IRCM in a ‘brilliant place’ as it looks to the future

TheInstitute of Registered Case Managers (IRCM) was formed in 2020 to bring new levels of professionalism and accountability to case management, and with it a series of stringent technical and professional standards.

During the past three years, the IRCM has made significant progress towards its goal of accreditation by the Professional Standards Authority (PSA), to which it hopes to submit its application in the near future. It is also close to opening registration for case managers.

Now, as its current chair Angela Kerr prepares to step down after completing her agreed three-year term, she said the groundwork to date has placed IRCM - created jointly by the British Association of Brain Injury and Complex Case Management (BABICM), the Case Management Society of the UK (CMSUK) and the Vocational Rehabilitation Association (VRA) - ideally for going forward and to support the further development of case management as a profession.

“IRCM has grown and is more established now. People are talking about it and we’ve got a big supporter community,” says Angela, who was chair of BABICM prior to taking up the role with IRCM.

“It's in a brilliant place now. We’ve been getting all our ducks in a row and everything's coming together for opening registration and our PSA application.

“The main thing for us back in 2020 was to ensure that IRCM was accepted and would be valuable to the case management industry, which I would say essentially, we’ve proven over the past three years. It has been great to see so many organisations and individuals stepping forward to get involved.”

IRCM has been recruiting for a new chair to take over after Angela steps down in June, as well as panel members to support the work of the body. Recruitment is set to open for positions including directors and members of the board’s committees and groups later in the year – these will include both registrant and lay roles.

Angela believes adding panel members is important aspect of the ongoing development of IRCM as they play a critical role in the organisation’s processes.

“We have been developing the structure to sustain the work of IRCM going forward and recruiting panel members is another essential step,” says Angela.

“In the event that any concerns are raised about registrants practice, we’ll be following our policies to review these. Our panels will play an important role in considering these and also be involved in other areas such as appeals, reviewing the issues and making appropriate recommendations. It is vitally important to have a bank of panel members in place before we start registration, so that if we need to call on that resource, we can do.

“It’s essential we have systems in place, and trained people to support those systems.”

For more information, visit www.ircm.org.uk