Report from the President

Dr Shooter said that there had been people who doubted whether the College was capable of modernising its attitudes, policies, structures and processes. Those doubts had been dispelled and the pace of change, if anything, had increased over the last year.

1. (a) The joint College-National Institute for Mental Health in England (NIMHE) initiative on‘New Ways of Working for Consultants’ was already having profound effects on practice within multidisciplinary teams in pilot sites around England. Similar initiatives would follow in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. A National Steering Group was disseminating good examples of how to get around the legal, contractual and attitudinal obstacles involved.

2. (b) A revolution in training was taking place under the auspices of the Postgraduate Medical Education Training Board (PMETB) and Modernising Medical Careers, designed to produce the sort of doctors that patients and services wanted. Its emphasis on face-to-face competence with patients and colleagues rather than pure tests of knowledge, and on keeping options open throughout a career rather than early specialisation, would be a breath of fresh air to psychiatry.

3. (c) No longer did the College stand aloof in its battles for better mental health services. Alliances had been struck with fellow professionals, with trust chief executives and with organisations representing patients and their carers. The experience of cooperation over proposals for mental health legislation had changed relationships much more widely. We now had a CapacityAct that was likely to have a positive impact on the lives of many of our patients; we look forward to the continued fight for a Mental Health Act in England and Wales which is as good as that in Scotland.

4. (d) The College had championed the cause of those whose voice within mental health services has not been strong. The campaign on behalf of carers - ‘ Partners in Care’ - had been run in conjunction with the Princess Royal Trust for Carers. Its success could be measured in real, practical changes. From this year on, it would be mandatory for carers and patients to be involved in the training of all psychiatrists, and accreditation teams would be entitled to seek evidence of that happening.

5. (e) Controversial issues were now tackled openly. The College had reviewed its own relationship with industrial sponsors. It had done much to eradicate institutional racism from College structures and processes; it now had a race equality scheme in place that was a model for other Colleges to follow. It had begun to address the twin issues of the discipline of its own membership and the support of members in the hands of regulatory bodies elsewhere.

6. (f) Despite being one of the youngest Colleges, it was now having difficulty representing the views of its members accurately, rapidly and effectively. A package of reforms was designed to slim down the central bureaucracy and to devolve power and responsibilities to the geographical Divisions and subspecialty Faculties. Members would have a more immediate sense of their ‘ ownership’of the College and their role in it.

7. (g) Under the guidance of the Board of International Affairs, the overseas membership had been reorganised into international divisions with executive powers. India and Pakistan, Greece and Turkey, Israel and the Arab nations sat side by side in mutual cooperation. The benefits could already be seen in the ways the College had been able to respond to the Tsunami disaster - acting as a conduit for information, supporting members going out to help, and producing a training package for future scenarios.

Dr Shooter expressed his thanks to the membership who had backed such changes enthusiastically, to those individuals who had so generously given their time and expertise to lead those changes and to the College staff who so ably coordinated their implications through the Strategic Plan. He was indebted to all of them over the past year as throughout his Presidency. It was a privilege to have been allowed to work alongside them.

Progress of actions resulting from alleged abuse of psychiatry in China

Dr Shooter reported that the World Psychiatric Association (WPA) organised an educational visit to China this year, with Professor John Gunn representing the College. Professor Gunn has subsequently made a report on the visit to the Executive and Finance Committee and the report has been taken to Council. One of the recommendations made in Professor Gunn’s report is that the College should now uncouple its policy on China from the actions of the WPA, and form a small working group in the College to work proactively on issues relating to China. Dr Shooter also proposed that a separate group be formed within the College to look at human rights issues in general.

Report from the Dean - Professor Dinesh Bhugra

At the end of my second year as Dean I am pleased to report that we have begun to see some clarity in the way developments are unfolding. The long awaited PMETB has announced that it will open for business on 30 September 2005, some 2 years later than originally expected, and the impact of Modernising Medical Careers is almost upon us.

The PMETB will have jurisdiction over all postgraduate training in the UK, including the visits currently undertaken by the College to training schemes. We see the inauguration of PMETB as an opportunity rather than the threat it was once perceived to be. Indications are that the changes will not be forced on us in the short term but rather they will be introduced collaboratively over a period of time.

The first tranche of new medical graduates will enter Foundation Year 1 in August this year and Foundation Year 2 in August 2006. This presents us with a great opportunity to give young doctors an exposure to psychiatry at an early stage in their careers. Nick Brown, one of the Associate Deans, has a group working with Postgraduate Deans and others looking at how and where we can get psychiatry into the Foundation Years. Psychiatry has been declared a shortage specialty.

With the arrival of PMETB the floodgates of applications under Article 14 are likely to open. Another of the Associate Deans, Kandiah Sivakumar, is working with PMETB to decide on the criteria for assessing experience and/or qualifications for entry onto the specialist register. Once PMETB takes over from the Specialist Training Authority as the UK competent body it will be able to grant specialist registration to those who have undertaken some specialist training and acquired knowledge and skills equivalent to a holder of the UK certificate of completion of training (CCT), even if they do not have a specialist qualification. We have established an Equivalence Committee to discuss such matters and to respond to applications within the recommended time frame.

From the end of September the CCT will replace the certificate of completion of specialist training (CCST) as the qualification to enable UK-trained specialists to obtain specialist registration. Initially the standards for the CCST will be accepted by PMETB for awarding the CCT, but in due course we shall be making recommendations for new competency-based training leading to a CCT.

It may be that the CCT will be awarded earlier in a psychiatrist’s career than is currently the case, and if this is the case sub-specialty or more specialised training will be undertaken as part of continuing professional development (CPD). Joe Bouch, Director of CPD and Associate Dean, will be looking at this with the CPD Committee.

As a result of the reforms, which will come about with the advent of PMETB, we are having to look at the structure and timing in a doctor’s career of the MRCPsych examination. I am working closely with the Chief Examiner, Femi Oyebode, to see how we can take this forward. Meanwhile, up-to-date information on changes is available in my newsletter on the College website.

During the year Sally Pidd became an Associate Dean, having previously been a Deputy Registrar. We felt that Sally’s remit for workforce issues fitted better in the Dean’s Department, especially in line with recruitment and retention. There continue to be serious workforce issues in psychiatry, which Sally and the Recruitment and Retention Working Group work hard to address. For the first time we have undertaken a mini census rather than a full census and have been encouraged to receive a much better response than previously.

The recruitment by the Department of Health of consultant psychiatrists from developing countries has presented us with ethical problems. Although it has gone some way to address the shortages of consultants in the UK in the short term at least, there is no doubt that it has deprived developing countries of vital resources. We continue to discuss these issues at a senior level in the Department of Health.

Elections were held at the end of 2004 for the officers of the new International Divisions. Each of the Divisions is represented at this Annual Meeting and this is a great step forward in involving our membership throughout the world in the work of the College.

As part of the dissemination, in February an entire issue of the Psychiatric Bulletin was devoted to educational issues. To the best of my knowledge this was the first time this had happened and it was well received.

A recent major development has been the formation of the College Training Unit, which will enable the College to provide high quality training for College members and others. The aim is for the Training Unit to become the premier and most respected provider of training to psychiatrists and, in due course, to other mental health professionals. Lynne Christopher heads the Training Unit and Joe Bouch provides input into training matters.

In November 2004 we started to look at how we could involve carers in the training of psychiatrists. We held three meetings in all at which consultants and carers were represented and we are now considering how to take this work forward.

I continue to receive requests from overseas-qualified doctors who have passed the Professional and Linguistic Assessment Board (PLAB) tests for clinical attachments in the UK. We have identified NHS trusts which are prepared to offer places to these psychiatrists and are now offering a ‘ match-making’ service.

Similarly we are looking to identify trusts and consultants who will offer work experience to young people considering a career in psychiatry which we believe will assist with recruitment into the profession.

Finally I would like to take this opportunity to thank Vanessa Cameron, Robert Jackson, Lynn Bryson and their staff for the unqualified support they have continued to provide to the Associate Deans and me over the last year.

Report from the Editor - Professor PeterTyrer

This has been a year of transition for the British Journal of Psychiatry and its three companion journals, Psychiatric Bulletin, Advances in Psychiatric Treatment and International Psychiatry. In November 2004 we changed from paper and post to online submission of papers using the Bench>Press system operated by HighWire. This had reduced administrative costs and speeded up the review process, but has led to an increase in submissions by 12% from 2003 to 2004 and by 50% in the first 6 months of 2005. With three manuscripts being received every day, nearly 90% have to be turned down and, to aid the assessment of these papers, proposals are being made to increase the number of Associate Editors to a maximum of 25 and to establish an International Editorial Board with greater representation across the world.

Advances in Psychiatric Treatment continues to prosper, with nearly 600 000 downloads of full text articles in 2004 and a 12% increase in subscriptions. International Psychiatry is also proving extremely popular and the Psychiatric Bulletin has continued to be considered an excellent read by College members, especially the e-interviews. The new online CPD facility will be launched later in the summer of 2005 with Cornelius Katona as editor. Gaskell Books continues to introduce new titles at a regular rate and the Seminars Series is going particularly well. The College publications stand has become a regular feature at the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association and at other international meetings, and helps to promote the College in an international context.

The Publications Department continues to be very ably served by the publications staff, who have all adapted well to the new technology introduced into the department and are looking forward to further challenges.

Report from the Librarian - Dr David Tait

It is greatly to the credit of the Library and Information Service, and to the College as an employer, that our service has continued to improve steadily despite significant upheaval.

At last year’s Annual Meeting I reported that our information officer, Morwenna Rogers, had just had her baby - Morwenna is about to return from maternity leave. Laura Hulse, information administrator, ‘acted up’ in the first instance, but has since moved on to a research administrator post in the Art Department at Kingston University. Those who knew Laura would have known of her longstanding interest and involvement in the arts, and we were pleased for her being able to develop her career in this direction. So it fell to Alexandra Cohen, our newest member of staff, to‘act up’ which she has done very competently and confidently; the College has an excellent track record of giving its staff opportunities for professional development in this way. Alex has been ably assisted by two of that group of young professionals whose early career takes them around the world - first we had Trudy Breuss from New Zealand, currently we have Emily Johns from the USA helping us. Again it reflects well on the College to be able to attract such able individuals on short-term contracts.

For my part I published a paper in the April issue of Psychiatric Bulletin on ‘Developing local library and information services’, targeted at consultant colleagues, and we hope to publish a more technical article in Advances in Psychiatric Treatment in due course.

In summary, the Library and Information Service is alive and well; please use our services to support your clinical, teaching, audit and research work and please visit when you are in the College, or simply in London.

Report from the Registrar - Dr Andrew Fairbairn

Proposed amendments to the College Bye-Laws

The proposed changes are aimed at modernising the College’s constitution and facilitating greater equality of opportunity for College members in relation to College procedures and functions.

Devolution

In line with the recommendations of the Constitution Scoping Group to devolve a range of functions undertaken by the College centrally to the Divisions, offices with full-time managers have been introduced in London (to support the London and South-East Divisions) and in Cardiff (alongside the Irish, Northern Ireland and Scottish Division Offices). Work is taking place to set up staffed offices in Birmingham, Leeds and Bristol.

Report of the Treasurer - Dr Fiona Subotsky

For the year 2004 the College’s income of £9 766 367 (2003 - £ 9 024 703) and expenditure of £9 527 251 (2003 - £8 769 837) resulted in a surplus of £239 116 before investment gains of £ 60 005 are taken into account, increasing the surplus to £299 121. Membership subscriptions remain the Major source of unrestricted income, and the number of members has continued to increase steadily, from 10 606 in May 2003 to 10 948 in May 2004. The new membership category of International Associate has been established and is beginning to be taken up. Within the UK we have good coverage of consultants, but links with staff grade and junior trainee psychiatrists could be improved and are under consideration. The Annual Meeting, held in Harrogate, achieved a surplus of £77 631 without allocation of central overheads. Meetings of Faculties and Sections, which are also subsidised centrally, generally continued to make surpluses. This positive situation enabled various prizes, bursaries, etc., as well as contributions to the Development Fund, which operates as a 15% levy on several income-generating activities of the College. The sum of £227 280 was generated for the Development Fund in 2004 and will be used to support the ‘ Partners in Care’ campaign (£80 000); the 360 Degree Appraisal project (£7 500); the Afiya conference (£5 000); and the European Federation of Psychiatric Trainees conference (£5 500). The residue of £129 280 will be transferred to the New Building Fund.

The Examinations Department again had an increase in applications and needed to increase activity accordingly, which included an extra member of staff and the establishment of an additional examination centre. The surplus (£186165) contributed to capital expenditure in information technology for the department, and development of services for trainees, such as the conference day for senior house officers. Although this situation is currently very satisfactory, it might not remain so as the nature of examination requirements could change radically over the next few years, and there is a continuing need for development investment.

Publications maintained a steady course over the year, with the overall deficit of £85 830 being largely attributable to increased administrative charge allocation. Although journal subscriptions were somewhat down overall, to some degree this was compensated for by an increase in the rates charged. Secondary journal income, which increased quite considerably (from £206 620 to £317 675), now includes photocopying licence income, which is being more reliably collected and distributed. Advertisement and book income rose, and Evidence-Based Mental Health is now generating income. The initial work for online CPD was started in May 2004 and the project should be up and running by the end of 2005.

The College Research Unit (CRU) has had a challenging year but has continued to expand its activities successfully. The agreement on overheads led to a College subsidy of £147 668, and a contribution to the Development Fund of £49 246. The £88 414 deficit for the CRU was owing mainly to the forthcoming relocation and to an increase in rent in 2004. The CRU moved to new premises in Mansell Street, London E1 in March 2005, and a new College Training Unit is to be established in the same building.

Devolution of College activities has continued with the establishment of divisional offices now under way; the London Division recruited their manager in November 2004. The need for divisional offices is felt particularly with the devolved jurisdictions, which increasingly need support for policy development.

The current College campaign, ‘Partners in Care’, has been run in conjunction with the Princess Royal Trust for Carers. This has been very successful in terms of collaboration and interest; so much so that there continues to be a demand for leaflets and mental health materials far exceeding that budgeted for.

Equity markets continued to recover, which was reflected in improved returns. Cash flow was positive, and a high level of liquidity was maintained in 2004, partly because of the possibility of a property purchase for the CRU. Capital expenditure for the year was £200 465, largely for information technology, equipment and furniture and fittings, particularly for the newly established divisional offices.

Finally, I thank the Chief Executive, Vanessa Cameron, and Paul Taylor, Head of Financial Services, and their staff, for all their hard work and support throughout the year.

The summarised Annual Accounts for 2004 were approved: Proposed - Professor Hamid Ghodse, Seconded - Dr Tony Zigmond.

Changes to the Bye-Laws

The following Resolution was proposed by Dr Mike Shooter and seconded by Dr Andrew Fairbairn:

The Resolution was supported unopposed.

Dr Nori Graham, FRCPsych

(Introduced by Professor Susan Benbow, FRCPsych) Dr Nori Graham is an outstanding old age psychiatrist who has worked for people with dementia and their carers at both national and international levels. While Consultant in Old Age Psychiatry at the Royal Free Hospital from 1981 to 2000, Dr Graham established a fully comprehensive service for the assessment and management of elderly people with mental illness in the Hampstead District, involving a large multidisciplinary team. The services she developed at the Royal Free Hospital are internationally acknowledged as setting standards in clinical and care provision.

During the last 25 years she has been involved in several important studies within the field of old age psychiatry, which have had a major impact on planning services both nationally and internationally. These included a study organised by the Institute of Social Work, examining the problems of carers looking after people at home, a study of the prevalence of dementia and depression in Camden Part III homes with Professor Anthony Mann, and the Gospel Oak Studies, assessing the incidence and prevalence of mental illness in a local population.

She is probably best known for her work with the Alzheimer Society and Alzheimer Disease International. Dr Graham was elected Chair of the Alzheimer Society, then a relatively small organisation, in 1987. The Society grew markedly under her stewardship in terms of income and in raising the profile of the disorder, bringing it to the attention of government and the general public. On relinquishing the Chairmanship, she became a Vice-President of the Society.

In 1996 she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of the Open University in recognition of her work with the Alzheimer Society. That same year she was elected Chair of Alzheimer Disease International (ADI), the federation of national Alzheimer societies. As Chair, Dr Graham has guided ADI to increase awareness of the disease as a global threat to the health of all countries, and has moved ADI forward into an organisation with membership not only from predominantly developed countries, but also developing countries, which now play an active part in the federation.

Over the past 10 years she has also been actively involved in the Old Age Section of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA). She has served on joint WHO/WPA working parties, producing published consensus statements on psychiatry of the elderly, organisation of services for elderly people with mental illness, education and training, and stigma. She has frequently served as rapporteur and chaired the working party on stigma. All this work has been published.

Dr Graham retired from the Royal Free Hospital in 2001. Since that time she has worked part-time as Mental Health Consultant Adviser to Nightingale House, a charitable trust running a 300-bed residential and nursing home in Clapham, London. She continues to lecture and give advice to professionals and voluntary organisations in Third World countries.

Naren, Professor the Lord Patel, KB

(Introduced by the Lord Alderdice, FRCPsych) As psychiatrists we are familiar with the fact that under the pressure of anxiety the defences and other characteristics of a personality become most easily and readily apparent. Making one’s maiden speech in the House of Lords is just such an anxiety-provoking event and, in Lord Patel’s case, as my noble friend Lord Redesdale noted at the time, the unusual restriction of all the speeches in the debate to a mere 3 min exacerbated the pressure. We all know it is so much easier to make a long speech than to make a short one. I am particularly conscious of this because it is precisely my problem this afternoon. How to encompass the remarkable career of Lord Patel in a mere 5 min?

What characteristics can we observe from Lord Patel’s maiden speech? First, he lost no time in making it. His ennoblement was announced in the New Year’s Honours List in 1999 and by March he had not only ensured that he had been introduced to the House but he was making his first intervention. His speech was delivered on International Women’s Day, appropriately since he has given over his professional life to the study, service and care of women in Obstetrics and Gynaecology. Within the 3 min of that speech he observed all the necessary courtesies and traditions of the House, and as is proper, did so concisely, without controversy and from his own extraordinary experience, and yet he captured the House with a vigorous and fascinating account of the needs of those women whose care he has made his passion.

The speech was strong but elegant, informed, but not turgid or heavy. It was in short a representation of his own character and an eloquent foretaste of what the Lords could expect from their new member.

In a much later debate I remember being deeply moved, as was the whole House, by his sensitive but forceful account of the tragic plight of young African women suffering from obstetric fistulae, and how he and others were doing so much for them through their inspiring charitable work.

The College is today welcoming a distinguished and caring medical colleague, and there could be no better place than Edinburgh. Although Naren Patel was born in Tanzania, he has from his days as an undergraduate made Scotland, and indeed Dundee, his adopted home. He has lived there since his undergraduate days, and since then as a student, a teacher, researcher and professor. The international standing of his work in the care of women with high risk pregnancy, and his papers on the issues of premature labour, fetal growth retardation and obstetric epidemiology have made him a world figure, recognised with Fellowships, Honorary Degrees and Honorary Fellowships from literally all over the world. Every inhabited continent has lavished its appreciation, and not only his colleagues in obstetrics and gynaecology. Today, we as psychiatrists join surgeons, physicians, anaesthetists, general practitioners and public health physicians who have already honoured him. He was a distinguished President of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, and the Chairman of the Academy of Medical Colleges. He was also chair of the Medical Research Council Advisory Committee on Scientific Advances in Genetics, the Specialist Training Committee of the UK, the Stem Cell Steering Committee of the UK and as Chairman of NHS Quality Improvement Scotland he has made an important contribution to healthcare in his adopted homeland. A patron of several charities and a member and contributor to countless committees, boards and public service appointments including the Armed Forces Pay Review Board and the International Federation of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, his knighthood in 1997 was recognition of the remarkable breadth, depth and significance of his work. But Naren Patel is less interested in appreciation than in the opportunity for public service and his elevation to the House of Lords has given him a further range of challenges. He has not only used the Chamber to great effect, including on behalf of the mentally ill, but has also given sterling service in the committee work of the House of Lords, notably in Science and Technology.

An unassuming man whose achievements leave no need for modesty he has had, like myself, the great good fortune to be married to a medical colleague and we are delighted to welcome Helen, Lady Patel to our meeting.

Madam President, it is medical colleagues like Naren Patel who maintain the best traditions of service of our historic profession and make one proud of the high calling of medicine. Inevitably with just a few minutes to deliver this laureation much remains unsaid, but I believe that I have said more than enough to justify my claim that it is right that our College should honour Lord Patel in this way. I know too that by his Fellowship with our College he will bring both honour and distinction to our collegiate life.

Professor Povl Munk-J rgensen

(Introduced by Professor Dinesh Bhugra, FRCPsych) Professor Povl Munk-J rgensen is an outstanding psychiatric epidemiologist of his generation and his collaboration with British colleagues dates back to the 1970s. He graduated from the Medical Faculty of Aarhus University in 1972 and, having specialised in psychiatry in 1985, he obtained his DMSc from Copenhagen University in 1987. Since July 1988 he has been the Chief Consultant, Research Director and Head of Department of Psychiatric Demography, University Hospital in Aarhus. This year he took up the position as Professor of Psychiatry at Aalborg. His major research interests are in the field of psychiatric epidemiology, in specific epidemiology of schizophrenia, case register research, community and social psychiatry, administrative psychiatry and the implications of organisational changes in psychiatry. He has authored or coauthored more than 130 articles in peer-reviewed journals, books and book chapters, and has edited books.

Since graduation in 1972 he has taught at all levels from nursing school to postgraduate specialisation courses in psychiatry, at PhD, and at various Danish and international research courses.

He was Senior Lecturer in Psychiatry at the Institute of Psychology under the University of Aarhus from 1988 to 1992, and was then appointed Associate Professor in Psychiatry at the Medical Faculty of the University of Aarhus. In 2000 he was appointed Professor in Psychiatry at the Medical Faculty of the University of Aarhus.

He was the Danish editor of Nordic Journal of Psychiatry from 1993 to 1997. He was also coeditor of Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, and has been on the board of other international journals. He took over as the Editor-in-Chief of Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica in January 1998 and the impact factor of the journal has risen rapidly under his editorship.

From 1986 to 1997 he was a member of the Nordic Planning Group for Psychiatric Health Research, followed by the Nordic Group for Social Psychiatric and Psychiatric Epidemiological Research. From 1989 to 1992 he was Chairman of the Danish Psychiatric Society’s Board of Research, and over the same period also a board member of the Danish Psychiatric Society. He became the President of the Danish Psychiatric Society in 1992 for a 2-year term. Since 1996 he has been a member of the Association of European Psychiatrists’ (AEP) Section of Epidemiology and Social Psychiatry, and was Chairman of this section for 2 years. His contribution to European psychiatry has been tremendous and his academic achievements speak for themselves.

Baroness Kennedy, QC

(Introduced by Professor Susan Bailey, OBE FRCPsych) In her book, Eve Was Framed Baroness Helena Kennedy articulated what we as mental health professionals know, that too often people caught up in the legal process can and are judged on discriminatory attitudes and stereotyped preconceptions that have nothing to do with their cases: injustices to women, domestic violence, the young, immigrants, homosexuals and those double jeopardised when suffering from mental illness or even the designer label of dangerous severe personality disorder.

Unlike most Queen’s Counsel, Baroness Helena Kennedy grew up in a working class family in Glasgow and has become a champion for widening participation in schools where all young people whatever their circumstances can aspire to and pursue professions such as medicine and law. She became Chancellor of Oxford Brookes University and was author of a seminal education report, Learning Works. Her career in the law started with an active trade in representing fellow Scots because solicitors in England thought she would be able to translate. Her ability to communicate rather than translate has been the fundamental underpinning to her achievement, combined with her desire to see positive changes in society for all. She is an inspiring orator and has the very rare ability of making difficult subjects accessible. Utilising her huge knowledge and skills across very many fields, law, science and the arts, she is foremost a social reformer.

Made Queen’s Counsel in 1991, a Bencher (Fellow) of Gray’s Inn in 2000, she has some 20 honorary doctorates from universities in the UK, Ireland and Russia. In 1996, she was the recipient of The Times Lifetime Achievement in Law Award.

Her breadth and depth of knowledge and influence is captured in her role as Chairs of the British Council in 1998, the Human Genetics Commission in 2000, the Investigation of Sudden Death in Infancy in 2004, President of the National Children’s Bureau and the London Marriage Guidance Council. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and commissioner of BAFTA.

These are but a few of her achievements and accolades but what of the human being? I believe her qualities are best exemplified in her writing, her work in Court and in Parliament.

In her book, Just Law, 2004, Baroness Kennedy readily challenged the record of modern government with respect to fundamental democratic rights. In this thought-provoking study, she went to the heart of: the right to privacy and the increase in electronic surveillance; the questions raised by all the advances in genetics; legal changes proposed with reduction of trial by jury; inequalities of the prison and welfare system; our relationship with others, asylum, immigration, and terrorism.

She has dared to ask if a climate of fear is being fuelled deliberately to roll back centuries of laws which have liberty at their core and the rights of all citizens and non-citizens.

In the report for the Howard League for Penal Reform, Banged Up, Beaten Up, Cutting Up, she demonstrated her lifelong commitment to improve the human condition of young offenders. She has long been a supporter of the importance of forensic psychotherapy and the work of the Tavistock Clinic and the Portman Clinic.

Whether in court or chairing committees, Helena demonstrates a carefully researched, reasoned and rational approach to the task in hand but can with passion make sure the voice of the vulnerable and abused are heard. She can hold the huge complexities surrounding genetics and fertilisation in her head, subjects that go to the heart of ethics, morals and values, where emotion can run high and opinions are held across large chasms of misinformation and ignorance.

You may be forgiven for not noticing that Baroness Kennedy is a ‘ Labour’ peer, as all too often she with other peers represents what remains of the collective conscience and humanity of Parliament in Westminster.

Baroness Kennedy balances her working life with family life. Her husband, an oromaxillary surgeon, shares the understanding our College has of the impact of both mental and physical scars, recognising the importance of art as a form of therapy.

Baroness Kennedy is a woman of ethics, the law, humanity and great distinction. She holds in mind shared values of a better world for all, especially the vulnerable, oppressed, falsely accused and those with mental illness. She, I believe, shares these values with another woman of courage, distinction, dignity and quiet determination, yourself, President. It is therefore with the greatest pleasure and hopes for future collaborations, I present to you for award of the Honorary Fellowship of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, Baroness Helena Kennedy, QC.