A response from the President Professor Sir Robert Lechler PMedSci
Like many of you, I was disappointed by the lack of gender and ethnic diversity presented on the Council Ballot paper for 2019. As I have said before, the message it communicates is completely at odds with our commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion. Earlier this month I wrote to the entire Fellowship, not attempting to justify the situation, but to seek ideas about how we can prevent it happening again. Thanks to the many of you who replied to me, your responses were discussed by Council when they met in October. As ever the wisdom of the Fellowship is key to us becoming a truly modern Academy and one fit for the challenges of the 21st Century.
I was heartened by the expressions of shared accountability in many of the comments. You sent a strong message about the collective responsibility of Fellows to nominate candidates, but also to work harder to encourage diverse nominations among our peers. Council endorsed this. I recognise that putting yourself forward for these open vote positions can be a daunting task, but one that can be helped by words of encouragement and an offer of support from others. I also understand the disappointment of standing and not getting chosen so continuing that support is vital, especially if we are to prevent diverse nominees feeling that they cannot stand again.
We know that diverse teams make better decisions, and we heard from many of you how important it is that in diversifying Council membership we focus not just on gender and ethnicity, but also geographical, subject and sector diversity. The views of Fellows about setting quotas varied, but all acknowledged that balancing diversity will always be difficult with a limited number of places available each year and that diversifying the Fellowship as a whole is a vital step. We also heard messages about the risks of overburdening minority groups within the existing Fellowship, particularly if quotas were introduced, and also that a drive to diversify can lead some to feel excluded.
We believe that our current process of open nomination and Fellowship wide ballot to determine Council membership is the most democratic way to determine Council membership and gives it a remit to comment on behalf of the Fellowship. We know that this process can work to support gender diversity with Council currently standing at over 50% female. Given this, Council were not in favour of forming a dedicated nominations committee. They did agree that Fellows, and particularly Council members needed to be much more proactive in identifying potential Council members and encouraging them to stand. Specifically we have agreed to:
- Send data on the diversity breakdown of existing Council members with the call for nominations. A report of diversity data across Academy programmes, including our Governance committees, is published yearly on this webpage.
- Strengthen the message about our desire for diverse nominations and the specific support needed from Fellows to enable this.
- Give more details about the time commitment of Council members and flag that remote participation in meetings is possible.
- Send a reminder earlier in the year to encourage Fellows to start identifying and encouraging diverse nominations, before the process officially opens.
- Open the formal call for nominations earlier to allow more time to prepare paperwork.
My fellows Officers, Council members and the Regional Champions will play an active role in proactively contacting Fellows, encouraging them to put themselves forward and working to support them through the process. We know there are some fantastic Fellows ready to stand and I look forward to working with you all to continue taking our diversity agenda forward.
Please do contact the Executive Director (simon.denegri@acmedsci.ac.uk) if you would like to identify potential Council nominations as well as Fellowship candidates from a diverse range of backgrounds.