Historic Meeting of the SLO and RLO Advisory Councils

Day 2 of the 2024 SLO Advisory Council’s face-to-face meeting featured an historic meeting of the SLO and RLO Advisory Councils, enabling further collaboration and discussion. The aim of the meeting was to share concerns of both groups and discuss key areas for future interaction. Upon sharing the four advice points presented to the Colleges by the SLOs on Day 1, the RLOs quickly recognised there were more areas of alignment than difference across the two groups in their experience of vocational training in the current context.

It was agreed that the SLO and RLO Advisory Councils would send a separate joint letter to the Colleges seeking a response to shared concerns and solutions such as:

• Addressing accreditation concerns

• Embedding conflict resolution processes 

• Supporting RLO/SLO roles

• Flexibility in placement duration and employment contracts

• Raising the profile of general practice training through bi-College efforts 

The RLO Advisory Council issued a formal note of thanks to GPSA for coordinating the meeting with their SLO counterparts: 

“The RLOs in attendance were thrilled with being invited and enjoyed the productive conversations.  So thank-you for organising. Going forward, the Advisory Council discussed if it would be possible to continue the F2F once a year as well as potentially introduce an online opportunity once a year for both groups to crossover to keep discussions about key areas of interaction going.” 

SLOs were equally pleased to participate, demonstrating their passion as supervisors for scaffolding learners through their training journey and ensuring they have access to well-supported, high quality in-practice education. As SLO Advisory Council co-Chair Dr Candice Baker stated before the two groups parted, the joint meeting on Day 2 - after a notably high-energy meeting with College hierarchy on Day 1 - was her “absolute favourite session!” Candice was not alone in this!