Holding on Whilst Letting Go

Abstract

The Council of BAOTJCOT has recently taken the momentous decision that no new submissions for courses leading to the award of the Diploma of the College of Occupational Therapists are to be considered, and qualifying students on currently validated courses should have all received their DipCOT awards by the end of the century. Rather than mourning the passing of the Diploma, which has played an important role in the education and training of generations of occupational therapists within the UK and beyond, we should be celebrating the 'coming of age' of our professional education with the recognition and validation of first degree and postgraduate diploma courses within the university sector. However, we must ensure that the professional body continues to play an active and significant role in influencing the quality of validation and monitoring processes which are broadly the responsibility of the university or college making the award.At a macro level, the Joint Validation Committee (JVC) of the COT and CPSM provides two of the three parties involved in the 'tripartite validation' of each new pre-registration course, including the way in which fieldwork education is incorporated into the programme; but how can the quality of the fieldwork experience for students be monitored and maintained? More specifically, the concept of fieldwork placement (and supervisor) accreditation has been the subject of considerable debate among occupational therapy educators and practitioners, and some schools have introduced local schemes to support their own courses.The Education and Research Board of the COT has been considering the issue of quality assurance in fieldwork education and is recommending to Council that each school should assume the responsibility for maintaining the quality of its placements and the appropriate training of its fieldwork supervisors, and that thẽ OT should provide advisory standards rather than central approval. The new education purchaser jprovider culture in the wake of Working Paper 10 will also require quality measures for fieldwork placement provision within the educational contracting process, and this is best negotiated at regional level directly with the programme concerned.The coming of age of our pre-registration education system, and the recognition of the work of our JVC within the university milieu, also brings with it opportunities to use more widely accepted systems for the approval of other post-registration courses and schemes, which have traditionally been the responsibility of the professional body.In the strategic planning of the future educational role of the professional body within occupational therapy, the requirement to ensure the professional competence of practitioners is paramount. However, the appropriateness and effectiveness of the professional body to control all educational initiatives should be constantly reviewed. This is a current challenge for the educational and practitioner members of the Education and Research Board in advising Council on future policy decision...