The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 271 No 7257 p65
12 July 2003

Society summary

From the president

Progress on the modernisation of the Society

A statement from the President of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, Dr Gillian Hawksworth, FRPharmS

I am delighted to be able to report to members that the Council has made significant progress towards identifying a new organisational model that should meet the aspirations of all those concerned about the future of our profession.

The new Council of the Society met on Wednesday 2 July for a full day of detailed discussion on the models for the structure of the reformed Society. The purpose was to consider the resolutions on the Society's structure passed at the special general meeting on 1 June, in the light of the many discussions that have been held recently around Britain.

The objective could hardly be more important — to create a future Council and supporting structures that are fit and appropriate for the new century.

As you will see from the report of the meeting that follows, the Council spent the morning teasing out the various strands of the Society's work, weighing up the various opportunities and constraints, and being clear about the interrelationships between these strands and the overall purpose of the Council and the Society. In the afternoon, we then worked through three alternative models for a future Council. We appraised them rigorously and objectively against the criteria we had defined in the morning.

Twenty-two out of 24 members of the Council were present in the morning; 23 out of 24 were present in the afternoon. After an excellent discussion — conducted, as you would expect, in a spirit of seeking the best for the future of the profession — we have reached agreement on three key issues:

• First, any structure we adopt must allow the Society to discharge equally its roles of professional leadership and development and "modern regulation" in an integrated fashion, characterised by joined-up policy development throughout. In every case, the Society must speak with one voice to the outside world, if it is to have any impact at all.

• Secondly, the Society must be equally effective both as a professional body and as a regulator. To achieve this, the professional leadership and development functions — or "professional representation", in the terms of the SGM motion — must be substantial, credible and have a well-resourced place within the Society to ensure that they achieve equal prominence with the regulatory functions. We explored several ways of achieving this, and more work will now be carried out as a matter of urgency to develop this further. This is now a high priority.

• Finally, we agreed that if both of the above were to be discharged in an effective, sustainable and credible way, the Society must have one overarching governing body, accountable for all its functions, with a majority of pharmacists elected by the membership and, firmly associated with this, there must be a structure that engages the leading experts in the relevant fields, together with a much broader cross-section of the membership.

These principles are vital: they set the guidelines within which we can now work up the detail.

This whole issue has generated considerable concern for many months. There are complex issues to be explored and debated. I think that on 2 July the new Council reached substantial agreement on a number of key issues about which there had previously been misunderstanding and disagreement. Everyone's aim is an effective and appropriate Society for the future. We are developing a model that will achieve it.