Podiatry hails blueprint for future

[ON 16 NOVEMBER the Royal College of Podiatry (RCPod) published a landmark report on what the profession needs to do to develop, sustain itself and thrive in the future. The report, which was authored by Professor Mike Saks and named after him, is the culmination of work by the college’s Workforce, Education, and Development Strategy Group, chaired by Professor Saks.

The report lists 28 recommendations for the college, its council and the profession, so podiatry can seize a number of significant opportunities and grow its position within healthcare in the UK.

The strategy group met frequently throughout 2020/21 to consider 14 separate and internally produced reports that addressed issues across the profession. The resulting report calls on the college to do more to tackle diversity issues in recruitment, improve leadership qualities within the profession, expand its research base, increase its influence and impact, and meet the major challenges that it currently faces in serving an increasingly ageing population beset by long-term conditions and co-morbidities.

Professor Saks, who is Emeritus Professor at the University of Suffolk, commented: “The college and the profession need to do more to meet internal and external challenges – many of them considerable – that threaten future opportunities. That is why my recommendations to the council of the college are designed to address those challenges and to take the profession positively forward into the future. I look forward to seeing how these recommendations are incorporated into the college’s strategic plan.”

The RCPod’s chief executive and general secretary Steve Jamieson added: “Healthcare professions – and allied health professions like podiatry in particular – face huge challenges: politically, financially, in its diversity and leadership and in being able to recruit and retain high-skilled clinicians to accommodate the increased public need for services. My thanks go to Professor Saks and the college’s Workforce, Education and Development Strategy Group for making sense of the task ahead. Not only does it set the college on a path to guide the profession to achieve these goals, but the report also provides a clear framework for all of us to work to so that podiatry, podiatrists and their life and limb-saving interventions and care can be recognised and appreciated as widely as possible.” q