We publish this week the candidates for the Council election (see p536). Whatever happens this year, we are bound to see at least three new faces on the Council because three retiring members are not standing again. We do not intend to speculate on who will be elected, because to do so would be invidious. But it would be safe to say that those joining the Council do so at a particularly challenging time. The external pressures are many and include demands to improve professional standards through clinical governance and regulation, initiatives to develop new practice models such as medicines management, moves to develop pharmacist prescribing and pharmacy strategies for public health. All these issues, and many others, will require sureness of touch if they are to be dealt with satisfactorily.
There are internal challenges, too. The Council has yet fully to settle into its new ways of working after implementation of the Banks report. It has yet to be comfortable with the concept of meeting less frequently and concentrating on strategy, while leaving committees and the staff to implement policy.
So, any new Council member will not only have the job of shaping outward looking policy, but he or she will be in a position to influence the format of the internal policy making machine.
The task is formidable on both fronts and the inherent difficulties should not be underestimated. This is why it is important that Council members should be able to feel that they have the support of the profession when they come to make their decisions. One of the ways of ensuring this is for members to use their votes in the Council election in large numbers. At the moment, something like 19 per cent do so. Many more need to exercise their franchise. Perhaps the profession should at least try to pass the 25 per cent mark this year.
We acknowledge that not all members are happy with the election process - many feel, for instance, that they do not know candidates well enough to form a judgment about them - but we suggest that they should not let this stand in the way of voting. There should be enough clues in the biographical details of candidates and their statements of policy to form a view about whether a particular candidate will pursue policies of which an individual member will approve.
For the future, reform is firmly on the agenda. The constitution of the Council is being looked at by the Society's Health Act working party as part of a general review of the Society's self-regulation processes. The working party is issuing a series of consultation papers, one of which is to be on the make-up of the Council. Members will be able to express their views. In the short term, however, they have another opportunity to exercise their democratic rights - by voting in the Council election.