Royal College of Psychiatrists
Child and Adolescent Faculty
Regional Representatives Committee
Regional Representative Information Sheet
Introduction
My name is Jonathan Prosser, I am a Consultant Child and Adolescent
Psychiatrist currently working for Sussex Foundation Partnership Trust in the
Fareham and Gosport locality. For several years now I have been ‘Regional
Representative for Wessex’ and have recently taken over Chairmanship of the
Regional Representatives Committee which meets quarterly at the Royal
College and at the Annual Residential Meeting. This information sheet is to
explain something of the role of the Regional Representative, and how we
feed into the structure of the Royal College of Psychiatrists.
Faculty and Divisions of the Royal College
There are at least two ways by which members can participate in and
contribute to college life – either via the Regional Divisional structures, or via
the specialty Faculty relevant to them.
In our case, Wessex is a somewhat anomalous region, comprising part of the
South East Division and part of the South West Division and traditionally Child
and Adolescent Psychiatrists in Wessex have not had much to do with our
divisional college structure. Wessex does have its own regional adviser –
currently Tom Schlich AMH Southampton, and I advise him on approval of
CAMHS jobs created in Wessex.
As child and adolescent psychiatrists, we have formed a strong identity as the
Wessex Group (of all grades) meeting termly to maintain informal links and
information sharing, as well as undertaking educational activities and a
business meeting.
It is through these termly Wessex meetings that myself, as a Regional
Representative, can feed back matters arising in the Regional
Representatives Committee or the Faculty Executive Committee of the
college, as well as represent the views and questions of Wessex Psychiatrist
to those committees.
The Regional Representatives Committee broadly has three roles:

To collect and synthesise feedback from Child and Adolescent Faculty
members on matters of concern to them, especially where they appear
to represent a common experience or trend that Faculty Executive
should take a position on.

To be the place where Royal College initiatives are discussed in terms
of impact in regions and formulate feedback messages to constituent
members and the faculty executive committee.

To be the conduit by which specific questions arising at the Faculty
Executive Committee level can be raised with constituent members of
the Faculty on the shop floor so to speak, in order to provide feedback
to the next meeting.
What does this mean for you
Now, more than ever before, I think it’s important to make use of whatever
professional structures exist to safeguard the values of professionalism in a
rapid changing (and somewhat de-professionalising) clinical provider
environment. As a group of regional reps, we are aiming to strengthen
communication between the Faculty Executive Committee and Constituent
Members by reviewing how the Regional Representatives have done their
business in the past, and changing the way we communicate amongst
ourselves, with the Executive Committee, and with our membership in
general.
We are looking to initiate a website presence so that members can read what
the Regional Representatives Committee are up to, as well as keeping
abreast of Faculty developments, and via which communication can be
enhanced. We want the Faculty to be better connected to its membership
and we believe that the Regional Representatives role can be so much more
useful for all of us if it isn’t limited to reviewing job descriptions for our regional
advisers and passively collecting and responding to randomly arising
information.
In that spirit I look forward to hearing from you with any matters you consider
ought to be taken seriously at college level which I will be glad to table at
Regional Representative meetings, especially where they coincide with
concerns from elsewhere in the patch or in the country at large.
Contact Details
I can be contacted by phone at the Osborn Clinic (01329 822220) or by email
jonathan.prosser@nhs.net