Now that I have had some time to settle into my new role I have been able to better outline how I can contribute to what that College is aiming to achieve over the next year. This is an exciting opportunity and I am grateful to the London Ambulance Service and the College in facilitating this appointment.
Primarily we need to expand the College of Paramedics' capacity to ensure that our members receive the support and service that they have rightly come to expect. Our membership continues to grow at a healthy rate and we need to continue working to find new ways to better support the membership and expand on the range of member benefits. We are continuing to increase the number of high-quality CPD events across the UK and I hope to work closely with and support all the regional groups to ensure that as many CPD opportunities can be made available to satisfy demand in each area.
We are continuing to make improvements to the functionality of our website and will work on a schedule over the forthcoming months which will update content. We still have more functions and facilities that need to be brought online and will be informing our members as this happens. Updating our website has been a difficult process and has taken longer than expected so we thank members for their patience. We have also seen a large increase in members following the College's Facebook and Twitter feeds. This has proved to be of great benefit to us as it allows rapid feedback and open discussion, and we are grateful of all of those who have taken part. We can keep you up-to-date with what is going on across the organisation, so if you haven't yet done so, follow us on Twitter @ParamedicsUK and on Facebook /CollegeofParamedics.
‘Our membership continues to grow at a healthy rate and we need to continue working to find new ways to better support the membership’
What has been noticeable over the last 12 months is the increased exposure of the College of Paramedics within the national media. Interviews with College representatives are becoming more regular on national TV news programmes, newspapers and radio. This is a significant positive step forward as the concerns of the profession can be voiced and discussed openly and more frequently, all of which raises the profile of the paramedic profession. Fundamentally, the more paramedics, student paramedics and associates that are members of the College of Paramedics, the greater and stronger the voice we will have. I am sure that this trend will continue, and the values of our profession will be fully communicated and represented.
We also need to look at how we improve communication across the organisation and most importantly, with our members. We are looking at better and more effective use of social media, podcasts and web-based systems. This will take time and I will be actively working with members to establish what works. This year we are hosting a national College of Paramedics conference and I hope to meet many of you there. Don't forget to book your place quickly as this will be a very popular event and I hope to see as many of you there as possible.
I will be working very closely with the Chief Executive and the Executive, supporting the Governing Council but most importantly, I want to represent the profession positively and reflect the thoughts and feeling of our members. I will be trying to meet with as many members as physically possible over the next 12 months so if you see me at any of the College events, please come and say hello.