The RPS Assembly is the key decision-making body of RPS which is responsible for setting strategic direction, financial management and organisational governance.
Commenting on the following decisions made by the Assembly, RPS President Professor Claire Anderson said:
Membership of FIP
“I’m pleased the Assembly is supportive of re-joining the International Pharmaceutical Federation, (FIP) subject to further discussion with FIP after their September Council meeting and consulting with our membership, with outcome of that engagement for decision at our next Assembly meeting in November."
Royal College status
"We will continue to pursue our ambitions in professional education and development through our assessment and credentialling work and seek delegated authority to become the provider of this for pharmacy.
"We will incorporate pursuit of Royal College status into our strategy whenever it is appropriate and at that time ask our membership for their views to gauge the level of support for this move.
“We will soon publish the key priorities within our strategy for education and membership, which outlines our determination to ensure the profession’s future and parity with other professions by enabling individuals to continually progress through their careers.”
Increasing member involvement and improving transparency
“At my request an independent review is being undertaken by communications consultancy Luther Pendragon into how RPS members, elected members and stakeholders can feel engaged, informed, and empowered to influence decisions about RPS policy, as well as increasing transparency around decision-making at Board and Assembly level.
“Recommendations following the review will be made public in September, as will the subsequent decisions made by Assembly to implement the review.
“Assembly has agreed some requests made at the AGM to improve transparency and requested further information to be presented at the next meeting on the implication of others, for example recording Assembly and Board meetings.”
RPS Governance
“We strive for good governance which enables sound strategic and financial decisions on behalf of members to deliver the aims of our Charter. After the Commission into professional leadership has reported, we will review our governance at the appropriate time.”
Member donations
“The Assembly agreed to consider options for members to donate to a charity of their choice when they renew their membership, or join as members, as part of our commitment to corporate social responsibility.
“We will continue our long alliance with the profession’s charity, Pharmacist Support, which helps pharmacists, trainees and their families with stress, mental health and financial worries.
“We will be running our 4th annual workforce wellbeing survey in partnership with Pharmacist Support from September and will publish the results by the end of the year.”
Professional Indemnity
“As part of our work to provide services that are needed, we have surveyed members to understand the appetite for RPS professional indemnity insurance services.”
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion data
“We have committed to collecting the EDI data of members, boards and advisory groups, with a particular focus on the Committees of the Assembly. There are challenges with collecting this data as submitting it is voluntary. Assembly raised the need to progress with obtaining full datasets for these groups to build a more accurate picture of their diversity and requested longer term methods of collecting EDI data were explored to facilitate this.”
Other motions were also discussed and were noted as issues to be referred to the Country Boards.
Find out how RPS is governed by our Assembly and Boards