SEC/19/13
MINUTES OF THE SCOTTISH TRAINING & RECRUITMENT GROUP (STARG) MEETING
ON FRIDAY 15 March 2013 AT 13.30
1. Present
Dr Tom Brown (Chair), Dr Johan Leuvennink, Professor Lindsay Thomson, Rob Embry, Dr Daniel Bennett, Mhairi Hepburn, Johanna Brown, Dr Craig Melville, Sukhmeet Singh, Dr Angela Cogan
In Attendance:
Miss Christine Caithness, Karen Addie
2. Apologies
Samantha Perera, Dr Neil Masson, Elpida Papadantonaki, Dr Richard Day, Kathuria Laxmi, Dr Sam Wilson, Ben Grey, Dr Audrey Morrison
Absent
Alex McLean, Gary Cooney, Katie Ann Reid, Dr Anne Conway-Morris,
3. Minutes of the meeting held on 28 September 2012
The minutes of the meeting held on 28 September 2012 were accepted as a true and accurate record with no amendments
4. Matters Arising
(i) Summer School –Future plans
Mhairi Hepburn led on this and said she had looked at possible venues for holding the event in Dundee this year and Dalhousie Building was a contender. The dates for the summer school have not been agreed yet but Tom Brown said we need to know the dates as quickly as possible. Mhairi advised that she had received support for the event from various people.
She had looked at the venue and costs and considers it is feasible but needs to get the go ahead from Audrey Morrison. Lindsay Thomson gave details of how Edinburgh had approached the event last year and said she had a checklist which she had already made available to Audrey for information. She will send the checklist to Christine to forward to all STARG members.
Mhairi said she had spoken to the Undergraduate Dean and potential funding seems good. Suggested dates for the event were discussed as 31 August and 1 September 2013. Tom again emphasised that we need to get dates agreed now.
Mhairi said Dundee is very keen to host the event and speakers had been considered and suggestions made. Lindsay gave ideas about content. It needs to be entertaining as well as practical. Students are sophisticated so a high level of scientific content is needed. Mhairi said she will speak to Audrey, and it was also suggested that Tom also speak directly to Audrey.
Tom mentioned funding in other areas, and said that some individual schools received good funding. There were 12 summer schools last year throughout the country so this is a project that has taken off. The college will not fund summer schools and there was various discussions about how funding could be achieved. It was mentioned that there needed to be a financial commitment to ensure students who applied to attend actually turned up and the level of this was also discussed.
It is important to get the summer school advert out as soon as possible.
Lindsay suggested that we get some commitment for next year’s venue, and Craig Melville said he would talk to colleagues about the possibility of Glasgow for 2014. Ideas for accommodating students were discussed. It was thought that it was better to accommodate them with other students if that was possible.
Actions:
· Lindsay Thomson to send checklist to Christine for onward transmission to STARG group
· Tom Brown and Mhairi Hepburn to speak to Audrey Morrison about moving Dundee venue forward
· Craig Melville to discuss with colleagues about the possibility of Glasgow hosting the event in 2014
(ii) Teaching Skills Course update
The feedback from the 2012 course was discussed. Angela Cogan said she had sent the results of this feedback to Christine Caithness but she will resend and Christine will forward on to the STARG members.
The date for the 2013 course has been agreed as 7 & 8 November 2013 and the venue will be in The City of Glasgow College again, but at a different site. The venue has been provisionally booked and Angela Cogan is to visit to determine whether the accommodation will meet the needs of the course.
Christine will put the course on the website as a “Date for your diary”.
Eligibility for the course was discussed and it was decided that ST4 - ST6 would be given priority but Lindsay Thomson felt that staff grades would also benefit and it was suggested that we set aside 4 places for staff grades. The final decision on eligibility will be made soon.
Actions:
· Angela Cogan to visit venue to confirm suitable
· Angela Cogan to send feedback results to Christine for onward transmission to STARG members
· Christine to put “Date in your Diary” on the website
(iii) Career Fairs
Tom asked what is happening around the country in respect of career fairs.
· Lindsay said they have annual one and Karen Addie added that there had been 2 in Edinburgh recently.
o Neil Masson had already reported to Tom that there had been 2 in Glasgow
· The position in Dundee was not known at this time
Tom pointed out that there were career booklets available, and if anyone was doing a careers fair there were posters available from Keisha Allen at the college in London. However, people should contact Christine first as the office in Scotland may have what they are looking for.
(iv) Engaging Secondary School Students
Tom advised that Laurence Mynors-Wallis has put excellent guidance on facilitating placements on the college website and he has emailed the link to this. There is a prototype agreement from an English Trust and there is a template available.
Employers need to be encouraged to facilitate placements. Lindsay said that Edinburgh was keen to take part in this but Royal Edinburgh does not allow placements. Johan Leuvennink said he has had similar experiences and Craig Melville said in Glasgow it is the Health Board policy not to allow placements. Tom said that when this happens people should be pointed to college guidance on this issue.
Rob Embry said his experience at schools was that it was difficult to identify pupils who would be interested in placement. Lindsay suggested that in Edinburgh the block on placements was particularly in Psychiatry and they were pursuing this.
Tom said that we should organise a lecture for school students. For the next meeting, Tom asked for topics and suggestions for a speaker.. Lindsay suggested video conferencing and Tom said he would contact the Royal College of Physicians to get some advice. Tom said he would try and get some dates for lectures, possibly in December.
Actions:
· Tom to contact Royal College of Physicians
5. Recruitment Strategy – Feedback
Tom gave some feedback on the Recruitment Strategy
· Last year there was an increase in appointments to CT1. Quality of applicants had improved
· A Trainee Website Editor had been appointed for Student Associate Pages. Any student who wishes to provide items etc for these can do so – this would look good on a student’s CV.
Tom reported that it had been brought to the attention of PRIP that some medical schools gave negative feedback on the quality of Psychiatric teaching. One of the issues raised was that academics were not giving enough lectures to undergraduates. Lindsay said that lectures from academics were indeed important. Lecturers should be consultants or supervised trainees.
Dundee had 38 lectures in their 3rd year block last year. Most are done by consultants (more NHS than academic staff), one by a non-medical psychotherapist, three by a non-medical psychopharmacologist. Last year 7 were delivered by trainees (5 of these by Mhairi). They also had small group tutorials and clinical skills sessions. These were delivered by doctors at all levels from consultants to FY2s. The majority of sessions were covered by trainees due to lack of consultant availability. Mhairi did some training for FYs and CTs before the block. The block had excellent feedback, much of it naming NHS clinicians including trainees as providing good teaching, and Mhairi did not think that lack of lectures by academic staff is a problem there.
Aberdeen had fewer academically trained staff.
Tom asked whether anyone had attended Medfest. There is a film which will be uploaded to the website on 26 March 2013 called “A different life”. Jo Brown said that it did not go down well in her area as people did not feel it was realistic. Mhairi suggested it depended on the audience – Scotland more cynical! There followed a discussion on the merits of the film, but Tom said that it was only a 5 minute clip so he felt that much of the criticism was unfair. However, students still felt feedback was not positive. Sukneet Singh suggested that some of the problem may have been with the editing. Jo said a quick straw poll found that the Midwifery film was more likely to attract students to that field than the psychiatry film to psychiatry.
Tom asked Jo to email him the results of the straw poll to feedback to the film makers
Actions:
· Jo Brown to email results of straw poll to Tom
6. Pathfinder Fellows
Tom advised that the Pathfinder Fellows was a huge success. There had been 106 applications and the standard was excellent.
10 people had been appointed, 2 from Edinburgh. The process of finding mentors for these is now in progress.
Positive feedback has been given to all applicants.
7. Feedback from Psychiatric Societies.
Sukhmeet Singh said there had been positive feedback from Glasgow and Lindsay Thomson said there was good attendance in Edinburgh.
Mhairi said many interested students are not members of Psychiatric Societies. It was felt that there was a need to remind the Societies that they are entitled to funding of £500 from the college but they need to account for how it is spent.
Sukhmeet said they had been told that they cannot have free accommodation for next year for the Glasgow society, and Angela Cogan said she will take this up.
8. Foundation Training
The data has been published for FY1 -2 posts in each deanery. Scotland does well in FY2 posts but not so well in FY1. Scotland is trailing behind in FY1 posts (second bottom). There appears to be resistance in Scotland to increasing F1 posts to the level targeted in England and Wales and Tom will take this forward and discuss with Moira Connelly.
Action:
· Tom to talk to Moira Connelly
9. AOCB
· Tom asked whether we should keep the “3 strikes and you’re out” rule for members of the group who do not attend meetings. It was agreed we should keep this rule.
· Tom advised that the latest Michael Goldacre paper on recruitment was now published in the BJPsych and should be read. Very informative. There are more tables in the online version . Tom may set up on-line email with him for ideas.
· Lindsay Thomson mentioned the Undergraduate Teaching Group. Tom said he had received the minutes of this group. Lindsay asked whether it would be possible to link with them via video conferencing and Tom said that when the college moved to their new premises in London there would be more access to video conferencing. Lindsay wondered if the group was too English orientated and suggested a rep from this group. Tom will pursue this.
Action –
· Tom to email Ania Korszun
10. Date and Place of next meeting
Friday 7 June 2013, BMA Offices. Edinburgh at 1.30pm.
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