Over recent months we have been having conversations across the SCCO community about where we are, what we value and what we would like the next chapter of SCCO to look like.

These have not been formal consultation sessions. They have been conversations – sometimes about difficult issues, but also full of enthusiasm, ideas and a very obvious shared commitment to SCCO and its future.

Moving from recovery to rebuilding together

It is important to put these conversations in context.

Over the last couple of years, SCCO has had to make significant changes to ensure that the College was financially and organisationally viable for the future.

Some decisions had to be taken quickly. Others were driven by financial, legal or operational realities and were simply not optional. Trustees had a responsibility to act, and delaying some of those decisions would have increased the risks facing SCCO.

Those decisions have helped put the College on a more sustainable footing.

But necessary change can still have a cost.

When an organisation has to move quickly, there is less time for the conversations, explanations and involvement that would ideally surround change. Inevitably, some people have felt less connected to what was happening or have not always understood the reasons behind particular decisions.

Our engagement discussions have helped us all understand that experience much better.

They have also reminded us that how we work together matters just as much as what we decide.

We are now moving into a different phase. There is still work to do, and financial sustainability will continue to matter, but the immediate pressures are easing. That gives us something we have not always had over the past couple of years: more time and space to talk, listen, explore ideas and shape change together.

That is how we want to work now and moving forward.

Not every conversation will end in agreement and not every idea will be possible. But we can share the challenges, explore the options together and explain why we ultimately choose one route rather than another.

What we have been hearing

One of the strongest messages has been just how much people care about SCCO.

There is enormous affection for its teaching, its history and, perhaps most importantly, the community that has grown around it.

People value the conversations over meals, the relationships between faculty and students, the generosity with which knowledge is shared and the feeling of being part of something rather than simply attending a course.

As SCCO has changed, there has been a concern that we should not inadvertently lose those things.

We all agree.

Financial sustainability, good governance and effective systems provide the foundations that allow SCCO to exist. Our challenge now is to build on those foundations in a way that also protects the warmth, relationships, curiosity and enjoyment that make SCCO distinctive.

More conversation, more often

Another simple message has been: let’s talk more.

The engagement discussions themselves have demonstrated why this matters.

When more context has been shared about why something happened, conversations have often changed. Equally, hearing how a decision or process has actually felt from another perspective has sometimes changed thinking.

Written communication has its place, but it cannot always do that.

So we want more opportunities to talk – online and face to face – and more opportunities to involve people while ideas are still developing now that we have that opportunity again.

Sometimes that will mean saying: “Here is the problem we are trying to solve. What do you think?”

We would like that to become a much more normal part of how SCCO works.

Finding the right balance in communication

There is another challenge that has come through our engagement discussions, and it is something of a contradiction.

There is a lot to tell you about.

SCCO has many things happening at the same time: courses, educational development, faculty matters, finances, governance, marketing, the VLE, copyright, membership and plans for the future. We have heard that people want greater visibility of what is happening and more understanding of the thinking behind decisions.

But we have also heard: there is too much to read.

Both are entirely reasonable.

If we provide all the detail and background, important information can disappear in the volume of communication. If we provide only the headlines, it can feel as though decisions lack explanation or context. And simply sending more emails isn’t the answer.

So we need to find a better balance.

One approach we would like to explore is communication in layers:

The headline – a short, regular update containing the things people really need or may want to know.

The story behind it – a little more context for those who want to understand why something is happening, what we are considering or how a decision has been reached.

The conversation – opportunities to ask questions, challenge thinking, contribute ideas or become involved where something particularly interests you.

This means nobody should have to read pages of information simply to discover what is happening, but the detail shouldn’t disappear for those who want it.

We also need your help to get this right.

Would you prefer one short regular update rather than several separate emails? Would a monthly “SCCO in five minutes” be useful? Would you rather have links to the fuller story when you want to know more? Are there subjects where an online conversation would be much more useful than another written update?

There probably isn’t one communication method that will suit everybody. The aim isn’t to communicate more. It is to communicate better – making the important things easy to find, the context available when you want it, and the conversation open when you want to join in.

That is something we would like to develop with you.

Keeping learning accessible

Affordability has been a recurring theme, particularly for newly qualified and early-career osteopaths.

There is no easy answer. SCCO courses have to be financially sustainable, but we also need people to be able to access them.

The discussions have generated some interesting questions.

Could there be lower-cost ways to encounter SCCO before committing to a full course? Could we provide different entry points into learning? Could online resources sit alongside our practical teaching? Could larger or shorter events introduce more people to the work? Could our community help us support osteopaths at the beginning of their careers?

Rather than seeing SCCO learning as only a sequence of modules, there may be opportunities to create a much broader learning environment around them.

That is something we want to explore.

Protecting what matters about learning together

There has been considerable discussion about residential learning and the special place that it has had within SCCO.

What people describe is not really about bedrooms or buildings. It is about what happens when people have time together.

It is the conversation after teaching has finished. The discussion over dinner. The opportunity to ask one more question. Students and faculty getting to know one another. The confidence that develops within a group over several days.

We have heard very clearly that these things matter.

At the same time, affordability matters too. So rather than simply trying to recreate the past, we want to understand what was valuable about it and how we can carry those qualities into the future.

Where residential opportunities are financially possible, we can continue to explore them. Where they are not, we should think creatively about how we create connection and community in other ways.

Teaching ratios – continuing to learn

Teaching ratios have prompted some of the most interesting discussions because there are genuinely different views.

Some people strongly value smaller groups and the close observation and individual feedback they allow. Others see advantages in larger practical groups, including greater peer learning, independence and collegiate responsibility.

That is useful feedback because it tells us there probably isn’t a simple answer.

The flexible approach is something we can continue to learn from rather than treating it as a finished model.

We need to look at different courses, the experience of students and faculty, educational outcomes and how we continue to develop future teachers.

That evidence and experience can then shape what comes next.

Valuing faculty and developing the future

Another important conversation has been about how we value the extraordinary knowledge and experience within SCCO while also creating opportunities for the next generation of teachers.

Both matter.

Experienced faculty should continue to feel that their contribution is valued and wanted. At the same time, newer faculty need opportunities to observe, teach, develop and eventually lead if SCCO is going to remain strong.

There are good ideas emerging about making teaching opportunities and development routes clearer and more transparent.

We also need to think more broadly about how we value faculty contributions.

Teaching a course is only one part of that contribution. Developing teaching material, recording educational resources, reviewing courses and sharing specialist knowledge all require time and expertise.

That has prompted important discussions about recognising and remunerating faculty for the intellectual and educational contribution they make to SCCO resources, including appropriate licence and royalty arrangements where material continues to be used.

We want to develop that approach with faculty rather than simply create it for them.

Making copyright and digital learning work for everyone

Copyright and the move towards digital materials have understandably created additional work and uncertainty.

The purpose is important: protecting faculty, protecting SCCO and ensuring that the materials we use are legally compliant.

But the process also needs to work.

The engagement discussions have already helped identify practical changes around version control, checking materials and ensuring that the right versions reach the VLE.

There are bigger opportunities too.

Rather than seeing copyright simply as a compliance exercise, could it help us create something valuable?

An SCCO-owned or appropriately licensed library of high-quality anatomical images, teaching resources, demonstrations and lectures could gradually make course preparation easier rather than harder.

It could also help us preserve some of the extraordinary knowledge within the SCCO community for future generations.

Looking beyond the traditional course

Some of the most exciting ideas have been about ways people might engage with SCCO beyond attending a traditional module.

There have been suggestions around online learning, recorded demonstrations and lectures, short courses, lower-cost introductory opportunities, larger events and ways for practitioners to follow areas of particular interest.

There is also a strong desire to preserve the knowledge of experienced faculty by capturing some of their teaching and clinical thinking in a way that we can share more broadly with colleagues.

None of this is about replacing practical teaching.

Hands-on learning and the relationship between student and teacher remain central to SCCO.

It is about asking what we can build around that experience so that more people can encounter SCCO, remain connected between courses and continue learning throughout their professional lives.

From listening to doing

These conversations matter most if something happens because of them.

Some ideas are already becoming practical changes. Others are at an earlier stage and need more discussion. Among the areas now being worked on or explored are:

• Faculty contribution and royalties – developing a fair approach to recognising and remunerating faculty who create significant educational and course material, including exploring appropriate licence and royalty arrangements for material that continues to be used.
• An Assistant Tutor programme fit for the future – looking again at how people enter faculty, gain experience, develop as teachers and progress towards greater teaching responsibility, while making sure SCCO retains and shares the experience of established faculty.
• Fairer and clearer teaching opportunities – exploring ways of improving visibility around faculty opportunities and balancing experience, educational need, succession and development.
• Alternative ways to access SCCO learning – exploring short courses, introductory opportunities, online resources, recorded learning and other routes that can sit alongside our established courses.
• Supporting osteopaths earlier in their careers – looking at affordability and ways of making it easier for newly qualified osteopaths and others new to the cranial approach to begin engaging with SCCO.
• Preserving SCCO knowledge – exploring ways to capture important lectures, demonstrations, conversations and teaching from experienced faculty so that this knowledge can continue to benefit future generations.
• Developing the VLE and educational resource library – building useful shared resources, including images and teaching materials, that support both students and faculty. Office team working with faculty team for each course to develop the right materials
• Reviewing practical teaching models – continuing to learn from different faculty/student ratios rather than assuming that one model is right for every course.
• Keeping the value of residential learning – continuing to explore where residential courses may be viable and, more broadly, how we retain the time, connection and shared learning that people value about them. The office team is working with CDs to find solutions including trialing a different way of working with Hawkwood that could make residential courses viable. We’ve moved the paediatric course to run when the Dove clinic does to enhance learning opportunity. We’re also reviewing viability for a course evening meal on non residential courses.
• More regular opportunities to talk – creating more opportunities for faculty, members, trustees and the wider SCCO community to discuss ideas while they are developing, not simply hear about them afterwards.
• Clearer communication about SCCO – making it easier to understand what is happening, who is responsible for different areas, what we are working on and why.
• Working together on the future educational offer – asking some bigger questions about what SCCO learning could look like over the next five or ten years, while protecting the practical teaching and osteopathic principles at its heart.

Join the conversation

This isn’t intended to be the conclusion of the engagement discussions.

It is really the beginning of the next stage.

We have had to spend a period concentrating on making SCCO viable and putting stronger foundations underneath it. We now have the opportunity to build on those foundations together.

There will be things we try that work brilliantly. There will probably be things we try and subsequently change. There will be different opinions about the best way forward.

That’s healthy.

What matters is that we keep talking, remain curious and make it easier for people across SCCO to contribute their experience and ideas.

So please join in.

Tell us what you think about the ideas above. Tell us what is missing. Challenge an idea if you think there is a better one. Volunteer to help explore something that interests you. Or bring us an idea we haven’t thought of yet.