The Public Health Medicine Environmental Group (PHMEG).
(Name to be reconsidered when Communicable Disease Strategy for England has been published)
The aims of the Group shall be:
2.1 To promote interest in communicable disease control, environmental health and other aspects of the work of consultants in communicable disease control (CsCDC), epidemiologists and specialists working to protect the public health;
2.2 To provide a forum for the exchange of information and ideas on health protection, including communicable disease control, environmental health and emergency response;
2.3 To be a source of expert comment and authoritative advice on policy, consultative documents and development of new guidelines;
2.4 To facilitate contributions and developments by establishing and maintaining a list of members with special expertise;
2.5 To act as an expert advisory group to the Faculty of Public Health Medicine (FPHM) in the specialist area of health protection;
2.6 To establish and apply standards for communicable disease control, environmental health and other aspects of health protection;
2.7 To facilitate and undertake audit and research;
2.8 To represent the views of CsCDC, epidemiologists and other specialists working in the field of health protection field.
There will be two membership categories:
3.1 Voting members: CCDC or equivalent in other countries of the UK, consultant epidemiologists from the Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre (CDSC), the Scottish Centre for Infection and Environmental Health (SCIEH) or the National Health Service (NHS). This is the voting membership category;
3.2 Non-voting members: Others who share the aims of the Group.
Membership is by application to the Membership Secretary. Except for practising CsCDC or consultant epidemiologists, each applicant shall be proposed and seconded by an existing member of the Group.
4.1 The following Officers shall be elected through a postal ballot:
- President
- Vice President
- Business Secretary
- Meetings Secretary
- Membership Secretary
- Treasurer
- Auditor
- The immediate Past President shall be an Officer.
4.2 The period of office for these Officers shall be for three years commencing at the close the Annual General Meeting at which appointed.
4.3 All Officers shall be allowed to stand for re-election after a break of three years.
4.4 In the event of an Officer’s resignation or death the Executive Committee shall be empowered to appoint a substitute who will hold office until the subsequent Annual General Meeting when an election can be held.
5.1 Only CsCDC, their equivalent in other countries of the UK and CDSC, SCIEH or NHS epidemiologist members of the Group will be eligible for election as Officers of the Executive Committee.
5.2 So that the PHMEG is an effective UK-wide professional organisation, the Executive Committee shall have the power to co-opt representatives from CDSC, SCIEH, the Departments of Health for England or their equivalent in Wales, Scotland and Ireland and the Royal Institute for Public Health and Hygiene (RIPHH).
5.3 An Executive Committee shall be established comprising:
The Officers:
- Up to two Representatives from within each National Health Service
- Region in England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland respectively, at least one:
- Practising CCDC or equivalent.
- Regional Epidemiologist
- At least one co-opted representative from CDSC and SCIEH
- At least one co-opted representative from the UK Departments of Health)
- A specialist registrar training in public health/communicable disease control.
5.4 The election of Officers will be conducted by the Membership Secretary through a postal ballot using the system of the single transferable vote.
5.5 The Regional Representatives shall be nominated and elected by the voting members in the relevant region.
5.6 The Specialist Registrar Representative shall be nominated and elected as a national representative in consultation with the Specialist Registrar Committee of the FPHM.
5.7 Regional Representatives shall be elected for a term of three years and shall not ordinarily serve more than six years (two terms) unless there is a break in service of three years.
5.8 In the event of a Regional Representative resignation or death, the vacancy so created will be filled through an extraordinary ballot in the health region affected.
5.9 Any member of the Group in the region may be designated by the Regional Representative to attend meetings of the Executive as his/ her deputy, with full voting rights.
5.10 An alternative SpR representative, designated by the SpR member may deputise for the SpR member.
5.11 The Executive Committee shall meet as required at least twice yearly.
5.12 The Executive Committee shall be empowered to prepare reports and to make representations to other bodies.
5.13 The Executive Committee shall be entitled to delegate to the Officers of the Group the power to deal with professional and business matters as it deems fit.
5.14 The President, Vice-President and the Secretary of the Group shall serve as President, Vice-President and Secretary of the Executive Committee for the period in which they hold office.
5.15 The Executive Committee shall have the power to expend resources for the Administration of the Society and the furtherance of its aims. The President, Vice-President and Treasurer shall be empowered to act on behalf of the committee if necessary.
5.16 Sub-committees may be established and chaired by a person nominated by the Executive who will report to the Executive.
5.17 The nomination of members of the Group to represent the PHMEG on external bodies/committees or to set up and chair sub-groups on external shall usually be in accordance with explicit criteria set out in "Procedure for selection of PHMEG representatives for external bodies/groups". The President and Vice-President are empowered to act or appoint an appropriate representative if necessary.
6.1 An Annual General Meeting shall be held to receive reports. Ordinary meetings shall be held as necessary, on the recommendation of the Executive
6.2 Extra-ordinary General Meetings may be called at the request, in writing, of at least 10 members.
6.3 At least 28 days notice in writing shall be given of the Annual General Meeting of the Group.
6.4 At both Executive and General Meetings of the Group, voting on matters other than constitutional shall be by a simple majority vote of members present,. In the event of a voting tie in all matters, the President of any meeting will have the casting vote.
6.5 Amendments to the Constitution shall only be made by a two-thirds majority of members present at the Annual General Meeting.
Members of the Group shall pay an annual subscription. The subscription cost for each membership category shall be determined at each Annual General Meeting. Subscriptions shall fall due on the first day of April.
Audited accounts of the financial affairs of the Group shall be maintained by the Treasurer and presented annually to the Group at the AGM.
Amendments of the Constitution may be made at an Annual or Extraordinary General Meeting provided that the proposed amendments have been circulated in writing to all members at least 28 days before the meeting.
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To be a member of the Executive Committee.
To chair meetings of the Group and the Executive Committee.
To represent the Group on outside bodies.
To co-ordinate responses from the Group in liaison with other officers.
Tenure of office: 3 years
Email: president@phmeg.org.uk
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To support the President in chairing meetings of the Group and the Executive Committee.
To share with the President representation of the Group on outside bodies.
Tenure of office: 3 years
Email: VP@phmeg.org.uk
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To report to Annual General Meeting (AGM) on the Group’s financial state.
To advise the AGM of the recommended subscription for the following year.
To lodge receipts/ subscriptions into bank or building society accounts and to have signatory authority for all PHMEG accounts.
To maintain records/ accounts.
To prepare the annual accounts of the Group.
At least two weeks before the AGM, to provide the Auditor with the PHMEG accounts and any supportive information requested.
To liaise with Membership Secretary over subscription receipts.
To liaise with Meetings Secretary over meetings accounts.
Tenure of office: 3 years
Email: Treasurer@phmeg.org.uk Email:
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The purpose of this post is to facilitate the smooth running of the PHMEG so that it may fulfil its aims.
In so doing the business secretary shall take on any required work not specifically taken on by other officers or members of the PHMEG, working closely with the FPHM’s administrative support team , within the terms of the service agreement for administrative support.
To keep copies of the Constitution and notes of previous Executive and Annual General Meetings.
To make minutes for Executive and Annual General Meetings.
To circulate notes and minutes to members of the Executive.
To circulate all members with details of future meetings.
To write letters on behalf of the PHMEG or make drafts of proposed letters to assist the President.
To maintain files of relevant correspondence.
Tenure of office: 3 years
Email: sec@phmeg.org.uk
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To identify areas/ topics of Interest among members for Scientific Meetings.
To organise the Scientific Meetings of the PHMEG (normally four per years in January, April, June and November/ December), one of which is traditionally held on the last day of the Annual Workshop.
Organisation of meetings involves the following:
- identifying a topic/ theme
- organising a venue
- calculating the cost of a meeting
- arranging speakers/ workshops
- arranging the programme (circulated by the Business Secretary)
- collecting the money for the meeting from members (which is passed to the Treasurer)
- evaluating the meeting
- collating proceedings from the meeting when appropriate
- securing CPD accreditation of the meeting.
Tenure of office: 3 years
Email: meetings@phmeg.org.uk
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- To ensure the maintenance of a register of members of the Group, including their specialist skills and interests
a) based on existing information
b) inputting new information received from Treasurer
To provide membership lists to:
a) Meetings Secretary
b) Other authorised persons
c) Regional representatives
To encourage recruitment of new members by:
a) Listing members by Region so that Regional representatives may identify non-members.
b) Making available membership forms at Faculty meetings, CDSC courses, to trainee members and to the Royal College of Pathologists regional representatives.
Tenure of office: 3 years
Email: membership@phmeg.org.uk
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To support the aims of the PHMEG within their NHS region.
To encourage recruitment of doctors working in the field of Communicable Disease Control and Environmental Hazards.
At least one to attend meetings of the Executive Committee.
To seek the opinions of members and to present these opinions at Executive Committee meetings. To agree between themselves how this should be done.
Tenure of office: 3 years
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Tenure of office: 2 years
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Tenure of office: 3 years
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1.1 The PHMEG requires that in-coming telephone calls to the PHMEG be answered from 9.00a.m. to 5.00p.m. between Monday and Friday excluding bank holidays.
1.2 The PHMEG requires a permanent mail base, where letters addressed to officers of the PHMEG can be received. The provider will be expected to process the letters and correspondence and send them on to the appropriate officer of the PHMEG. The provider will be expected to hold a database of the names, addresses, telephone numbers and e-mail addresses of all members of the PHMEG and to maintain that database accurately.
1.3 The PHMEG will nominate an officer who should be contacted in the event of in-coming mail or phone calls.
1.4 The provider will be expected to produce documents, either from e-mail or voice message, or hand written text on behalf of officers and members of the PHMEG for PHMEG purposes. The provider will be expected to produce such documents to an agreed standard and format.
1.5 The provider will be expected to circulate minutes and other records of activities to members of the PHMEG. Executive Committee Meetings are usually held quarterly and therefore it will be required that such paperwork is circulated, prior to and following those meetings. It is expected that the provider will give secretarial support to the Executive Meetings. Where an Executive Meeting is held at a venue other than the accommodation of the provider, then the secretarial support will be expected to travel to that venue. It is anticipated that this will mean one meeting a year to be held at Colindale.
1.6 It is anticipated that one day per week of secretarial time will be sufficient to meet the requirements of the PHMEG. Should the amount of time be 15% greater, then the PHMEG will pay pro rata for that extra time, over and above the 15%. Should the time required be less than 25%, the provider will reimburse the PHMEG for any time unused below 15% of the contracted volume.
1.7 It is anticipated that the provider will be able to use existing expertise in the management of databases to provide the PHMEG with support in the use of databases to improve services to the membership.
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2.1 The provider is expected to be able to offer meeting rooms for the PHMEG to hold its business meetings of the Executive Members. From time to time extraordinary meetings of the members are necessary and it is expected that the provider will have rooms that are available. This contract is for an additional two extraordinary meetings to be held each year. If three are held, the PHMEG may be called upon to pay for that as a single item.
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3.1 In the initial period the contract shall be subject to mutual review at 6 months at which point either party can terminate or redefine the contract if it is not working satisfactorily.
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4.1 The contract shall be let annually on a 3 year rolling basis.
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5.2 After the review period, the contract can be terminated by either party only by giving 6 months notice.
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6.1 The PHMEG is governed by its membership. This contract for service provision does not alter the decision making processes or constitution of the PHMEG. It expects to retain its autonomy within the provider of service.
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EAH,
June 2000 - September 2011
