RCPCH strategy 2024-27 - Delivery

Over the first three-year phase of our ten-year strategy, we have three “enablers” to provide more efficient and joined-up working, a better membership experience and a wider range of income sources.

Our three enablers run through our four strategic goals. They will free up time and resource which can in turn be used to create greater impact for our members and for child health.
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Working with our leadership team, we have already begun serious investment in order to upgrade areas of our infrastructure to enable more efficient operations.

We are keeping a close eye on value for money with accountability at the highest internal level. We are reshaping our financial forecasting and budgeting to provide a better understanding of longer-term costs (moving from one to three-year budgets), as well as the chance to review and course-correct more quickly if needed.

Enabler 1: Improving the membership experience

Based on our latest member insight, and by continuing to collaborate with our members, we will put a plan in place to respond to pressing membership issues by targeting urgent improvements to the financial and experiential value of College membership, as well as implement longer term systematic changes to make membership of RCPCH the best it can be.

We know our members' careers have an element of uncertainty navigating the ever- changing environment of the NHS and the wider healthcare and social care sectors.

We are determined to make it as easy as possible for members to interact with our College and provide a valuable and effective membership offer. The benefits of College membership and the experience members have with us need to be of the highest quality, delivered through a stable, reliable and welcoming service.

We will complete the following actions to reach our goal:
  • Create a new digital front door, by implementing a new membership database to provide a more accessible, smoother, quicker and easier way for our members to connect, transact and engage with the College. This will speed up response times to our members’ enquiries, increase capacity for our members’ self- service, provide improved reporting and analysis to better understand members’ engagement with the College, and deliver best practice in payment and finance approaches, and day-to-day transactional processes, increasing our overall efficiency and quality of service to members
  • Deliver and implement a new Service Desk as part of our digital front door, improving response times on enquiries and complaints, and enable AI to answer frequently asked questions in a time and place that suits our members
By the end of 2027 we will know we are successful when we have:
  • Clearly articulated the benefits of being an RCPCH member
  • Simplified and sped up interactions by enabling digital access to all our services and resources for all our members

Enabler 2: Improving the offer for our members with College roles and staff

We will review and map out changes that are needed to improve how we recognise and support clinicians with roles in the College, and use our People and Culture Plan to support the development of talent within our staff team.

The success of our strategic goals is reliant on offering the best to our members with College roles and to our members of staff. We have made strides forward working for change in our EDI (Equality, Diversity and Inclusion) space, and we recognise that EDI is everyone’s business. This strategy acknowledges and encompasses the work of every individual in every department, working together to support members and child health.

We will develop, implement and deliver the best possible offer for those members with College roles, and each member of College staff.

We will complete the following actions to reach our goal:
  • Improve the ways we recruit, plan with, and recognise members with College roles and staff throughout the College, embedding our values and behaviours into our recruitment processes
  • Sustain a safe and healthy work environment by embedding principles of equality, diversity and inclusion in every area of our College and increasing core safeguarding knowledge across all members of staff
  • Develop and harness the diversity, size and depth of our talent pool, while improving structures and skills development plans and opportunities
  • Embed and support a culture of learning and professional development that ensures members with a College role and staff understand changes in processes and systems and utilise technological developments
By the end of 2027 we will know we are successful when we have:

Improved experiences, support and guidance for our members with College roles
Understood and delivered prioritised activities, as set out in the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) review
Created a collaborative culture where staff and our members with College roles recommend RCPCH as a great place to work and/or have a role


Enabler 3: Enabling efficiencies and diversifying our income

We will ensure governance structures and relationships between committees and Boards are optimised to improve agility, collaboration and to enable efficient and effective digital ways of working. We will seek to increase core income through diversified income streams that give us a stronger and more stable financial base, allowing us to increase impact through continual insight, innovation and developments in our offer.

As the only Royal College with members and the community we are serving in its Charter, we have a potentially limitless set of challenges to tackle with limited resources. So, our College must work efficiently and effectively across all its functions and activities whilst creating a sustainable financial base on which to grow.

We need to understand, invest and implement changes that will unleash our full, sustained potential.

To ensure we improve efficiency, increase income and develop effective ways of working, we will:
  • Develop and implement robust and resilient digital systems that drive efficiencies throughout the College, while delivering improved service
  • Reform our process ecosystem across the entire College to empower staff and members with College roles to work smarter
  • Transform our long-term financial planning and reporting to drive efficiencies and improve membership service
  • Create more opportunities to diversify income streams that fully support and advance our charitable objects and strategic goals
By the end of 2027 we will know we are successful when we have:
  • Removed and re-engineered our most inefficient and complex processes, releasing staff time to further support our members and child health goals
  • A sustainable multi-year financial model that allows strategic investment in our membership and child health driven
  • by higher quality and tailored financial reporting and optimal day-to-day support to staff and external stakeholders
  • Reinvested income from selling additional services into delivering our College goals

Our four strategic goals

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Goal 1: The size, skill and welfare of the UK child health workforce are prioritised by senior NHS decision makers to meet the needs of children and young people across the four nations.

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Goal 2: Child health is at the centre of decision-making across the four nations.

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Goal 3: Research, evidence and clinical standards improve safety and child health outcomes.

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Goal 4: RCPCH has an international impact in paediatrics and child health.