Outreach
The Outreach team exists to support students, surgeons, and the extended surgical team across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. We meet prospective members and ensure the College is a place that feels welcoming and inclusive to all, whilst providing value and relevance to your professional lives.
We do this by:
- Ensuring you have access to RCS England services
- Representing your interests at the College, on a regional and national level
- Engaging and collaborating with members and perspective members;
- Increasing your exposure to the College as the home of surgery
Our projects
- Advocating for surgical professionals by working with a team of Regional Directors and Surgical Tutors to lead engagement, provide guidance and gather feedback on issues of local or national importance.
- Changing the face of surgery with Diversity, Equity and Inclusion projects such as Mentorship, Grassroots in Surgery and Medical School Engagement
- Facilitating events, conferences and workshops, such as: Cutting Edge Careers, Are You Cut Out For It? Surgical Skill Competition and Interview Skills Workshops. Get involved and volunteer with us!
- Supporting all career grades with guidance and resources, such as sponsorship and the Future Surgeons Forum for medical students.
Volunteer with us
- Surgical Skills Competition: We are looking for regional heat organisers (all career grades and specilties welcome) to support us in hosting Are You Cut Out For It? within their school of surgery. Heats should take place between October 2023 and February 2024. We are also recruiting consultant (and SAS equivalent) judges for our national final on Saturday 20 April 2024. Contact us to find out more.
- Interview Skills Workshops: Become a mock panellist and help Foundation trainees prepare for the next stage of their surgical career. Join us for an interactive workshop surrounding Core Surgical Training interviews. Dates TBC. Contact us to find out more.
Sponsorship
RCS England are regularly approached to support educational and training opportunities across the UK and we recognise the value of working in collaboration with any organisations that share our aim of advancing surgical care. We are committed to meeting the needs of our members in their regions and attracting, educating and developing surgeons and surgeons in training. Read more about our guidelines and sponsorship process below, or fill in our application form to apply for sponsorship.
Guidelines for Sponsorship
We can support
- Funding towards the development and delivery of educational and professional courses.
- Advertising in our publications and all other communication channels, where possible and appropriate (e.g. website, social media, etc.)
- Exhibiting at, or sponsorship of, educational and professional conferences, meetings and events (e.g. venue hire, catering, etc.)
- Funding for print publications, and other event collateral.
- Funding for online platform subscriptions to run virtual events.
- Funding for prizes (e.g. poster competitions, essay prizes, etc.). We can also provide judges for competitions.
- Speakers for events: Please provide as much information as possible as to the kind of speaker you are looking for and the topic of the presentation. We will always do our best to find an appropriate speaker. Please note: If we provide speakers who have volunteered to support your event, you will be expected to make contact with them whether you choose to use them or not.
- Funding for educational and teaching materials and consumables (such as suture kits).
- Offering non-financial ‘offers in kind’ where possible (e.g. providing promotional materials).
- Events or activities with other sponsors or partners including other surgical Royal Colleges.
We cannot support
- Societies, companies, institutions or organisations that are not affiliated with surgery.
- Educational and professional conferences, meetings, events and courses that are aimed at other medical specialities.
- Dental surgery and dentistry events and activities.
- Sponsorship of individuals (for this please educational grants and bursaries).
- RCS England does not endorse, promote, or approve products, companies or services (medical or otherwise) unless research has shown a direct benefit and relevance to patients or our members.
- No sponsorship or advertising will be given to companies or organisations where there is a conflict of interest (real or perceived) with our work. An example of this is alcohol and tobacco companies.
Examples of where we may not offer support
- If the event or activity has already occurred.
- If the request for funding is larger than RCS England is able to support. However, we may be able to provide a contribution towards the overall costs.
- If sufficient notice before the event or activity is not provided, e.g. insufficient time to find an available speaker or for RCS England to be included in promotional materials.
- If the request is for other costs that do not contribute directly to the running or content of the event or activity. For example: gifts for speakers, promotional give aways, and paid social media marketing.
Applying for Sponsorship
Please complete our application form with as much detail as possible when applying for sponsorship. We may ask you to provide details of the event or course, including:
- information on how you plan to use the funding;
- a breakdown of anticipated costs;
- the number of attendees;
- a sponsorship booklet if you have produced one;
- information on how this will support your members / students / colleagues, and;
- any other details of how the RCS England can support the activity.
If we have agreed to sponsor an event than please refer to the support as a sponsorship rather than a partnership, affiliation or accreditation.
If you are interested in Continuing Professional Development (CPD) accreditation please contact our Quality Assurance team qa@rcseng.ac.uk
Each application will be considered on a case by case basis. Please complete our application form to be considered for sponsorship.
If you have any questions please do get in touch:
- If you are based in the North, the Midlands, Scotland, or Northern Ireland, please email OutreachNorth@rcseng.ac.uk
- If you are based in London, the East of England, the South or Wales, please email OutreachSouth@rcseng.ac.uk