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Six members of ousted RCN Council re-elected to their seat

Six members of ousted RCN Council re-elected to their seat

Six of the 12 members of the Royal College of Nursing Council forced to step down from their positions have been re-elected, the RCN has announced.

Richard Jones – the current vice chair and who was unopposed in his seat – Cynthia Davis, Trevor Peel, Dave Dawes, Sue Warner and Carol Popplestone were all made to resign October after losing a vote of no confidence.

But all six have been successfully re-elected to their respective seats on the Council after deciding to stand for election once again.

However Maria Trewern, the current chair of the Council, failed to regain her seat after losing the South East election to Heather Mercer by 64 votes.

Fellow Council members David Miller, Siobhan Donald and Brian Murphy also failed to regain their places after losing in their respective regional elections.

Turnouts ranged from 4.8% to 8.3%, with the largest turnout belonging to the South West region, which Geoffrey Walker won by a margin of 41 votes.

All elected members of Council will start their one-year terms on 1 January 2019.

A new chair, vice-chair and honorary treasurer will be elected within the council in early 2019.

Commenting on the results, acting chief executive of the RCN Dame Donna Kinnair said: ‘On behalf of all the staff at the College, I wish to congratulate the successful candidates and look forward to working closely with them in 2019 on the biggest challenges facing our profession. I offer my personal gratitude to members of Council whose terms of office end this month – they are a credit to nursing and our organisation. 

‘Above all, I wish to thank wholeheartedly Maria Trewern for chairing Council this year and steering the College through a time of great challenge and change. Any candidate who is disappointed today must know that, in whatever capacity they continue to serve the RCN and fellow members, their work is greatly appreciated.

‘The nursing profession faces some of the most significant challenges in a generation and this Council will oversee the launch of fresh campaigning efforts by the RCN to attract people into nursing, arrest the decline in workforce supply and enshrine safe staffing levels in law in every part of the UK.’

In October, 12 of the 17 RCN Council members resigned from their positions after RCN members successfully passed a vote of no confidence at an emergency general meeting in Birmingham.

The new RCN Council

Health practitioner – Evan Keir 
Northern Ireland – Ann Marie O’Neill 

Scotland – Geoff Earl 
Wales – Richard Jones MBE 
East Midlands – Deirdre Sissons 
London – Cynthia Davis 
Northern – Trevor Peel 
North West – Dave Dawes 
South East – Heather Mercer 
South West – Geoffrey Walker 

West Midlands – Sue Warner 
Yorkshire and the Humber – Carol Popplestone 

Newly-elected members in bold

 

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Six of the 12 members of the Royal College of Nursing Council forced to step down from their positions have been re-elected, the RCN has announced.