Minutes of the Royal College of Nursing Council meetings

Scope and Content

Meetings were held every few months, in February, April (held at Congress), June, July and October. Each meeting is split into open and closed sessions (in the following format: open agenda; supporting papers for open agenda items; closed agenda, supporting papers for closed agenda items).

Items addressed at every meeting are: the location of the meeting, attendees and apologies, matters arising, administrative matters, staffing matters, committee and national boards' reports and a public affairs briefing.

During 2009 the topics discussed by Council in open sessions include:

RCN strategic plan

Congress

Branch constitution

Professional membership structure and rationalisation of forums

Branch boundaries

Congress votong review

This record relates to two separate sets of minutes: One set consists of a box of original loose papers, including supporting and committee papers (there are no physical papers for the April meeting). These papers are kept in Store A.

A second set consists of digital minutes and papers.

These papers are not indexed.

Access Information

This collection is available for research. Readers are advised to contact the RCN Archives in advance of their first visit. Any requests for access will be approved by the Head of Governance, due to the inclusion of sensitive information.

Other Finding Aids

Most recent online Royal College of Nursing Archives Catalogue is available at http://www.rcn.org.uk/development/library_and_heritage_services.

Conditions Governing Use

Royal College of Nursing

Custodial History

The main bulk of volumes came from London library historical collection to Edinburgh with the Archives' collections in 1992. Library maintained a copy set. From 1992 up until 2009 the papers were transferred directly by Council and Committee Admin (previously 'General Secretariat', or 'General Secretary's Office') One copy went to RCN Library for binding and the original to Archives, unbound. In January 2017 the two sets were brought together to create one full run of papers and an additional run, with copies of most years. The more complete set is held in Store A and the less complete set in Store B.