Newsletter: December 2016

It’s nearly the end of a very busy year, and I hope you are all looking forward to a well-earned break over the holiday season.

This week, I had the pleasure of attending the prize-giving ceremony of the new oral health graduates from Auckland University of Technology, while our Chair attended the University of Otago graduation ceremony on Saturday. Together, around 200 people graduated across the two institutions’ oral health programmes.

It is an honour to welcome new graduates to the oral health professions and on behalf of the Council, I would like to extend our congratulations and wish you all success in your professional practice. The registration team are working hard to ensure registration applications are processed as promptly as possible to allow graduates to commence work.

I know many of you are interested in the recertification review project and I hope at least some of you were able to have a look at the sample of literature on the subject that we shared in the last newsletter.

Since then, our Senior Policy Analyst has been working on a substantial literature review document which we will share with you next year—this sets out the resources the Council has been using to inform its thinking and gives an idea of the breadth of information and different approaches that regulatory authorities use to ensure competence and fitness to practise in health practitioners.

Our Senior Policy Analyst is also working on a discussion document which will address the main concerns and questions we are seeking to answer—we expect to share this with you in the first few months of next year. Once we have done that, we will be looking at how best to engage with practitioners to ensure we get a comprehensive picture of your views.

We will provide these documents and a roadmap of the process to you via our website in the first part of next year.

We have begun the scoping and design phase of the IT systems replacement project, following appointment of a supplier. This project involves staff across the business and aims to achieve streamlined business processes that will deliver a system that enables a self-service environment for practitioners. For example, in the future you will be able to maintain your own personal information and apply online for your annual practicing certificate. These changes affect you and we will communicate directly with you closer to the time of going live.

With the introduction of the new Health & Safety Act this year, the Council has been reviewing its obligations in relation to its staff and contractors that assist the Council to carry out its business.

Thank you to everyone who has contributed to Council work this year—we do appreciate your commitment and support.

I would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a happy and safe holiday season.

Kind regards,

Marie Warner
Chief Executive