The Working Party was formed under the aegis of the General Psychiatry Section of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, with the following membership: Professor John Cox – Keele University (Chairman); Dr Channi Kumar – Institute of Psychiatry, London; Dr Margaret Oates – Senior Lecturer, Consultant, University of Nottingham; Dr David Foreman – Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist, Senior Research Fellow, Keele University, Staffordshire; and Dr Helen Anderson – Consultant Psychiatrist, Bellsdyke Hospital, Larbert (Secretary).

The importance of information systems for clinical management, audit and resource management has been widely recognised by both the professions and management alike. While major advances in information technology have taken place in the acute hospital sector, a relative void exists within community services. Nevertheless over the last few years a number of developments have taken place which hold considerable promise for the information needs of community mental health services. In response to this void the Research Committee of the College has established a Working Group whose remit is to advise the College, and through it the Department, on the information needs of psychiatrists and the requirements of information systems that should support those needs.

The third annual residential conference of the Section was held in Jersey from 5 to 7 March 1992. One hundred and twenty delegates gathered to hear from a range of practitioners. Trainees had a high profile – the policy of increasing to a third the proportion of higher trainees intending to be old age psychiatrists is beginning to bear fruit. A whole morning session was devoted to higher training issues ranging from the historical view of the relationship between old age psychiatry (OAP) and geriatrics, to a review of a successful higher training scheme, to innovative hopes for the future in the shape of Individual Performance Review (IPR) and an audit of audit. The senior registrar group's nationwide survey of current higher training experiences was presented.

On 21 January 1992 the annual Trainees' Forum, organised by the Collegiate Trainees' Committee, was held in London as part of the Winter Quarterly Meeting of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. The theme was European integration and the implications for training in psychiatry. Three speakers presented different aspects of this topic: Dr Fiona Caldicott, Dean of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, spoke on the role of the College in Europe; Dr Sharon Binyon, of the BMA Permanent Working Group of European Junior Doctors, spoke on medical manpower issues; and Dr Jim van Os, from the Institute of Psychiatry, looked at recent research illustrating differences in the understanding and treatment of psychiatric illnesses between France and the UK.