What Has The LCSP Register Ever Done For Me?

Those of us who ever saw the Monty Python film “The life of Brian” will remember the scene where the Pythons, playing the parts of Britons under Roman rule, moan about what the Romans had ever done for them. As they sit thinking on this they realise that the Romans had given them a huge amount that they had taken for granted.This scenario well applies to many past and present members of the LCSP. I have heard many times over the past years, members complaining about what the LCSP has ever done for them and I may well have been guilty of this myself in the early days, but certainly, as time has gone on and especially since I have been sitting on the LCSP governing Council, I realise the vast amount of work that goes on in the background that the members don’t always hear about. When I sit and reflect as those early Britons did, I now realise how much the LCSP has done for me. Who would have thought in 1978 when I first joined the LCSP as a struggling masseur that one day I would be accepted as a member of The Chartered Society of Physiotherapists. I would never have attained these lofty heights without the guidance and support of the LCSP.

I have a busy practice, a nice home and car, Caribbean holidays, a job I enjoy with control over my working hours, status and respect in the community and many more things that bless my life, but I can say that much of this is due to the support and confidence it gives me in being a member of a real professional society.

I have in the past been a member of other organisations, some of which have now gone, these all promised much but actually gave very little, and I may like many others have thought, “I do not need the LCSP anymore.” I will be forever grateful for the reality of what the LCSP has done and continues to do for me.

I have met up on occasions with ex members of the Register who again have had the attitude of “What’s the LCSP ever done for me” and have gone on to join other organisations. These practitioners are now finding that in fact although they were promised much by these so called professional organisations they do not have the recognition and status of the LCSP and when they look at our members who have been accepted by Government backed organisations such as the Health Professions Council, The General Council of Massage Therapists (which the LCSP was instrumental in setting up) and The Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, I think they may be regretting the day they left the LCSP. Especially as now many of them are having great difficulty finding Professional Indemnity insurance and some of those who do have it are finding that they are not as comprehensively insured as they initially thought they were.

In this era of regulation and protection of title they start to realise that their professional society may not have the recognition and status they thought it had and many are now in the situation where they cannot call themselves Physiotherapist, Physical Therapist, Osteopath, Chiropractor etc. This is due mainly to the fact they were not informed of the coming changes in legislation by their so called professional society and now have to invent alternative weird and wonderful titles for themselves.

The Romans did a lot for Britain, and the LCSP has, and still is, keeping an ancient art up to date within a modern world. It has taken many years of hard work and dedication to get the LCSP Register where it is today, one of the foremost professional Physical Therapy organisations and we will continue to work to maintain that position in these changing times.

Melvyn Eyres.