Trainees in psychiatry have a unique opportunity to contribute to the policy and decision-making within the College, not only on matters relating to training but on broader issues facing psychiatry as a whole. This has been made possible by the introduction of Inceptorship (see Handbook for Inceptors and Trainees in Psychiatry) and by the more recent formation of the Collegiate Trainees Committee (CTC). The Royal College of Psychiatrists is the only college which encourages trainees to join as ‘junior members’, and gives them the opportunity to contribute actively in its working. I would like to review the progress of the CTC since its first meeting in September 1979.

A workshop on the teaching of psychiatry to undergraduate medical students was held at the Institute of Psychiatry on 6 May 1981. Dr S. Greer and Dr C. Bass organized the meeting on behalf of the Association of University Teachers of Psychiatry, and there were sessions on four topics during the day; recruitment to psychiatry; the measurement of students' attitudes towards psychiatry and the use of ‘liaison’ psychiatry as a teaching method; the use of videotapes in teaching medical students interviewing skills—a practical demonstration; and a panel discussion of the problems in teaching undergraduates psychiatry.

The development of an effective psychiatric service for the elderly is dependent upon the allocation of adequate resources. A good candidate, trained in psychiatry for the elderly, is unlikely to consider a post where the provision is inadequate.

I take it as axiomatic that we want more and better research in psychiatry and in the cognate disciplines, but I have the strong impression that in Great Britain, and especially among younger colleagues, the desire and the ability to contribute to the realization of this aim are tenuous. Why so? Is it the people; the training they have received; the value-systems and ideologies they take on board; the milieu in which they work, or the intrinsic nature of psychiatry which militate against fruitful developments?

Since its inception in the late summer of 1979 the Collegiate Trainees Committee has devoted considerable time to discussing the present and future status and organization of the MRCPsych Examination. The following is a summary of the views of the Committee as collated by its Examination Working Party.

The issue of patients' rights, particularly with regard to psychiatric treatment, continues to be a major concern in California. There have been at least two recent pieces of legislation that restrict psychiatrists' clinical freedom in managing their patients.

At the Quarterly Meeting of the College in November 1980, a session was devoted to the subject of research in psychiatry and its inadequacies. The papers are published in full on pages 38 to 50; the following is a summary of the sessions, with some personal comments.