Members in Northern Ireland – join our new Policy and Public Affairs Working Group

Yes, you can join the working group and get involved in student-related activities and opportunities.

Yes, if you’re newly retired. The working group provides current intelligence about services, the workforce and innovation.

If you’re a retired member, you can also get involved in the Northern Ireland region’s committee. Please contact stacey.abraham@rcot.co.uk or olivia.lokko@rcot.co.uk.

Yes, you can join the working group. However, the content of the activities and opportunities won’t apply to your work. You could get involved with general professional issues.

Yes, you can join the working group if you’re an RCOT professional member – not an overseas member.

There are no regular meetings or required time commitment. You only take part in the activities, events or opportunities that you’ve chosen to do. So, you can fit your involvement in with your work, life and schedule. You can get involved as much as you like.

We’re committed to making sure all our members across the four nations are represented and involved in our work. In recent years, our Northern Ireland Board volunteers have had difficulties attending meetings. The pandemic has made this harder and only one in three meetings have had the minimum number of attendees required.

So, we’ve decided to collaborate with members and draw on their skills and expertise in a more flexible way. We hope the working group maximises our reach in Northern Ireland and makes sure we truly represent the profession. We will review the working group and the experience of its members after 12 months to consider future ways of working together.

You can get in touch with Kate Lesslar, our Professional Practice Lead, at kate.lesslar@rcot.co.uk or @RCOTPolicyNI. The working group will work closely with the Northern Ireland region’s committee and Carmel Heaney, the Northern Ireland Council member. We’ll also be holding virtual events for members including a workforce summit.