22 March 2022
Since taking up post as Vice President almost two years ago, it’s been a priority to support involvement of the paediatric and adolescent community in all BSR activities and I’m delighted to tell you that we’ve doubled our representation on BSR committees and now have regional representatives on BSR's MDT Advisory Council.
I’d like to personally thank everyone who's sought election into these roles and take the opportunity to welcome those of you who’ve recently been elected. Changes to the MDT Advisory Council mean we'll have a dedicated paediatric and adolescent representative in each of the English regions and devolved nations from April 2022.
COVID-19 continues to heavily impact on our personal and professional lives. As Vice President and your paediatric and adolescent BSR lead, I’m continuously amazed by the strength of character and ability to adapt and innovate, and I was delighted to see applications from the community shortlisted for BSR's Best Practice Awards.
We've been working hard with the paediatric and adolescent network (committee and working group members) as well as the BSR team. Here's what we have to look forward to in 2022:
Dedicated children and young people rheumatology stream at Annual Conference next month: programme devised by Dr Jo Walsh, on strengthening relationships with our adult colleagues and shared learning
Paediatric and Adolescent Conference, 28-29 September, Brighton: an exciting programme curated by Dr Peter Bale and an interdisciplinary team of paediatricians
Six rheumatology nurse working meetings: organised and led by Dr Polly Livermore, open to members and non-members
A new quality improvement juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) learning collaborative: led by Dr Flora McErlane and Dr Gavin Cleary, aiming to improve the quality of care for children and young people with new-onset JIA across the UK, which launches at Annual Conference
I'd like to signpost you to the:
eLearning platform: aimed at all health professionals and continuously developed by eLearning editor Dr Pippa Watson, it offers a wide variety of content such as podcasts, webinars and case-based learning to support paediatric and adolescent rheumatology. BSR's Digital Learning Board welcomes ideas for future learning resources - contact representative Dr Jo May for more. Importantly, some of the learning materials are open to non-BSR members and are available throughout the year
Mentoring scheme: having recently undergone development, it’s a valuable support resource for members and we’re seeing more and more members signing up to the scheme. We’re particularly keen to recruit more mentors, so if you have time, and would like to give something back to the community, it's a great opportunity
Bursaries are available for allied health professionals, nurses, pharmacists, psychologists, physician associates and trainees to attend BSR events and courses
We’re also working with UK Get It Right First Time (GIRFT), led by Nick Wilkinson, to scope a dedicated paediatric and adolescent GIRFT that really captures key areas of service need. We’re hopeful funding for this 2-3 year piece of work will follow.
Collaborations
Collaborating with societies and colleges nationally and internationally has never been so important, with relationships strengthened during the pandemic. We’re excited to be working on:
MSK toolkit: with the Government (OHID, DWP and DoE) and key charitable partners to develop a set of strategies helping employers and educational institutions support young people with MSK conditions
Understanding mental health in young people with JIA: led by Dr Polly Livermore and charitable partners NRAS, Versus Arthritis, CCAA, SNAC and ICAN)
There's lots more in the pipeline to talk about, including a dedicated paediatric and adolescent Clinical Reference Group that will look at high-cost drugs and how to achieve more equity of care across trusts. I'll update you on this as I have more information.
There's so much more to do, particularly around further resource for our physiotherapists, occupational therapists and nurses, so please do contact me or any of the BSR team with ideas and thoughts.