Other than the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, produced by the Journal Department, production of Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists publications was initially the responsibility of a designated member of staff within the Administration Department. As the function expanded in importance with the establishment of a RCOG Press and a College Bookshop in 1993, a Publications Office was set up within the department; in 2000 this office became the Publications Department. The department is responsible for publishing RCOG Press volumes and serials.
In 1991 the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) and the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) instituted a series of joint meetings to consider maternity services in the light of changes in the organisation of the National Health Service, advances in clinical knowledge, and changes in the social framework in which general practitioners, midwives and obstetricians operated. The result was the production of a joint document on maternity care. A draft version of this document was also submitted to the House of Commons Health Committee Enquiry into Maternity Services.
In 1942 the Royal College of Physicians of London (RCP) and the Royal College of Surgeons of England (RCSENG) met together and agreed to ask the RCOG to co-operate to form a Standing Joint Committee of the three Royal Colleges. The Committee initially met each month to discuss matters of mutual interest, particularly the training of consultants; the three College presidents alternated as chairman.
This joint working party was established to explore key issues affecting students' clinical learning experiences and to identify strategies to address them. Their remit was to:
- Review the clinical learning environment in maternity services with particular respect to the recruitment of doctors and midwives.
- Gather national and international research and evidence pertaining to the development and support of a good clinical learning environment.
- Identify and propagate examples of good practice relating to the clinical learning environment and recruitment.
- Develop a collaborative strategy for the development of professional support within the clinical learning environment and enhanced recruitment.
The working party comprised a group of professionals with relevant expertise and experiences encompassing the academic, clinical, practical and organisational aspects of learning environments. The group met on five occasions, from January to September 2006.
This working party was established by the Councils of the two Colleges in July 1980 'to consider training in obstetrics and gynaecology for general practice, having regard to undergraduate education and training'. It met 14 times and published a report in November 1981 recommending realistic and satisfactory education for general practitioners so there can be a closer integration in maternal care between the general the doctor and the hospital maternity units.
By the early 1980s improvements in the management of very small babies meant that many were surviving below the 28 week gestation period on which abortion legislation was based. A joint committee representing the RCOG, British Paediatric Association, Royal College of General Practitioners, Royal College of Midwives and the British Medical Assocociation was formed to consider the subject and formulate a joint statement on the issue. The Department of Health and Social Security sent observers. The statement was issued in 1985.
The RCOG established this working party, representing the Royal Colleges of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, Midwives, Anaesthetists, Paediatrics and Child Health as well as other stakeholder organisations, to develop national standards for maternity care. It had the following remit:
- To review current evidence-based published standards in the area of maternity practice.
- To derive from these documents agreed standards for maternity care, from prepregnancy through to the postnatal period.
- To complete the work within one year.
The final report was published in June 2008.
The Ad Hoc Committee to Advise on Obstetric Analgesia and Anaesthesia including all Methods of Relief of Pain in Labour was established on 28 November 1970. It was formed on the recommendation of the Council of the RCOG, with representatives from the College, Central Midwives Board, Royal College of Midwives, Faculty of Anaesthetists, Association of Obstetric Anaesthetists and British Paediatric Association. It was chaired by Dame Josephine Barnes. The Committee made several reports on its investigations, including submissions to the Department of Health. It was disbanded in 1975.
In July 1968, RCOG Council produced a report on Hospital Obstetrics and the General Practitioner, following changes in the NHS. The report commented on General Practitioner Maternity Units and was drafted in discussion with the RCGP and the Univeristy of Liverpool. In 1972 a Joint Working Party between the RCOG and Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) was convened to discuss the training requirements in obstetrics for the General Practitioner. At its first meeting on 13th July 1972, the party discussed an initial working paper produced by Sir Norman Jeffcoate (RCOG) and Dr P O'Brien (RCGP). The party met on six occasions and produced a report in March 1974 (a copy is in C7/1/2). In September 1980 a Joint Working Party on Training in Obstetrics and Gynaecology for General Practitioners was formed, following circulation of the two aforementioned reports. R M Feroze (FRCOG) acted as Chairman. The Working Party was to consider training in obstetrics and gynaecology for general practice, having regard to undergraduate education and training, and to make recommendations. The party met 14 times and produced a report in November 1981 (two copies are enclosed in C7/4/5). Ten years later in 1990, a second joint College working group was convened to review the recommendations of the 1980 working party and to determine the progress made in their implementation. They reported in February 1992, making 'Recommendations for Arrangements for General Practitioner Vocational Training in Obstetrics and Gynaecology. In 1975 a Joint Research Committee of the RCOG and RCGP was established to undertake a 'Study into the Attitudes to Pregnancy'. It's main objectives were to compare the subsequent experience of women who require an induced abortion with that of other pregnant women, with special reference to reproductive efficiency, mental health and morbidity. The study was originally entitled 'Study of Sequelae of Induced and Spontaneous Abortion', but was renamed because of the need to include women as controls in the study who were not having abortions. The study arose because of a request from the Department of Health and Social Security in 1972 about the after effects of termination of pregnancy. The study was piloted three times, but was eventually postposed in 1978.
The National Birthday Fund for Maternity Services (later National Birthday Trust Fund) was founded in 1928. In the inter-war period it campaigned for the provision of analgesia in childbirth and improvements in midwifery services and also conducted research into nutrition. Following the Second World War, its primary activity became sponsoring research, particularly into perinatal mortality. It conducted nationwide surveys in 1946, 1958, 1970, 1984, 1990 and 1994 and also supported on-going cohort studies of the development of children. At the end of the 1960s there had been proposals that the Fund be merged with the RCOG, although this never came to fruition, although in subsequent years the Fund developed a close relationship with the RCOG, which became involved in a number of its research projects. Ties between the two organisations were enhanced by the involvement of Professor Geoffrey Chamberlain, later President of the RCOG, in several Fund projects. The second perinatal survey in 1970 focused on the care of mother and baby for the first week after birth. The RCOG offered specialist advice and underwrote some of the salary costs for the survey. The survey was published as 'British Births 1970: A survey under the joint auspices of the National Birthday Trust Fund and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists' edited by Dr Roma Chamberlain and others (London, 1975-78). Following the establishment of the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit in 1978, the Fund decided to focus instead on single-subject surveys. One such was a 1984 confidential enquiry into place of birth, the results of which were published as 'Birthplace: Report of the confidential enquiry into facilities available at the place of birth conducted by the National Birthday Trust Fund' edited by Geoffrey Chamberlain and Philippa Gunn (Chichester, 1989). In 1993 the Fund joined forces with Birthright, a charitable branch of the RCOG which had been founded in 1963 and funded medical and scientific research into women's health. Birthright became the corporate Trustee of the Birthday Trust and the official merger of the two organisations accompanied its renaming as Wellbeing.
The first meeting of the Joint RCOG/Royal College of Radiologists Ultrasound Group was held on 27 February 1986. Its brief was to 'draw up a training programme for obstetric ultrasound for medical practitioners' (minutes, ref. C9/M/1). At its second meeting the group proposed that a Standing Joint Committee be established between the two Colleges. The Ultrasound Group produced a final report on its recommendations for a training programme and was dissolved on 10 November 1986 after four meetings. The Standing Joint Committee of the RCOG/RCR convened on 18 May 1987, having been established in response to the recommendations of the report of the Ultrasound Group. Its remit was 'to oversee the training in obstetric ultrasound in accordance with the Group's report' (minutes, ref. C9/M/1). The Committee was to promote and maintain standards in obstetric ultrasound generally, and to regulate and monitor training arrangements. It was also responsible for assessing and recommending approval of practical training centres, theoretical courses and trainees' log books. By 2008, the remit and objectives of the Committee remained the same; it reported to the Education Board of the RCOG and the RCR Council. The function of the Committee was to organise and supervise basic ultrasound training in obstetric ultrasound (MRCOG Logbook) and the Joint College Diploma. This included: recommending training standards; accrediting and monitoring practical training centres; organising the theoretical course; supervising other means of assessment such as logbooks and OSCE; responding with advice on issues raised by either College Council relating to Obstetric Ultrasound; raising with either College Council issues in obstetric ultrasound which the Committee felt should be considered more broadly.
The College acts as a pressure group and as an advisory body for the Department of Health, its predecessors and various government agencies, on particular issues relating to obstetrics and gynaecology. It also liaises on these issues with private and international organisations concerned with womens' health and the medical profession.
FIGO 'the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics' was established in 1954 to bring together professional societies of obstetricians and gynecologists on a global basis. It is incorporated under the Swiss Civil Code but has a Secretariat based in London. Since its foundation, every three years FIGO has organised a World Congress of Gynecology and Obstetrics.
The National Health Service Act 1946 established a Central Health Services Council to advise the Minister of Health and this included, ex-officio, the presidents of the medical Royal Colleges. It also empowered him to constitute standing advisory committees to provide guidance on particular services. Initially, nine such committees were appointed, a Maternity and Midwifery Advisory Committee being one. In 1967 this considered the future of the domiciliary midwifery service and bed needs for maternity patients in the context of an increasing hospital confinement rate, a shorter length of hospital stay and a falling birth rate. It established a subcommittee to examine the issue. This held its first meeting in September 1967. Sir John Peel was elected Chairman. It met thirteen times and took evidence from a range of organisations and individuals. Its 1970 report, known as the Peel Report, was subsequently controversial for its recommendation that 'sufficient facilities shuld be provoided to allow for 100% hospital delivery' and that 'the greater safety of hospital confinement for mother and child justifies this objective.'
In 1968, the Ministry of Health was dissolved and its functions transferred (along with those of the similarly dissolved Ministry of Social Security) to the newly created Department of Health and Social Security (DHSS). (Twenty years later, these functions were split back into two government departments, forming the Department of Social Security (DSS) and the current Department of Health.)
In 1964, obstetrician Professor Will Nixon set up the 'Childbirth Research Centre', after witnessing the grief of a young man whose wife had died during childbirth. Professor Nixon was director of the department of obstetrics and gynaecology at University College Hospital, London for over twenty years. Leading members of the medical profession including Lord Brain, Sir John Peel, Professor Dugald Baird and Sir George Pinker founded CRC as a registered charity in October 1964. They were very disturbed by the lack of scientific and medical research into the causes and prevention of abnormalities in pregnancy, childbirth and infancy. In 1972, the name was changed to 'Birthright' 'The National Fund for Childbirth Research' in order to reflect the national activities of the charity both in terms of fundraising and research. In April 1975 Birthright agreed to work with The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) to improve women's health. Birthright worked in partnership with the RCOG as a fundraising and research organisation to promote research in obstetrics and gynaecology and related subjects, particularly research into the prevention of birth defects.
An international liaison committee of professional organisations and national associations of gynaecologists and obstetricians, UPIGO was formed in 1955. Its objectives were:
- to study, represent and defend the ethical, professional and material interests of obstetricians and gynaecologists before all international authorities,
- to study and to explain the ethical, legal, professional and social problems which occur in these disciplines, according to the particular interest they arouse,
- to establish relations with any appropriate national or international organisation,
- to provide exhaustive literature on the profession of gynaecologist-obstetrician to each member or delegation of members, in order to stimulate progress in the policy of each country in the fields of training of practitioners and the safety of women, as well as that of unborn children,
- to promote the harmonisation of qualifications and conditions of practice for specialists in obstetrics and gynaecology, in order to justify professional migration within the framework of international regulations,
- to promote products or services which will satisfy ethical considerations as well as the Association's expectations of quality.
In July 1988 the College established a working party 'to review current post-graduate activities of the College and to consider the need, feasibility and the format of assessment of the individual's maintenance of skills'. In 1991 this reported that the majority of consultants were not taking advantage of the existing educational opportunities offered by the College. It recommended that the College develop a programme of mandatory Continuing Medical Education (CME) for all its Fellows and Members in active specialist practice. This began in January 1994. The RCOG was the first of the UK Colleges to establish such a programme and also the first to offer it (from January 2000) to overseas members. The programme catered for consultants and other members of career grade staff not in training posts. The scheme was developed and overseen by the CME Committee, which held its first meeting in July 1992, and reported to the Education Board. It was administered by the Postgraduate Education Department. The first 5-year CME cycle was completed in December 1998. In 1998 CME became part of the wider sphere of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) and in 1999 the CME Committee changed its name to the CPD Committee. In January 2002 the CME programme also changed its name to the CPD programme. At this date the programme was expanded to take into account not just the continuing medical education needs of obstetricians and gynaecologists, but also their broader professional development (i.e. non-clinical or non-specialist clinical activities). The Postgraduate Education Department was disbanded in October 2003 at which point the CPD Office was transferred to the Clinical Governance and Standards Department.
A congress to discuss obstetrics and gynaecology was held in London in 1920; unfortunately no record has survived of its terms of reference or proceedings. The first official British Congress of Obstetrics and Gynaecology (BCOG) was held at Birmingham in 1921 (see note on p. 4 of Central Congress Committee minute book, ref: E6M/1), but records of proceedings do not begin until 1923. The congresses were organised by Congress secretaries of local obstetrical societies; an Executive was appointed at the 1923 Edinburgh Congress, with the power to appoint a Treasurer (see correspondence of William Blair Bell, 1923, concerning British congresses in S10/59). From 1923 to 1965 British congresses were organised by local committees under the aegis of a Central Congress Committee, which was composed of representatives of different British and Irish obstetrical and gynaecological societies. The central committee was disbanded in 1965, and replaced by a new Congress Committee of the RCOG. The different societies continued to send representatives to serve on the new committee. In 1968 the Congress Committee was renamed the Scientific Programme and Central Congress Committee, and became responsible for the College's expanded programme of scientific meetings. In 1973 responsibility for scientific meetings passed to the Postgraduate Committee and Scientific Programme was dropped from its title. In 1976 the Central Congress Committee discussed the frequency of its meetings and recommended greater local influence; it restricted future meetings to the year of each Congress. By the 1980s the local obstetrical and gynaecological societies were responsible for running the annual Congress. The RCOG held a central Congress fund to enable organisers to plan ahead and any profits of the Congress were returned to the central fund. The President of the RCOG was also President of the Congress but otherwise the College had little input into the organisation of the Congress. In 1984 a new College Congress Committee was established to: allow the College to have a greater input to the scientific and social content; decide future venues; appoint the organising committee and advise on financial arrangements; liaise with College arrangements for other scientific meetings during the year of the Congress; arrange courses near the Congress for overseas delegates. However, it's existence was short-lived, on 22 July 1989 the RCOG Council disbanded the Congress Committee, and agreed that its responsibilities should pass to the Finance and Executive Committee (with one exception: the Postgraduate Committee became responsible for arranging educational courses at the time of the Congress).
In January 2002 a new Congress Committee was re-established, reporting to the Education Board. Its remit was:
- To be responsible for the scientific and social programme of the annual Congress
- To consider the inclusion of College eponymous lectures and of specilist societies in programme selection
- To decide on future venues for Congresses
- To monitor the performance of the Professional Congress Organiser
- To monitor the budget, income and expenditure for the Congress
A Scientific Programme Sub-Group was established at the first meeting to report to Congress Committee with its recommendations. 2007 marked the 30th British Congress of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, which was held in London. It is notable that in the new millennium, a major feature of the 'British' congress is collaboration with specialist societies and International Colleges which include America, Australia, Canada, South Africa and India, and others. Internally, organisation of congresses was always overseen by the Deputy College Secretary, later known as the Head of Corporate Affairs. From 1974-2002, Ms Caroline Roney served as Congress Organising Secretary/Congress Organiser.
The working party was set up by the Council of the RCOG in 1989, under the chairmanship of Professor E M Symonds FRCOG, with the following terms of reference: "to review the current activities of the RCOG, to consider future strategy and to report through the Finance and Executive Committee to Council. All aspects of the work of the College and details of its present structure and function should be considered." (terms of reference of the working party, ref M50/1). The working party made its final report in 1991. The College Secretary's Office provided the secretariat for the working party.
This area was traditionally the responsibility of the Director of Corporate Affairs. The College employed freelancers for occasional press work until 2000 when they decided to appoint a permanent Press Officer. In 2006 the College set up a Department for Communications and External Affairs, reporting to the Directorate of Corporate Affairs.
Over the years the Publications department of the College has produced a range of booklets, prospectuses and audio-visual material to promote the specialty of obsterics and gynaecology.
The College has released annual reports since its establishment as the British College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in 1929. In 2006 the Annual Report was renamed the Annual Review, with the Annual Report and Accounts being published on the College website.
The College formally announces matters of interest to media 'consumers' in press statements. Initially these were issued in paper form, from 2006 they have been issued electronically on the College website.
RCOG Update was the College's monthly e-news bulletin distributed to Members and Fellows. Each email contained brief information about general issues in obstetrics and gynaecology and RCOG news items and events, with links to further information.
RCOG press releases are concise written statements distributed to the media to announce newsworthy events in relation to the College or obstetrics and gynaecology.
These books contain the minutes of more than one College committee, joint committee or working party. The practice of maintaining multi-purpose minute books was discontinued in 1987.
The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) was founded in 1929 following collaboration between William Blair-Bell, who became the first president, and William Fletcher Shaw, the first honorary secretary. Prior to 1929 England had two distinguished medical Royal colleges, the Royal College of Physicians of London (founded 1518) and the Royal College of Surgeons of England (founded 1800). The three Scottish medical royal colleges had all been founded by the end of the seventeenth century. The RCOG was the first to represent a speciality other than medicine and surgery. It was followed in due course by the establishment of the Royal Colleges of General Practitioners, Radiologists, Pathologists, Psychiatrists, Ophthalmologists, Anaesthetists and Paediatricians.
The College is a professional membership association with charitable status and is concerned with all matters relating to the science and practice of obstetrics and gynaecology. The main purpose is to act as the examination body for doctors wanting to specialise in obstetrics and gynaecology and then as a membership organisation to those who pass the examination. It is a self-funded and independent body. The College operates through a system of committees, serviced by the College departments.
Lists of Fellows and Members were kept from the founding of the College in 1929; the Annual Report was also produced from that date. Production of the Register of Fellows and Members, the Annual Report and programmes of admission ceremonies is currently the responsibility of the Deputy College Secretary's Office.
The position of Deputy College Secretary was established in the late 1970s. The Deputy College Secretary is the head of the College's Administration Department and also provides secretarial and administrative support for all the Honorary Officers. The Deputy College Secretary is responsible for: management and supervision of the department, editorial, production and circulation of all major printing requirements for the College, the RCOG website, public relations, the Fellows & Members database and Admission ceremonies, RCOG publications and the Bookshop, travel for College business, international meetings and congresses, representatives on outside bodies, attendance at Committee meetings, special projects given by Officers. The department services the Consumers' Forum, the Ethics Committee, the Services Board, Joint Standing Committees with other Medical Colleges and associations and related sub-committees, and working parties. The Annual Report, Register of Fellows and Members and The Obstetrician & Gynaecologist are compiled within this department, as are proceedings of study groups and reports of working parties. The department is additionally responsible for the issue of press releases, press conferences and all media contacts. The College has an appointed Honorary Public Relations Officer who is a Fellow of the College.
General meetings of College Fellows and Members were held annually from 1930 onwards.
In 1964 the Lord Chancellor's Law Reform Committee began a review of the law of evidence in civil cases, with particular reference to the law governing evidence which a medical practitioner might have to give in a court of law. It requested a response from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, which forwarded its evidence in 1965.
In 1967 a bill to legalise the medical termination of pregnancy in certain circumstances was introduced to parliament by the MP David Steel. The College was closely involved with and monitored the provisions of the bill during its progress through Parliament until its enactment.
The President is one of the honorary officers of the College and is elected by Council for a maximum of three years from amongst the College Fellows. The president is ex officio chairman of all College committees and is empowered under the bye-laws to undertake emergency action where it is impossible to summon a meeting of Council or the appropriate committee to deal with such an emergency. Biographical details of the Presidents can be found by consulting Sir John Peel's book The Lives of the Fellows of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists 1929-1969, Whitefriars Press Ltd, 1975.
Under the By-laws of the College drawn up in 1929, two Vice Presidents were to be chosen from among the Fellows of the College. The Senior Vice President, or in his absence, the Junior Vice President, was to undertake the President's duties in the case of the latter's inability or unwillingness to undertake his duties. The Senior Vice President was to be the Vice President who had held office for a longer period. The Vice President assumed primary responsibility for overseas affairs in the early 1980s; prior to this time the College Secretary was responsible for overseas affairs.
Joint committees and working groups were set up frequently at the behest of one or other of the medical colleges or bodies to discuss matters of mutual concern. Minutes were usually kept and distributed to all participants, and published reports frequently produced. Servicing the College's contribution to these joint committees and working groups and maintenance of the College's own records of proceedings are currently the responsibility of the Committee Secretary, Administration Department.
The joint working party to consider a proposed Faculty of Family Planning arose out of discussions between the National Association of Family Planning Doctors and the Joint Committee on Contraception of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) and the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP)(normally referred to as the Joint Committee on Contraception). The first meeting was held in November 1987. Initially it was expected that a joint RCOG/RCGP Faculty would be established; in 1991, however, the RCGP withdrew and the RCOG finally set up a Faculty of Family Planning and Reproductive Health Care (FFPRHC) within the College in 1993. In 1998 the FFPRHC withdrew from the College to its own premises.
The Committee was established in 1987. It consisted of representatives from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and one representative from each of the three Defence Societies; the Medical Protection Society, the Medical Defence Union and the Medical and Dental Defence Union of Scotland, plus a senior solicitor and an observer from the DHSS. Its remit was to advise the RCOG Council of the RCOG and the Defence Societies on medico-legal matters as they related to obstetrics and gynaecology. The Committee's secretariat was based at the RCOG. The Committee was disbanded in 1998.
In November 1981 a meeting was set up at the instigation of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists between representatives of the Department of Health and Social Security, Royal College of General Practitioners, British Paediatric Association, Royal College of Midwives and the RCOG to discuss the implications of establishing a system of confidential inquiry into perinatal mortality throughout England and Wales. After further discussions the committee was reconvened in 1984 as an interdisciplinary working party, with the objective of producing a document on guidelines.
In 1973 the Board of Science and Education of the British Medical Association set up a series of exploratory meetings, it was from these meetings that the Committee of Enquiry into Competence to Practise evolved. The Committee comprised representatives from all Royal Colleges and their faculties, the Joint Consultants Committee and the BMA. The Chairman of the Committee was E A J Alment (later President of the RCOG). The terms of reference were: `To review the present methods of ensuring the maintenance of standards of continuing competence to practise and of the clinical care of patients, and to make recommendations.'
This inquiry was set up by a committee of the Joint Council of Midwifery in 1936, with the College President, Sir Ewen Maclean, as the College's representative. In 1937 an interim report, including comments from the constituent bodies with representatives on the Midwifery committee, was forwarded to the Inter-departmental Committee on Abortion which had been set up by the Ministry of Health.
In July 1975 it was agreed that a Conference of Royal Colleges and their Faculties of Medicine in the UK should be formed. Sir Rodney Smith was proposed as the first chairman. Membership was to include one representative from each constituent member. It was envisaged that, in addition to the UK Conference, the Scottish Colleges and perhaps those in England and Wales would need to meet separately from time to time. In October 1976 the name was changed to the Conference of Medical Royal Colleges.
The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and British Paediatric Association (BPA) Standing Joint Committee evolved out of various ad hoc committees of the two bodies set up in the 1940s to discuss issues of mutual concern. The committee lapsed for some time during the 1950s but was officially reconstituted in January 1965 to discuss in particular the staffing structure of maternity units for the care of the newborn (ref: C4/3/1). The joint committee is made up of equal numbers of members of the two organisations. Its remit is to consider matters of common interest to members of both specialities. In 1998 the BPA was reconstituted as the Royal College of Paediatric and Child Health (RCPCH). Servicing the RCOG's contribution to this committee is the responsibility of the Committee Secretary, Administration Department.
An Executive Committee was established as a standing committee of the RCOG in 1926. By June 1930 it had combined with another standing committee, the Finance and Establishment Committee, to form the Finance and Executive Committee (F & E). The office of Honorary Treasurer was created by Council under the 1929 bye-laws of the College (ref: A1/9/1 p. 48), which state that the Honorary Treasurer's duties were to be as follows:- to pay all monies received by him on behalf of the College into a College account; to keep accounts of all monies received and expended and report monthly to the Finance and Executive Committee; to prepare quarterly reports to Council; to maintain an Income and Expenditure account and balance sheet. At an Executive Committee meeting in October 1929 it was decided that the Treasurer be given authority to arrange with the Auditors for one of their clerks to keep the necessary financial books of the College for £50 per annum. The President and Honorary secretary were also authorised to obtain any clerical assistance found necessary (Executive Committee meeting B1, 10 Oct 1929; Archives reference: A3M/1 p. 2). From this beginning the Accounts Department, renamed the Finance Department in 1999, developed. The Department, now headed by a Chief Accountant, offers financial support for the activities of the Honorary Treasurer and is responsible for the following functions:- banking all income which includes subscriptions, examination and course fees and sales from publications; paying all the College's purchase invoices; co-ordinating the budgeting process; preparing the annual statutory accounts.
On 26 April 1973, at a meeting of the RCOG Committee on Contraception and Family Planning, it was decided that the committee should be renamed the Joint Committee on Contraception of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and the Royal College of General Practitioners, normally abbreviated as the Joint Committee on Contraception (JCC). In December 1974 the RCOG agreed to take over the secretarial and accounts work for the JCC. In 1993 the JCC was superseded by the Faculty of Family Planning and Reproductive Health Care (FFPRHC); from this time the Faculty began to operate independently of the College. In 1998 the FFPRHC quitted its premises in the College.
Special working groups or ad hoc committees and sub-committees were set up at various times, usually by Council or the Finance and Executive Committee, to investigate and report on particular issues of concern to the College. Servicing the working groups and committees is currently the responsibility of the College's Administration Department.
The committee was set up in 1962 by Council under the chairmanship of Professor C H G Macafee to examine and report on trends in the development of obstetrics and gynaecology as a speciality with particular reference to recruitment, teaching research and training in the United Kingdom. It obtained information from undergraduates through a questionnaire and a random sample of personal interviews by the chairman. The committee produced a report to the College in 1966, and the information it amassed was used in the College's submission to the Royal Commission on Medical Education in 1968.
The working group was set up in 1978 at the request of Sir Henry Yellowlees, Chief Medical Officer, in order to "advise on what guidance might be given to health authorities on the introduction into routine antenatal care of a service to detect neural tube defects". The group was chaired by the President of the Royal College of Physicians and the RCOG was represented by the College President. The final report was produced in July 1979.
In November 1994 the Council of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) set up a working party under the chairmanship of the Senior Vice President/Overseas Officer to examine the international affairs of the College and to make recommendations. The working party was particularly concerned with training for overseas postgraduates. The resulting report was circulated to all College members world wide.