A statement by UK Council about the ongoing role of the Society, was unanimously approved at this year’s Annual Delegates Conference.
A review held last year looking at whether it is in the best interests of members, patients and the public for the Society of Radiographers to be a trade union and professional body, concluded that there was ‘no contradiction’ in the organisation continuing to be both.
The question of whether organisations such as the SoR could effectively create and maintain standards for a profession as well as representing individual members, had been raised again recently after originally being asked in the Francis report into the failings of care at Mid-Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust.
“The strongest organisations constantly review their activities,” Sue Webb the Society’s president said in a speech recommending the UK Council Statement to conference.
“Your Council believes our organisation is strong, confident and ready for whatever Brexit wants to throw at our profession,” she continued.
“This is the biggest ADC ever. We have 30,000-plus members and growing. The highest number ever as we approach our 100th anniversary and there is continued growth among student members in all years. The future of the profession is very much part of our present.
“This does not happen by accident and if we look around it is not the case in other unions and it is not the case in other professional bodies.” Sue said, “We not only can work together as one but by doing so we are so much stronger. By representing the profession and the people who work in it we are able to show that our members’ interests are exactly the same as the interests of their patients and the public.
“If we were only a professional body representing the profession and patients, or only a trade union representing people at work, we believe we would be weaker and not able to represent with conviction. By being both we know that patients need well resourced services, run by those adopting the highest possible professional standards, who are properly rewarded for their skills and not afraid to speak up when things go wrong.”
She concluded: “Our strength lies in being not a trade union and not a professional body, but both. A professional body and trade union which is greater than the sum of its parts, able to stand up proudly and with conviction for members, patients, the public and the profession.”