How to chair a BAPM working group

What is the role of a BAPM working group chair?

As chair of a BAPM working group you will act as project manager to develop this piece of work. You will lead group meetings, retain overall editorial control of the document and act as the main point of contact for the BAPM office.

You will be expected to ensure that the project continues in a timely manner and that all group members get a chance to contribute and be heard.

Groups generally divide and conquer the work with individuals or small groups writing a section each. It will then be your responsibility to edit these sections into a coherent single document. Ruthless editing skills will be needed!

How do BAPM working groups operate?

BAPM working groups are set up to deliver a project on behalf of BAPM. Most often these are to create or revise a framework for practice or a toolkit on a specific topic. The working group will be made up of volunteers from the BAPM membership as well as representatives from relevant organisations. Some group members may be personally invited because of their specific expertise but most group members should apply through the open application process.

The BAPM office will help you to develop a terms of reference which will include the members needed on the group.

Working groups usually conduct all their meetings online as this is more cost and time effective and more accessible for group members. If a face-to-face meeting is needed for a specific reason then this can be considered.

What is a BAPM Framework for Practice?

BAPM working groups are most often put together to develop frameworks for practice. Frameworks are high level documents that can be used by trusts to develop their local guidelines. Where evidence is available this will always be followed. Groups may develop recommendations through consensus and common sense in areas where evidence is lacking.

BAPM documents have a specific style. They are concise and practical, giving guidance on what people need to do. The BAPM office will provide you with examples of recent frameworks to read as examples. Please make sure the document is written in this style.

Project timelines and chair contribution

It is expected that frameworks and toolkits will take around 9 months to deliver (3 months to appoint the working group and 6 months to write, consult and publish). Chairs will be expected to put in a reasonable amount of time across the project. This will vary depending on how much is already known and accepted about the topic area, and how many working group applications and consultation responses are received. An example chair's time could look like this:

Reviewing working group applications - 2-3 hours
Meeting with parents 1-2 hours
Literature search - 2-3 hours
Group meetings - 1 per month for 6 months (approx 90 mins each, all virtual)
Editing document drafts - 2-6 hours
Reviewing consultation comments - 2-6 hours
Finalising the document and liaison with BAPM office - 2-3 hours
Ad-hoc work and support - 4-6 hours
Launch webinar programme development and chairing - 2-3 hours

Please only apply if you have this time to give over the next 6-9 months to deliver the project on time. It is important that project groups keep to these timelines so that future BAPM projects can start on time.

At the start of the project you will be asked for dates for 6 virtual meetings that will be shared with working group members. If your circumstances change and cannot attend a planned meeting this should be rearranged no more than 2 weeks later. If this is not possible please delegate the chair role to another working group member for this meeting.

We mindful that you are taking on this role on a voluntary basis. If you find that you are no longer able to chair the working group due to your clinical or personal commitments please discuss with the BAPM Office at the earliest opportunity so we can find a replacement.

What support can the BAPM Office provide?

The BAPM Office will support you throughout the process with document templates and administrative and logistical support. A Microsoft Teams space will be set up for the group to allow you to share documents.

If you have not chaired a BAPM working group before then we will suggest a member of the BAPM Executive Committee that can co-chair the group with you.

You are welcome to get in touch with BAPM staff and committee members at any time to ask questions.

Design support

You do not need to do design work on the document, providing the text in a plain word document is fine. The BAPM office will then create a version to be circulated for consultation. Please read the BAPM language guide before you edit the document. Please only send the documents to the BAPM Office to be designed up when they are ready to go for consultation. Any changes received after this point will not be incorporated until after the consultation.

You will need to liaise with the team to provide guidance on suitable pictures and graphics to use. We can download pictures from photo libraries but if you want a picture included of something very specific then the working group will need to provide this along with permission for us to reproduce the photo or diagram.

If you wish to reproduce content from an external source, please ensure this is flagged to the BAPM Office team so we can seek the necessary permissions.

How do we ensure parent engagement?

It is important that the documents are developed with input from parents and carers. The BAPM Office will help with finding representatives to input into the work of the group. We will ask the parent / carer representative to feed in their thoughts at the start of the process and to review the document before it goes out for consultation. Please ensure you allow enough time for parent input.

How does the consultation process work?

BAPM frameworks are shared for six weeks for public consultation. The document is added to the BAPM website with a response form then publicised to our member list and on social media. We also have a stakeholder list of perinatal organisations that we contact about every consultation. You are welcome to review this list and suggest additional organisations to add to this.

Following the consultation deadline, the comments will be compiled and sent to you as chair to review. You will then need to respond to these and make any appropriate changes to the document. Each response does not need to be long, however if a comment is not going to be taken on board in the final version of the document a brief explanation as to why is helpful. If the consultation has raised any issues that need further discussion then a final working group meeting can be set up to discuss these and agree a final version of the document.

If you are working on a document other than a framework for practice then please discuss any consultation needed with the BAPM Office to agree a suitable process.

Can the finished document be published?

BAPM Frameworks for practice, toolkits and reports will be published and freely available to download on the BAPM website. We welcome the publication of BAPM documents in medical journals, either in full or shared in review or commentary pieces. If you are considering pursuing formal publication of the document you are working on please take the following points into account:

Submitting a formal publication can be undertaken by the working group as a whole or by a sub-group of interested members.
In general the working group chair will be listed as a lead author. If there are a sub-group of members driving this then it may be most appropriate if they are listed as lead authors. The full working group that contributed to writing the document should be formally acknowledged as authors in some capacity. Please agree appropriate authorship listing within your working group. (You may find the ICMJE Guidance on authorship useful.)
We encourage publications to be made open access if possible, however BAPM does not have the budget to pay for this this from our central funds. If the document can be made open access because of an academic affiliation of a working group member then we welcome this, as long as the submission can still meet the other criteria laid out in this section.
Please ensure that the publication you are submitting to, knows that the document will also be freely available on the BAPM website.

Thank you so much for considering volunteering to support BAPM’s work programme. Please contact the BAPM Office at any time if you have any more questions.

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