Editorial: OUR RCM, five years ahead
By Julie Richards on 03 September 2018 Midwives Magazine RCM
What does the future look like for OUR RCM? The Big Conversation has shaped the strategy.
It has been an exciting 12 months since being appointed as chair of your RCM board by supporting a number of new board members, welcoming Gill Walton as new CEO and strengthening the board engagement with the executive team. The elected board has a vital role to play in holding the CEO and executive team to account, and thinking about the long-term sustainability of the RCM. In simple terms, this means protecting members’ money and their interests and influencing the RCM as an organisation that is in the best shape it can be to lead for midwifery. Over the CEO’s first year in post, as a board we have been very supportive of her approach in regards to taking time and creating opportunities for listening, engaging and understanding.
Members are at the heart of decision-making for the profession and for the organisation. It’s very important that our RCM vision and priorities have been informed by hearing from them. The RCM’s Big Conversation has been a golden opportunity for members to put forward what they think makes the RCM strong, and what needs to be done to promote, support and inform good quality maternity services. It has been a real chance for members to be very much part of the RCM – OUR RCM.
The Big Conversation themes were used as part of the strategy development held in July where we considered all the information and feedback from the campaign, using it to create a five-year strategic plan for OUR RCM. The current plan consisted of six strategic goals, and their underpinning priorities. The strategy day reframed these into four easy-to-understand goals which were sketched up as visual picture by Scarlet Designs who were the facilitators for the development day. The finalised strategy will be launched by Gill at the October RCM conference with your board members on hand to discuss the content of the five-year plan. The plan is ambitious and vibrant to make sure the RCM is in the best shape it can be for the next five years. The new strategy is intentionally very visual, very clear and understandable, and we hope will be very much owned by you, the members. It will be the board’s responsibility to then monitor and oversee to ensure the refreshed ambitions come to fruition.
Looking forward, the board would like each member to know what the strategic vision of OUR RCM is, and what progress we are making toward achieving those objectives. Also, from a woman’s point of view, the board would like them to be able to see the very clear difference that the strategy is making to the quality of services for them and their families.