AGNC Committee Meeting Minutes 12th November 2014
Great Ormond Street Hospital, London
Present: Laura Boyes (Chair), Pam Harris , Anita Bruce (Vice Chair), Anna Middleton, Catherine Houghton, Liwsi Kim Protheroe-Davies (Treasurer), Helen Jolley (New GC rep - incoming), Peter Marks (secretary), Claire Giffney (New GC rep - outgoing)
Minutes from last meeting:
AM offered room at Wellcome Trust for future meetings.
PM to chase Dina re: online voting for future elections - ongoing.
LK liaised with Dina re: non-attender at spring meeting. Unlikely to recover costs. Non-attender was non-member of AGNC. LK suggested online payment up front as solution. This is being brought in through BSGM via PayPal. LK wonders if we can tag on to this account and hopefully have charity status in order to minimise fee. LB suggested that invoicing option will still be desired by some. Consensus that PayPal would be ideal. LK to liaise with Dina by February 2015.
BSGM chair (LB). Council meeting in June 2014. Message was that, informally, it is AGNC turn for chair position next. Subsequent discussion about who to approach was had. Scientists a relatively large group so ?whether this group to have a second person in chair role before AGNC representative in chair. Bill Newman, however, subsequently approached for position. LB and CH queried this as Bill is consultant geneticist. No scientists felt they could take this on at this time due to lab reconfiguration. At council meeting in September 2014 it was suggested that selection process should be more transparent and that each constituent group should nominate a candidate in future. CH would prefer rotation to this. LB noted difficulty in finding someone with right level of experience and authority. Process is vice chair for two years, chair for a year then outgoing chair for a year. Four year commitment therefore. LB to approach Georgie Hall about potentially standing for this position in the future.
Lab restructuring (LB/PH). Longer project than anticipated. Estimated completion 2016. Hopefully there will be jobs for all existing staff in hub and spoke model. CH raised concern that there may not be enough scientists to cover all posts.
Health Service Journal article regarding AVR. AM suggested the content of this would also be suitable for a BMJ letter. LB suggested that this should be suspended until regulation issues resolved.
AB and AM had meeting with Alison Male August 2014 re: IFs. Consensus was that IFs discovered unavoidably through array CGH, for instance, should be disclosed eg. BRCA mutation.
Terms of reference discussed with amendments as discussed by email. AM raised point about AGNC members who may be in academia or research. AB to modify definition to include these. Otherwise all agreed on these. AB to put on website and Google Drive.
PH has taken over CRG representation. She raised issue of re-wording definition of dashboard 11c. LB suggested re-wording slightly. PH to re-word and send around committee members by email. Quality and cost-effectiveness very hard to measure.
Vision statement. CH wondered if this was a succinct document that would be useful for GEL and HEE to read. LB agreed that this would be a good idea. LB to take statement to next meeting with Sue Hill.
Letter to Mark Bale (DH civil servant - Genetics and Genomics Lead). LB received letter from GEL. She responded offering to meet but has received no response. To further liaise with HEE instead.
AM and AB to attend genomics meeting 3rd December 2014.
Workforce planning. For agenda item in February and June 2015 meetings.
Trainee GC title item suspended.
NIHR grant (LB). Caroline Benjamin had drafted a letter about why GCs should be eligible for these. Sue Hill and Val Davison felt GCs would be eligible if regulated by HCPC in future. Suspend this item. LB has informed Caroline Benjamin about this.
Trainee day was success (CG). To repeat in future.
Survey Monkey account for AGNC discussed. AB suggested that Lime Survey account could be used. AM to claim expenses incurred through workforce planning survey. CH and PM could use Birmingham Women’s Hospital Survey Monkey account for sharing good practice work.
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Agenda Proper
Chair’s report. See joint committee meeting minutes from 11.11.2014. Further to this, another option was condensing conference into two days. CH wondered if timing of BSGM conference later in year was prohibitive in terms of study leave funding having been used earlier in the year. General agreement that budgets may not necessarily be aligned with financial years and that they are likely planned over the year. CH also wondered if having the conference programme published further in advance might help encourage attendance. LB wondered if having a spring meeting every year was necessary. Perhaps specialist courses concurrent with BSGM conference would encourage attendance.
JCGM. LB mentioned ‘Enigma’ project, which aims to share BRCA VUS data in order to better classify variants. A project of John Burn. See joint committee minutes from 11.11.14. Ian Frayling keen for NICE guidance to recommend that IHC/MSI is done for bowel cancers at POD. Dr Lishman, RCP president, to discuss greater consideration of the evidence base for management of rare disease. Hilary Burton spoke about genomics in mainstream medicine. Lyn Chitty supportive of GCs’ role in NIPD, though GCs may not be as involved as she anticipates in this, particularly the Down syndrome testing in pregnancy.
Vice Chair report (AB). UKGTN has produced guidelines for BRCA testing. PM raised issue of ‘registered GC’ being on the specification and whether unregistered GCs can request genetic tests. LB suggested this is an issue for lead GC in each centre.
Treasurer’s report (LK). Subscriptions down but not a reflection of numbers. AVR donation actually £6000 despite £1000 on report (as came out of income from spring meeting cheques). LB raised travel awards. Could we use AGNC funds to help fund GC education/training for eg. genomics, attendance at ESHG. Cost of latter conference in advance only 200 Euro if an ESHG member (50 Euro). LB suggested funding 20 places (3000 Euro). Could exclude people who have received travel awards. Could fund one GC per department (23-25 centres). Would be offered as grant (cost of funding one place if ESHG member). Agreed no need to put to membership vote as one-off initiative. To invite leads to submit application from each centre with details of each individual to attend. Would need to be AGNC member. PM to email leads and advertise in BSGM newsletter by December 2014.AM to contact Mark Longmuir about possibility of bespoke genomics workshop at ESHG. LK raised DH money for training panel now under our management - not for AGNC use and for training panel use only. Auditor raised question of whether we have an obligation to ensure the original amount in the account is maintained - LK has explained that this was not the intention and that the amount will reduce as the training panel use it, would be helpful for official documentation of this agreement to be available but not essential. LK to email Cath King to see if she has paperwork for this.
Nurse education in genetics (LK). Maggie Kirk (University of Glamorgan) pleased to be asked about this and to be involved. Her report on this will be published next year. PH suggested that raising awareness of genetics for nurses is difficult, particularly since her dept began charging for genetics training. LB wondered if it might be worth linking up Maggie Kirk and HEE. There will be a need for training outside of the scope of the MSc Genomic Medicine. AM suggested that Maggie may have been setting up a course for nurses in genetics. AM to email Maggie Kirk about this. LK to email AM with Maggie’s response to her. AB raised point that it is in GC workforce’s interest to promote nursing genetics education and that it may benefit our position with HEE to highlight the unmet need. PM toadd as agenda item for February 2015 meeting.
New GC issues (CG). One member wondered if in research post after having done less than three years clinical work can they remain in New GC group? Terms of reference just suggests ‘post’ rather than particular type of post. General agreement that individuals should not be excluded if they feel they wish to remain in the New GC group due to particular circumstances. The three year aspect is more of a guideline. Members could stay on after three years if they wish. Could encourage AGNC Yahoo group peer support beyond that. LB asked CG if there is anything to be improved with the New GC group. Email group not used as much as anticipated even after the trainee meeting. Over twenty members at present. CG wondered if the group could convene at large conferences. HJ to think about this as a possibility.PM to advertise free student membership of AGNC in BSGM newsletter by Dec 2014.
Yahoo group (AB). Raised issue of Yahoo group usage. Recent use for advertising job for private company. LB spoke to Vicky Kiesel regarding this. She agreed that advertising through AGNC is associated with a fee if a non-NHS organisation. LB also discussed with her about standards for GCs in private practice. General agreement that GCRB regulation will be important in this regard.
LB to reply to Vicky Kiesel regarding use of Yahoo group in relation to recent request to post videos on there. Consensus that Yahoo group is to remain unmoderated at this point.
Private practice. AB and AM to produce a fact sheet around advice for working in private practice eg. to include professional indemnity, adherence to code of ethics etc. To ask for input from Chris Patch, too.
Logos (AB). Item suspended in view of present priorities.
Travel awards (PM). Agreed to award Sian Jenkins the £300 travel award. No other applications. PM to email LK with the details. Committee representative to congratulate Sian.
Executive Business Support Ltd. (LK). No further action.
Committee Terms of Reference already discussed.
Mileage rates (LK). Our mileage expenses have not increased in line with NHS allowances. LK to increase rates in line with NHS guidance. LK to alter mileage claim form and website to reflect this.
Sharing good practice (CH/PM). See joint meeting minutes from 11.11.2014. CH/PM aim to have data from survey by June 2015 meeting. CG mentioned that Birmingham GCs are compiling information to try to produce protocols around referrals outwards from genetics. This may inform the work.
BSGM newsletter. Sharing practice. New GC rep change. AVR and vote outcome. Laura to provide paragraph on engagement with HEE. General sentence about AGNC being keen to ensure workforce is trained for changes in genomics. Welcome new committee members and thanks to Cath and Oonagh. ESHG awards (see above). PM to send round group prior to submission in Dec 2014.
Spring meeting feedback (LB). Generally positive. Some comments about speakers not keeping to time. AB to check with Cath King if Bristol thanked for hosting. PH asked about spring meeting in 2016 as Liverpool were expecting to host. LB to check with BSGM council about arrangements for 2016 meetings (by Feb 2015).
Matters arising from joint meeting yesterday (LB). HEE. Issues include: MSc provision, regulation/GCRB, training would be centralised - outside of departmental control, title. AM asked if we would be involved in evaluation of tendering process for MSc courses. LB/AM to raise this at meeting with Sue Hill on 19th Dec 2014. Discussion around whether it would be most appropriate to be under jurisdiction of chief scientific officer or chief allied health professional officer. The latter has not expressed interest in GCs to date. CH asked if the GCRB would continue to exist if we became regulated by Academy of Healthcare Scientists. It may become subsidiary of AHCS. General approval of idea of three year intercalated MSc training programme for GCs. LB suggested that she is happy to tell Sue that we are interested in aligning the training with modernising scientific careers. LB to ask Sue Hill about involvement in putting together the MSc course.
Workforce planning. AB to send LB list of centres that didn’t respond to survey.
AOB
Roles. New treasurer required when LK completes term in September 2015. PM to add to agenda for Feb 2015.
Meeting dates and locations. February: Birmingham. Tuesday 24th February. LB to look into room availability for both Feb and June. June: Birmingham or Glasgow. Joint meeting with reps (JCGCR, GCTP, lead GC). PM to email these reps to see if they are going to ESHG. Could make this 10th-11th June in Glasgow or 23rd-24th in Bham/London.
Claire Giffney thanked by all for her role as New GC rep.
AB thanked for hosting meetings.