RCP member engagement survey 2016 - you spoke, we're listening

Firstly, we would like to thank everyone who participated in our 2016 survey. The thousands who responded were broadly representative of our wider membership demographic, giving us information that reliably reflects the views of our members and fellows. This builds on that collected in our 2012 and 2014 member engagement surveys, and allows us to see how your views are changing over time, and what you think about the changes we have implemented over the past four years.

These thoughts and opinions are vital to ensuring that the support, benefits and services that we offer you - our members and fellows - continue to meet your needs, both now and in the future. The feedback we received from this year’s survey has been carefully considered, and will directly shape our future activities.

What you said we're doing well

We are delighted to see that our members and fellows are rating us more positively year on year, with a 5% increase in members rating the RCP as ‘excellent’ since 2012. Overall, 61% of you rated the RCP as either ‘excellent’ or ‘good’, based on a number of key areas:

Professional support

• you described the RCP as active in representing and supporting its members
• you rated the development opportunities that the RCP offers highly
• over 80% of you rate the RCP’s CPD diary as ‘excellent’ or ‘good’
• over 60% of you rate the RCP’s revalidation portfolio as ‘excellent’ or ‘good’.

Education

• you described the RCP as an ‘excellent’ educational institution
• over 70% of you read Clinical Medicine, primarily for its clinical and medical education content, and 69% of you rate it as ‘excellent’ or ‘good’
• over half of you have attended an RCP event in the last two years, and 55% of you rate RCP educational events as ‘excellent’ or ‘good’.

Communications and customer service

• 85% of you are happy with the number of emails you receive from the RCP
• over 60% of you agree that the emails you receive include information about events that you are interested in
• over 70% of you rated all of your interactions with the RCP - from renewing your membership to having queries answered - as ‘very good’ or ‘good’.

Membership

• 79% of you would recommend RCP membership to your peers/colleagues
• 93% of you are likely to renew your membership at the end of the subscription year
• your top 3 member benefits are: exclusive member discounts on RCP events, Clinical Medicine journal, and access to the RCP CPD diary.

What you said we can improve

While much of your feedback was positive, it also indicated several areas in which we can improve – both in terms of what we offer our members and fellows, and where we focus our policy work and direct our influence.

You want us to focus on:

• improving regional access to member benefits
• providing more digital education resources
• representing our memberships’ views where it matters - 46% of you said that the RCP can add most value by influencing national policy on the organisation of the health service.

You spoke, we're listening

We take your feedback seriously, and have looked carefully at the areas in which you think we can do more. Below we outline how your feedback will shape our activities over the coming years.

What you said you want:

More local activity and improved regional access to member benefits. 

What we're doing to make it happen: 

The RCP is investing considerably to increase services and support for our membership across the UK by:

• investing in our regional office structures, so that each region will have dedicated local support
• strengthening and empowering our networks of regional advisers, college tutors, and regional specialty advisers
• increasing the number of local CPD events and training, both clinical and educational
• developing more clinical and non-clinical e-learning resources that can be accessed from anywhere
• developing more web streamed educational content, including the members’ online video archive.

What you said you want: 

More digital education resources. 

What we're doing to make it happen: 

• Developing the RCP streaming service – following an initiative to improve and expand our streaming of live events, the RCP now live streams teach-ins and lectures as well as key sessions from conferences. These are available to view through the RCP website and recordings of the events are available to view in the members’ video archive.
• Developing new e-learning resources – the RCP is currently developing three new e-learning modules, due for launch in autumn 2016. These are: ‘An introduction to health economics’ (in partnership with the NCGC), ‘Acute care toolkit no 11 – using data to improve healthcare’ (in partnership with the CEEU), and ‘The social determinants of health’, a module in partnership with the UCL Institute of Health Equality. 

What you said you want: 

More focus on influencing national policy on the organisation of the health service.

What we're doing to make it happen: 

• Calling for more investment – our key campaign message over the next year will be; under doctored, underfunded and overstretched. We will be calling for more investment in the workforce and the health services. 
• Representing members' views to policymakers – we will continue to regularly meet with prominent politicians and senior NHS England executives and hold set piece events like parliamentary receptions  to share the views of our  membership.  Members’ views and experiences  will continue to  be central to our reports, with work planned on the medical workforce and the integration of health and social care.
• Promoting best practice – RCP members and fellows already have many of the solutions we need for the current pressing issues in healthcare. We will promote and celebrate these particularly around key areas such as 7-day services, integration of health services, and staff morale and wellbeing.

If you have any questions or comments, please do get in touch with us at membershipqueries@rcplondon.ac.uk.