Treasurer's Report

I am going to speak quite briefly as the formal Treasurer's report and summarised accounts are available at the meeting, and Paul Taylor has copies of the full accounts for anyone who wishes.

The overall picture for 2002 is that the College's income was about £ 8.5 million, an increase from the previous year. After investment losses are taken into account, the surplus was about £0.5 million, again an improvement.

First I’d like to say something about income. As you can see, Members’ subscriptions are of great importance as they form the largest percentage of income. The total number of Members has increased steadily and was 10 432 in May 2002. In order to promote Membership and association with the College, we have continued a policy of minimising financial barriers to re-entry, are developing a category of International Associateship and have introduced free Membership for the over 75s. For the future, we need to encourage still more trainees as Inceptors and staff grades as Affiliates.

Another major source of income (largely restricted in use) is the College Research Unit (CRU), which had a very successful year, especially with the development of the National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health, funded by NICE. We have restructured financial arrangements with the CRU in a way we anticipate will encourage a range of income-generating activities.

Publications again made a surplus - more books were sold, advertising was buoyant and subscriptions for the journal Advances in Psychiatric Treatment (APT) increased substantially. We continue to reflect on the potential impact of electronic publishing and the Internet, especially on journals and teaching materials, and need to prepare for this new era.

From 2002 and continuing, we have had a considerable debate as to what degree the College should be dependent on commercial sponsorship. We think it is important that a wide range of partners be sought, especially to enable public education activities and other projects, and that the arrangements and principles should be clear. A Development Management has been appointed, whose task is to establish a fund-raising and income generating strategy.

Cash flow has been positive, and because of likely poor returns on equities, we maintained a degree of liquidity in order to invest in property if appropriate.

Of course many activities involve both income and expenditure. Examinations, for instance, had an increased number of candidate numbers and a limited surplus was made this year enabling future developments. Conferences in 2002 did well, especially those organised by Faculties. The annual meeting in Cardiff was more modest in scale and achieved a small surplus, as opposed to the considerable loss of the preceding year.

What we were enabled to do with income included the completion of the Mind Odyssey, the continuation of the Changing Minds anti-stigma campaign and an external audit of Race Equality Issues. In terms of capital expenditure the major outlay of the year was on Information Technology.

Finally, as usual I would like to thank for their commitment and support Paul Taylor, Head of Financial Services and his staff, and of course Vanessa Cameron, Chief Executive.