ANNUAL CONFERENCE 2021
An incredible 1,660 members of the occupational therapy community registered for our first ever wholly virtual Annual Conference , which took place on 30 June and 1 July .
The vibrant and lively two-day event saw delegates get involved in a creative mix of live and pre-recorded sessions , chat rooms , live video link-ups , poster presentations , product demonstrations , an RCOT Hub area , and a fast-moving Twitter wall , which showcased all the # RCOT2021 activity in one accessible place .
With 99 sessions over the two days , four member-chosen themes – equality , diversity and inclusion , the impact of occupational therapy , new ways of working and rehabilitation and recovery – a huge range of different speakers and panels discussing the four conference themes , and # RCOT2021 trending on Twitter , there was a fantastic amount of lively and engaging content and debate for everyone involved .
REGIONS AND SPECIALIST SECTIONS
RCOT has worked with all 11 specialist sections over the year to enable membership services to be integrated into our new Customer Relationship Management System , to improve the services it can offer to its members and guests . This means we will be better able to support its branches , both specialist sections and regions , in their business , offering events and reducing the administrative and governance burden .
By bringing services in house , we hope the specialist section membership service will offer a more attractive package and promote the benefits of becoming an RCOT specialist section member . Specialist sections will be able to flourish within their area of expertise and promote clinical expertise , enabling the specialist sections to do what they do well and are good at .
EDUCATION AND LEARNING
A total of 2,834 learners commenced RCOT accredited pre-registration occupational therapy programmes in 2021 , representing 96 per cent of the available accredited places . The team undertook 15 accreditation events , which considered 14 new preregistration programmes and 6 re-accreditations .
Following successful accreditation events in the 2020-2021 business / academic year , there has been a growth of 13 per cent of available places for the 2021-2022 academic year . In addition , the first MSc apprenticeship programme was accredited this year .
AWARDS
This year we awarded four Fellowships and one Honorary Fellowship , to recognise exceptional service and outstanding contribution to the profession , and three Merit Awards to recognise excellence in the RCOT membership .
Five people received funding through the RCOT Annual Awards for Learning , Development and Research , three people received a Research Foundation Grant , and we awarded one Early Researcher Prize ( pre-registration ) and one Early Researcher Award ( post-registration ).
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