ANNUAL REPORT

PPDNF Annual Report 2006-2007

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Report from the Chair

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As this is potentially the final annual report from this Chair, it has been particularly poignant to reflect on the past year with the PPDNF, and also my time as Chair over the past 4 years.

I have always believed and still do that the PPDNF is a unique and wonderful organisation. Any organisation is only as effective as the people that populate it and the values and commitment that they bring with them. It is the people that make the organisation therefore and the PPDNF with its membership of around 200 continues to be influential locally and strategically and more importantly supportive of each other personally and professionally, locally and strategically.

The conference was a great start to the PPDNF year on the 14th June 2006 in Glasgow with an impressive line up of experienced key note speakers- Brendan McCormack, Kim Manley and Rob McSherry all exceptional internationally recognised practice developers. The theme of the conference was Transformational Practice, particularly appropriate concept to the PD community, but especially this year as Brendan and colleagues had so recently completed the Realist Synthesis Literature Review of Practice Development commissioned by NES and QIS. The conference was the first dissemination of this work and we were challenged to consider what evidence there is that PD makes a difference. Kim Manley introduced the RCN workplace standards in the morning and facilitated a Values Clarification session in the afternoon, whilst Rob McSherry, Principal Lecturer at Tyneside University and Chair of the Developing Practice Network shared his personal vision for Practice Development. It was also good to invite Belinda Dewar back to co-facilitate an afternoon session on Action Learning which increasingly is known to be an effective process of enabling, supporting and challenging practitioners. Brendan also facilitated a visioning exercise for the entire conference which everybody found beneficial. All in all, the conference presented a good balance of academic evidence for Practice Development together with a range of practical tools which practice developers can use routinely.

Throughout my time as Chair, the membership of the PPDNF has remained exclusively nursing. This concept has been revisited again during this last year with PPDNF members invited recently to present their views on the website. At the AGM today a decision will be taken to become a multi-professional forum or not. If we do open our door to other professions, the brand name of the PPDNF would not change as it is anticipated that the N for Nurse would me replaced with NMAHP. My personal view of becoming a multi-professional forum is a positive one and one that sits well with the whole team approach to person centred care, but the democracy of the PPDNF, also of crucially importance, will decide.

A couple of potential changes to the constitution will be proposed at the AGM today. The first is to add the word ‘normally’ in the sentence that describes the length of service for committee members. This means that a serving committee member may, in some circumstances, serve for longer than four years. The other is to propose that the retiring chair remains on the committee in an ex official capacity for one year to aid transition.

PPDNF members wishing to participate in Action Learning sets have been meeting for 3 years in two sets facilitated by Kate Cocozza and myself. A third set was established at the beginning of 2007, facilitated by Joyce Surfleet. It is heartening to see the benefits of learning together in this way and to observe members beginning to facilitate their own sets in their workplace. We continue to meet monthly at central locations around Scotland and the recent evaluation provided evidence to support the continuation of this work.

The work of the subgroups continues to be a key element of the PPDNF group as they work together to produce helpful tools for the benefit of the organisation and beyond. The groups currently working together are continuing the work of the Person Centered Audit tool, whilst another is developing an on-line Facilitation toolkit. This year has been particularly demanding to maintain the various strands of work as the NHS has been going through a period of restructuring which has meant that time away from work has been more challenging to negotiate.

International initiatives which members of the PPDNF continually to be actively involved with are the Practice Development Schools co-ordinated by the RCN International Collaborative. A Scottish school is planned for later this year. It was also a privilege for the PPDNF to be invited to collaborate with the development of a Practice Development Network for Older People, work commissioned by NES and the Care Commission and this work will evolve over the next 3 years.

I had the privilege of chairing Day 3 of the International Practice Development conference held in Edinburgh in 2006, and other members presented workshops and posters. A further 5 abstracts have been submitted for the conference to be held in Melbourne, Australia later this year.

Sustainability of the PPDNF as a small independent organisation has always been an issue for us, so we are pleased that excellent relationships exist between colleagues within the Scottish Executive, NQIS and NHS Education for Scotland and ourselves! In particular there has been a strengthening of the relationship with the National PDU with the membership of the PPDNF being invited to the PDU Network meetings. More recently there has been a healthy dialogue with colleagues at the national PDU to see how the two organisations can collaborate more effectively together in the future, in order to be influential for practice development in Scotland.

I want to pay a personal tribute to my fellow committee members over the last four years who have been so committed and effective in the way they work together. A lot of work goes on behind the scenes that keep the PPDNF at the forefront of what is going on in the PD world and for that I want to commend and thank them; also for their personal support and friendship from which I have learned and benefited and has made the time as Chair so memorable and satisfying.

In summary, another excellent year of networking and support has taken place with huge commitment being displayed by members, particularly noticeable by the excellent attendance at the quarterly meetings and also the support demonstrated by the responses to the many items placed on the website notice board.

Many thanks to all members of the PPDNF for their enthusiasm, support and commitment. Without you there would be no PPDNF!!

Fiona Cook
PPDNF Chair
April 2007

Vice Chair’s Annual Report

Thank you to Fiona for a very comprehensive report. I would just like to add my personal thank you to the conference team for 2006/7 for their help and enthusiasm which made organising the event fun.

I am looking forward to this years 10th Birthday Celebrations of the PPDNF at the conference in November where we will bring the founding members and current members together. Another year of fun lies ahead working with many of the established conference team; a warm welcome is extended to our new members.

Diane Allcock
Vice chair
AGM April 2007

Other Reports

The following reports can be downloaded in PDF format:

Secretary's report, 2006/07

Web site secretary's report, 2006/07

Chair's report 2006/07 (as above, but in printable format)

This page last updated 1 July 2007

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