Craniofacial Society of Great Britain and Ireland

The Society has held a scientific conference in March or April each year since the first conference in Liverpool in April 1986. This was preceded by pre-constitutional meetings that were held between 1970 and 1983. The 30th conference will be held at the Royal College of Physicians and will hosted by Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust from 16 to 17 April 2015 with a pre-conference special interest group (SIG) meeting on 15 April 2015.

Members of different specialities meet in subcommittees to work on audit and research projects. The Society's audit group established a minimum data set for cleft audit and has funded audit and research workshops. In 1989, the Craniofacial Society Anomalies Register (CARE) was developed to record the births of children with craniofacial anomalies. The Society funded a multi disciplinary committee to oversee CARE, which became the Craniofacial Anomalies Network (CRANE) and is located in the Clinical Effectiveness Unit at the Royal College of Surgeons of England. The Society has provided research grants and provided funding to assist members in attending its conferences and international meetings. The CFSGBI has also funded training initiatives for speech and language therapists and cleft nurse specialists. In 1996 the Society was asked to provide written evidence to the Clinical Standards Advisory Group (CSAG). The submission highlighted the interdisciplinary nature of the Society and its role in acting as the forum for the presentation and evaluation of research and audit in the field. The Society is now represented in various National Health Service bodies and is consulted for advice by the government and the media. In 1999, the society became a founder member of the Healing Foundation with representation on its board of trustees and research council. This has ultimately led to the Cleft Collective, the world's largest cleft lip and palate research programme as well as other initiatives.[9][10]

The speech and language therapy special interest group (SIG) was established in 1987 and held a meeting each year immediately preceding the annual conference. In 1990, the Society began to offer some financial assistance for these meetings and began to provide facilities for speech and language therapy meetings in 1995. Other speciality groups then developed special interest groups and these meetings now make up an additional day alongside the annual conference with eight special interest groups meeting for the conference in Birmingham in 2013. The Society also assists in securing guest speakers for these meetings.[11]

Christine Couhig is Secretary and Joyce Russell is treasurer. Peter Hodgkinson and Helen Extence are co-opted councillors.[12] A rotation of posts exists to ensure council representation from the main specialities. The Society was initially established with four main categories of membership: orthodontics, oral and maxillofacial surgery, plastic surgery and speech and language therapy as well as some members from other specialities. Since 1990 other speciality groups could stand for office and “other” became incorporated into council rotations. Nurses were first part of the “other” group but increasing numbers led to a specific group for nurses in 2003. The centralisation of cleft lip and palate care has meant that the number of surgeons within the membership has declined and from 2015/2016 the categories of maxillofacial surgeon and plastic surgeon will be combined to form the single category of cleft surgeon for council rotations.[13] [14] [15]

The president is elected annually. Kate le Maréchal and Jacqueline Smallridge are current presidents and Karine Latter is vice-president elect.[16] The following table is a list of presidents of the Craniofacial Society of Great Britain and Ireland.[17]

The Arnold Huddart Medal was established in 1990 to encourage original and promising research papers at the annual scientific conference. Submissions are judged by a panel consisting of one member from each of the Society's five membership categories and chaired by the vice-president. Submissions are judged by the quality of the presentation, content and handling of the paper's post-presentation discussion. Papers should be of general interest and should aim to be understood by all members of the Society. The medal is usually awarded to a presenter who is aged 40 or younger at the time of presentation and priority is given to sole authors over multi-authored papers.[19]

The presidents Prize was introduced in 2011 and consists of a medal and a £100 cash prize. This award is eligible to members of the Society for a verbal presentation at the annual scientific conference that is considered to have made a significant clinical contribution to cleft lip and palate care.[20]