ABDO holds talks on DO skills plan

The meeting, on April 2, was initiated after a speech made at last year's ABDO conference in Chepstow, Monmouthshire, in which it was claimed that DOs were not sufficiently well trained to become effective practice managers. ABDO general secretary Malcolm Hunt said the meeting was called as the association wanted to hear what degree of management training the various groups wanted from newly trained DOs. It failed to reach any conclusions and a further date is to be set at the end of September to revisit the subject. Mr Hunt said this was a large subject involving 'different people with different views' and there was a need to reflect on other factors which impact on the issue. Bob Hutchinson, director of strategic operations of Scrivens, said the meeting was very proactive with many good suggestions put forward. 'We need to have a career ladder in place for DOs to be able to get on and move up as they wish,' he said. Mr Hutchinson added he had not expected any results on this occasion as ABDO needed to deliberate how changes could be implemented.