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)