time to vote or attend the Annual General Meeting in March. Unfortunately, the required quorum was not achieved, necessitating the rescheduling of the meeting.
The reconvened AGM is now scheduled for 6 May.
Achieving quorum is vital for conducting essential College business. We strongly encourage all members to participate by responding to the forthcoming email invitations, which will provide options for online voting or appointing a proxy. Your engagement through these channels ensures your vote is counted and contributes to meeting the quorum threshold.
Governance Review and Committee Restructuring
Following the comprehensive governance review by Allen & Clark, whose report was received last August, the Executive Committee agreed in principle in October 2024 to adopt most of the recommendations. A central aspect of this involves restructuring our committees and enhancing the operational and administrative support. The intention is for the Executive Committee’s function to align more closely with that of a strategic board, while delegating operational and educational matters to dedicated working subcommittees.
It was noted that only two members expressed interest in Executive Committee positions this year. The Executive Committee has discussed this and is considering ways to encourage broader participation. We recognise that a clearer understanding of the Executive Committee’s functions may be needed.
The forthcoming governance changes will create new opportunities for members to contribute by joining committees. Serving on a committee provides invaluable governance experience and a direct way to give back to the College. Committee members are remunerated for their time. The new structure is expected to distribute workloads more evenly. Therefore, we encourage you to consider volunteering for a committee role later this year or in 2026.
Once the governance working group has made its final recommendations to the current Executive Committee, I will be able to share with you an updated organisational structure and provide more information on the roles and responsibilities of the future committees. This is an exciting time to be involved in College governance, and I wholeheartedly recommend you consider supporting the College in this way.
A short after-note (for this section)…The governance working group agreed to a change in role and title for the current general manager, changing to Chief Executive Officer with an effective date of 1 April 2025. I am pleased to have been offered this position, and am excited to continue my support to the College for the forseeable future.
Curriculum Development and Implementation
Significant progress continues on the development of our curriculum documents. We have finalised the curriculum applicable to the pre-2025 training programme and work continues on completing the new curriculum for the programme that started in 2025. The latter has undergone extensive internal and external consultation, and we are now incorporating final feedback. This work is closely linked to essential monitoring and evaluation activities to ensure that the syllabus, training programme structure, learning opportunities and assessments are achieving the programme and graduate outcomes described in the curriculum. We will be employing a learning and development specialist later in the year to lead this activity, reporting to the educational and executive committees along with any recommendations for changes.
Medical Council Accreditation
As a designated vocational educational provider, the College undergoes periodic accreditation by the Medical Council. A comprehensive self-assessment report is required and is a significant undertaking, expected to take several months to complete. We submit this in mid-August 2025 followed by an accreditation team visit in late October 2025. We anticipate that the process will identify areas requiring improvement, potentially leading to new projects this year or next to ensure full compliance with accreditation standards.
Constitutional Amendments
In parallel with the governance review, the Societies Act 2022 requires that we submit an updated constitution by April 2026. This essential task will be addressed this year, with an initial proposal to hold an SGM around the same time as Bootcamp (see the DPD report for information on this). Recommendations for amendments will be informed by decisions arising from the governance review, our alignment with other Colleges, accreditation standards, as well as the Act.
TalentLMS – our learning resources management system
Our new online learning platform, TalentLMS, has been launched for all members. The Urgent Care Course has been successfully migrated and significantly updated. A key objective for the coming year involves consolidating all College learning resources onto TalentLMS. This aims to create a single, comprehensive portal. We anticipate recruiting additional staff to support this migration and will provide updates on timelines later in the year.
Annual Survey Follow-Up
Thank you to all who participated in the annual survey. My evaluation review is complete, and recommendations regarding communication strategies for the training programme, its requirements, and support structures have been forwarded to the Education and Professional Standards Committees. The full evaluation report is available within the AGM documentation folder; a link will be provided in the formal AGM notification next week.
Strategic Plan 2025-2030
Work on the College’s strategic plan for 2025-2030, previously paused pending clarity on governance changes, is now resuming. Valuable input was gathered during the boot camp discussion last year. I am now actively developing the strategy document further and aim to present a more populated version for consultation later this year.
As mentioned, there is a lot going on! I will aim to keep everyone updated as we progress through the year, but if you wish for more information please feel free to email me and we can set up a time to chat.
Adrian
General Manager RNZCUC