OCI Inauguration
Upto 2008, there were two professional associations in Ireland - the Irish Osteopathic Association (IOA) and the Association of Osteopaths in Ireland (AOI). In September 2008, the two associations agreed terms on which to merge. All existing members were invited to apply for membership after electing a council and agreeing to run down the two old associations. Over 75% of the combined memberships of the old AOI and IOA attended for their respective EGM’s in Athlone, October 2008. This resulted in the “yes” vote to form the OCI, and was a strong confirmation that change of how we organise our Profession in Ireland was needed.

OCI has been incorporated and fully operational since January 2009. All existing members who have applied for OCI membership have been transferred to the new register, and the website and new Council administrative structure is currently under development. The Council has met at regular scheduled intervals since its formation in October 2008, and 8 annual meetings are scheduled for 2009. There are currently two significant continuing professional development (CPD) events planned for April and October 2009. 

OCI Membership Criteria
OCI has adopted the suite of European Frameworks for Osteopaths - as developed under the Forum for Osteopathic Regulation in Europe (FORE) – as the academic and professional basis for its terms & conditions of membership. These can be viewed in full European version at www.forewards.eu (select “current projects”, double click on” European frameworks”). OCI are currently refining the suite to fully comply with Irish Legal / Academic standard where necessary, and a draft version as presented to all existing members in 2008 is available by request at the above contact details, and will shortly be added to the website. OCI requests its members to hold the same standards of any locum practitioners they may engage. In brief to qualify for membership, you must have completed the following or equivalent of:

• An honours degree in Osteopathy (minimum 4 years full time, or 5-6 years part-time)
  (Please note that those osteopaths who completed a shorter programme of training, and are currently members of another competent authority register, may still qualify for full membership without any further conditions. Please be encouraged to complete the form).
• 1000 hours supervised clinical tuition
• Have full professional indemnity/malpractice cover equivalent to at least STG £2.5 million
• Have no previous criminal convictions history

OCI reserves the right to request all members to complete an assessment procedure to ensure and maintain the highest standard of practice. OCI is in the process of applying for full Irish State regulation under the Health and Social Care Professionals Act (2005), and will ensure that where at all possible the OCI assessment procedure will be adequate to access this Act.

General Osteopathic Council Registration (GOsC)
It was an IOA criteria that all members were GOsC registered for the duration of their IOA membership. OCI no longer demands this of its members from either IOA or AOI, however until such time as OCI has been given full regulatory status and mutual recognition of competent authorities, we strongly recommend that you maintain your GOsC registration.

2009 Goals
Main activity centres on establishing effective committees and appropriate work to get OCI “open to business”.

• We are still compiling our register, and rely on you all to keep us informed of your contact details and any other practitioners currently not registered with either old association.
• We have just developed a logo for our new organisation.
• We are continually updating the website to support our communications policy. Since January 2009, OCI requires all of its Council members to work via email, the only exception being those members in rural locations where reliable broadband /dial up contact is unavailable. We are rolling out this policy across all our members throughout 2009. This is the most efficient way to update and inform our members of key information.  
• We continue to develop our working relationship with the Health and Social Care Professionals Council, through which we aim to be regulated by 2011. Some future CPD events will be designed to address any issues arising from the regulatory process and the assessment process.
• We will roll out the Assessment Process by the end of the year.
• We will fully review all framework documentation to develop to launch level in Ireland, and continue to develop OCI Education & Accreditation policy, and Ethics policy, in particular.
• We will attend the next FORE conference in July, and support the launch of the FORE Framework documents in the Autumn. There is also a meeting of the EFO in May, and ongoing contact with the General Osteopathic Council.
• We are building a list of potential member benefits ( see members area) which will hopefully be realised throughout the course of 2009.

Your Council

The Council met in November 2008, and developed a number of Committees each led by a Chair. Each committee is free to recruit members from the register to help with a key area of interest. This is a voluntary mechanism to allow all members to take an active role in the OCI, without having to give the same resource commitments of full Council members.

Committees

Committees meet “as and when” as decided by the Chair, who then reports back to Council with the Committee’s recommendations. We are always delighted to hear from members wishing to be co-opted onto committee. Co-optees are invited to join immediately. Please forward your interest to secretary@osteopathy.ie.

We will also request nominations for Council as the need arises. Council nominations are agreed at the AGM.