President writes to all members on new Charter
The President of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, Dr Gill Hawksworth, has written to every member of the Society to announce that the Council has petitioned the Privy Council for a new Royal Charter (see p819).
The letter is accompanied by a copy of the final version of the proposed
new Charter.
The letter also thanks all those pharmacists who took time to comment
on the draft version of the Charter and those who were involved in organising
local and regional meetings to help give pharmacists an opportunity to
comment.
The letter reads as follows:
Dear Colleague
I am taking the highly unusual step of writing to every member of the
Society individually to tell you that the Council has now petitioned
the Privy Council for a new Royal Charter for the Society. This is a
crucially important development for the Society as it seeks to move forward
as a world-class professional body and regulator with up-to-date powers,
governance and ways of working.
The Society’s current Charter has served the profession well for
50 years, enabling us to undertake a much broader range of activities
than is set down in our governing legislation. Now, as we seek a robust,
modern framework for the Society and the profession, we need an up-to-date
Charter to take us into the future and allow us to retain the vital advantages
of chartered status. In particular, a new Charter will underpin the Society’s
key functions of professional leadership and development, roles that
the Council wants to strengthen and enhance.
Since last March, when the first draft of the new Charter was published,
we have been working to make sure that every pharmacist has had the opportunity
to have their say on the new Charter. The consultation involved a great
deal of activity in our branches and regions and I should like to thank
our local committees for all their excellent work. I should also like
to thank the many individual pharmacists who took the time to comment
on the first and second drafts. I think that most of those who responded
recognised the great opportunity of acquiring a new Charter along with
our new legislation. We are very grateful to all who shared with us such
a wealth of views and ideas which were carefully considered by the Council.
Some members expressed strong concerns and doubts about aspects of the
Charter. The Council took these concerns very seriously as an important
expression of the high regard in which the membership holds the Society’s
chartered status. Having listened to what pharmacists said, the Council
was able to make changes on both occasions that have greatly improved
and strengthened the document.
I enclose, for your information, a copy of the final
draft of the new Charter that has been sent, together with our petition, to the Privy
Council. If our petition succeeds, I am confident that we shall have
a new Charter that will support the work of the Society and the future
of the profession for many years to come. Thank you all for your very
valuable contribution to this crucial element of the Society’s
reform programme.
Yours sincerely,
Gill Hawksworth
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