Occupational Therapy News OTnews January 2019 | Page 48

message from the CHIEF EXECUTIVE Well, what a year it’s been. As I cast my mind back, I realise that it’s been a year of many ‘firsts’; our first, full year as a Royal College, for instance. Since confirming our royal status in April 2017, we have consistently continued to build on our strengths as an organisation, and our visibility is growing fast. travelled across the four nations to meet with as many of you as possible and gather your thoughts and plans for the future. It was those very conversations that shaped our new Strategic Intentions. I can’t thank you enough for your contributions towards securing the future of our profession. This year in fact, we received over 100 requests for expert advice and input from politicians across all four UK nations, local authorities, government departments, universities, NHS England, Health Education England and other professional bodies… The list goes on. It goes to show that we no longer have to knock on other people’s doors for their attention – people are coming to us. At the end of our first whole year as a Royal College, we are an established, thriving professional community that is on the map. And speaking of the future, it was wonderful to see new universities announcing their plans to develop new occupational therapy undergraduate courses and apprenticeship schemes this year – a clear sign that demand is growing and young people are keen to embark upon a career as occupational therapists. This has been the year that saw us bring our conference to Belfast again for the first time in 20 years, and the first time we joined forces with the Association of Occupational Therapists of Ireland (AOTI) at the event. It’s also been the year of our busiest Occupational Therapy Week to date – with steady growth over the last few years, 2018 saw the most activity across our social media channels and the most varied occupational therapy-related celebrations across all UK countries. So well done to all of you. We continue to provide outstanding value to our members, and the numbers prove it. We have now abundantly exceeded 33,000 members, and 91 per cent of those who attended our conference rated it good or excellent – so we must be doing something right. Our Improving Lives, Saving Money campaign this year galvanised many of you to share data from your services, and this in turn helped us paint a detailed picture of the impact of occupational therapy. There are so many fantastic examples – for instance, occupational therapists working in inpatient mental health services helped reduce length of stay in hospital by 20 per cent i , or that occupational therapy-led services in primary care mental health have led to annual savings of over £140,000 ii . With this intelligence, we are able to command the attention of Ministers of State right through to colleagues working in a shared department or a GP practice. It’s also been a year of new beginnings – in May, HRH the Princess Royal launched our new Strategic Intentions for 2018 to 2023, at a wonderful event in London. Over several months before the launch, I 2 We know the landscape of service provision is changing and that this is likely to have an impact on many of you. But remember, your Royal College is here for you, and we will be doing our best to support you through these challenging but exciting times. As we look forward to 2019, the Department of Health and Social Care’s prevention agenda will mean many of us will need to change the way we work, see people earlier and deal more with lifestyle conditions. This will be both a challenge and a huge opportunity to have an even greater impact on the health and wellbeing of the people we serve, as well as to promote the value of what we do to a wider audience. Personally, I feel a sense of huge excitement for the many new developments for the profession; the growing role for occupational therapists in prisons, fire and rescue services, primary care, perinatal and community- based services to name a few. But I also have a sense of great pride in our traditional, well-established services that continue, against all odds, to meet people’s needs at a time of ongoing austerity and change. Thank you all for your work, for flying the flag for occupational therapy, and for continuing to be such supportive members. Here’s to you and all that we’ve done together in 2018. Julia Scott, Chief Executive i ii Source: Getting my Life Back (RCOT, 2018) Source: Getting my Life Back (RCOT, 2018)