Annual report

The Steering Committee held its second AGM at Leiden University Medical School, the Netherlands, on 8th March 2016. A total of 10 meetings of the Steering Committee had been held by teleconference during the period with one face-to-face meeting following the AGM.

ETPLAS was in the process of registering as a company limited by guarantee. Tomkinson Teal had been proposed as auditors and the secretariat had not changed. A number of minor changes to the constitution had been proposed and adopted.

During the year there had been no resignations from the Steering Committee. Three new appointments, confirmed at the last AGM, became effective from 1 April 2016 and the new members were welcomed to the Steering Committee.

During the year the Steering Committee published its report Accreditation Bodies: Quality assurance of LAS Education and Training and had continued to work on the development of further information including arrangements for supervision, competence and CPD. The website continued to be populated with material. Course information from training providers in 12 countries had been listed. This work would continue in 2017.

Another focus of the Steering Committee had been to identify options and address opportunities for funding and it is expected that this work would also continue during 2017.

A major highlight of the year was ETPLAS’s presence at the FELASA Congress. An exhibition booth was made possible by a bursary from the UK LASA. During the year, members of the Steering Committee made presentations of the work of ETPLAS at the following scientific meetings:

ETPLAS, with its Observer status at the meeting of National Contact Points for the implementation of Directive 2010/63/EU, gave updates on its progress at both of their meetings. A consolidated response to the Review of the Directive (Article 58) was provided by 17 members of the ETPLAS Reference Group.

The Reference Group, continued to review and comment on proposals made by the Steering Committee.

There had been little change in the number of contacts during the year. At the time of the meeting contacts were a total of 210 comprised of:

(Note, some contacts have multiple roles).

The main activities in ETPLAS were enabled by the grant from the Landsbygdsdepartementet in the Government Offices of Sweden, for the years 2014-2016. The UK LAS (LASA) provided the bursary for the ETPLAS exhibition stand at the FELASA Congress, and the face to face meeting was generously supported by the employers of many of the Steering Committee members.

The term of the Swedish grant was closed at the end of 2016 and the final report for the Landsbygdsdepartementet would be prepared at the beginning of 2017.

More financial resources were needed to ensure the continuation of the ETPLAS activities, development of the website, for disseminating the information by other means, and to support one annual face to face meeting. The Platform Steering Committee had been actively identifying and contacting possible financial sources.

Thanks were given to all the members of the Steering Committee, the Reference Group, the Secretariat and contacts for their ongoing support and commitment.