Faculty

Name

The committee is called “The British Association for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (BAPEN) Faculty” or “The Faculty.”

Membership

Membership of Faculty is by invitation from the BAPEN Council and should reflect the multidisciplinary nature of BAPEN.

Members will be expected to demonstrate their adherence to BAPEN’s core values and principles and to abide by the Association’s regulations and governance policies.   All committee members activity will be conducted in line with the BAPEN values and ED&I policy – https://www.bapen.org.uk/pdfs/policies-and-procedures/bapen-edi-policy-2021.pdf

The size of the Faculty will be at the discretion of the BAPEN Council, and should be sufficient to allow the Faculty to carry out its objectives as defined in Section 3. The membership of the Faculty will be reviewed on a yearly basis by Council.

Membership of Faculty is for 3 years but can be renewed once, on the advice of Faculty and the recommendation of the BAPEN President, subject to the agreement of BAPEN Council.

Members of the Faculty may also hold office in any BAPEN committee, SIG or Core Group, subject to the rules of that group.

Faculty will elect a Chair and may also appoint a co-Chair (or Chairs) to assist with the conduct of its meetings and business. This may include representing Faculty on the Board of Trustees or Council subject to the agreement of the BAPEN President. 

The Chair and any co-Chair of the Faculty will be elected by members of the Faculty subject to a simple majority, and the subsequent approval of the BAPEN President, Executive, and ratification by Council.

The Chair will sit for 3 years renewable for a further 3 years. Only in exceptional circumstances would this period exceed 6 years in total. An outgoing chair may continue to sit on Faculty.

The Chair of the Faculty will be appointed to the  BAPEN Board of Trustees for the duration of their office, subject to approval by the Trustees, and in accordance with the Charity Law of England as regulated by the Charity Commission.

The Faculty Remit and Procedures

BAPEN is a Charity and is governed by its Board of Trustees, as defined by Charity Legislation in England, and its Regulator the Charity Commission.  The Board of Trustees may delegate business to the Executive team and Council but retains the ultimate responsibility for ensuring that BAPEN meets its charitable objectives and legal responsibility for good governance.

The Faculty is an advisory body, the purpose of which is to assist BAPEN in meeting its charitable objectives, by making the expertise and experience of senior BAPEN members available to the Trustee Board.

The Faculty may agree to undertake specific projects at the request of the Trustee Board, the BAPEN President, Executive or Council.  These constitute “Commissioned” advice.

The Faculty may also offer unsolicited advice to the Board and President, accepting that neither the Trustee Board, BAPEN President or Council are under any obligation to accept that advice.  Such advice will be termed “Informal”.

Faculty members are expected to contribute to the Faculty work plan which may include leading on agreed tasks or activities. The Faculty meeting action notes will identify what has been agreed with an expectation of updates or reports being provided within the agreed timeline.

Commissioned advice

The Faculty Chair and co-Chairs would normally receive:

• A written request including the scope and purpose of the advice.
• An expected timescale.
• Who the report is intended for.
• Whether it is to be public or confidential.

The Faculty would produce a written reply or report for the consideration of the Board, the President and Executive or Council, that would remain confidential until approved by the commissioning body.

There would be an expectation that Faculty Advice would usually be made public and published on the BAPEN website, unless specifically restricted by the Trustees.

Informal advice

The Faculty may provide advice that has not been requested, for consideration by the Board and executive.  This would be noted by the Board but not necessarily taken further.

The Functions of Faculty

1. To undertake an annual ‘horizon scanning’ exercise, drawing on the experience and expertise of its members to identify potential opportunities to promote and deliver the charitable objectives of BAPEN.. This exercise will cover all four nations and will include the current priorities of the Governments, Health Departments, NHS Governance and regulatory bodies in each country.
2. To undertake a stakeholder mapping exercise, identifying other charities and organisations with similar ambitions and to consider the benefits of working in collaboration to deliver BAPEN’s charitable objectives.
3. To develop an annual programme of work in partnership with the President and Executive team subject to approval by the Board of Trustees and the advice of Council.
4. To expand the influence of BAPEN through engagement with organisations who are able to assist the delivery of the Charity’s objectives.
5. To produce options and scoping papers for consideration by the Executive, Council and Board of Trustees as agreed in the Faculty annual programme of work.
   Examples might include:
   • options appraisal on influencing the NHS to ensure that trusts and Health Boards have a nutrition team,
   • options for the development and delivery of a nutrition support team clinical training programme,
   • options for the design and delivery of a mentorship programme.
6. To recruit a Faculty member to be BAPEN’s international representative on outside groups, for example ESPEN, ASPEN and AUSPEN 

Award of the John Leonard-Jones Medal

The John Leonard-Jones medal is the highest award given by BAPEN for service to the Association, and to the field of nutrition, and is made at the discretion of The BAPEN Faculty.

BAPEN Council will be asked for nominations in August of each year, which will be passed to the Chair of Faculty by the BAPEN Office.  The Faculty will meet to formally consider the nominations and any recommendation will be notified to the Board of Trustees, the BAPEN President and Council.

The Faculty can award up to 2 medals in any calendar year but are not obliged to make any award if in the opinion of Faculty no suitable nomination has been received. The decision of Faculty will be confidential and no reason for the decision need be given.

Faculty will, however, draft a suitable commendation for the recipients for the award ceremony.

Meetings

Faculty will meet a minimum of 2 times each year, one of which will normally be face to face at the annual BAPEN Conference. Faculty members are expected to attend a minimum of one Faculty meeting each calendar year. Unless there are exceptional circumstances, a member who does not attend at least one meeting per calendar year will be asked by the Chair to step down.

Other meetings may occur face to face, or online, or as hybrid meetings at the discretion of the Chair and co-Chairs, provided that they are satisfied that the venue and/or audiovisual facilities for members on-line, are of a sufficiently high quality that all the members who wish to attend are able to participate fully in the committee’s business.  The BAPEN Office will be asked to facilitate the Faculty’s business and take and keep appropriate minutes. 

Minutes will be taken of all meetings and tendered for approval by Faculty, either by email, or at the next meeting.

Data collected by Faculty are owned by BAPEN. Members wishing to use Faculty data or reports must seek prior approval in writing from the Faculty Chair. This includes use of Faculty data for presentations, reports, at meetings or in journal articles unless this already exists within the public domain on the BAPEN website, or BAPEN reports or papers.

The BAPEN President will be invited to attend all meetings at their discretion, unless a specific request to meet in camera is made, in advance to the Chair, by a member of the Faculty.  Such a request would only be considered under exceptional circumstances.

Under exceptional circumstances, the Chair or co-Chairs of Faculty may contact individual members of the Faculty outwith a formal meeting, if there are issues that are felt to be more urgent than could be accommodated by a normal meeting. An attempt would be made to contact every member of Faculty.  A decision would be considered quorate if one third of the faculty were in agreement.

Expenses where appropriate can be claimed in accordance with BAPEN policy.

Declaration of Interests

Faculty members should declare any Conflicts of Interest and would be expected to recuse themselves from any discussions in which they might be seen to conflicted.

Review of the Terms of Reference

The Faculty would review its performance and its terms of reference on a regular basis and recommend any changes to the Board of Trustees, through the President and Executive.