On behalf of the North West Regional Board, I would like to extend the very warmest welcome to Simon Browes, our new Regional Director. Simon’s wealth of experience across such a broad range of roles and organisations, coupled with his long-standing involvement with the RCN, makes him ideally suited to take up the reins and I greatly look forward to our working together. 
 
Simon’s appointment is an apt reminder of the importance of the role of the RCN Rep, both to those members they support and for one’s own personal development. The breadth of development opportunities to learn and gain valuable experience should not be underestimated and I cannot overstate the value of our Rep training programme. If you’d like to find out more about what is involved and possibly register an interest, visit our website here. 
 
At the time of publication, we are now less than six weeks away from welcoming Congress back to our region. This will be my first Congress as Chair of the NW Board and I cannot deny feeling some nerves. As the ‘host’ region we can expect our local members to be out in force and I am very much hoping to get the chance to meet many of you. 
 
As the event is being held in Liverpool, we need a pool of willing members to volunteer to act as Congress ambassadors at some point over the five days. There are a number of different roles available, all with the aim of providing a warm welcome to our visitors from across the UK. Training would be provided and this is a great way to have involvement in the most important week in the RCN’s year. Find out more and register your interest here. 

The earlier start to Congress this year means that Nurses’ Day, always held on the 12 May to commemorate the birth of Florence Nightingale, will fall on the Monday, the first full day of events. This year’s theme focuses on the wellbeing of nurses and how a healthy workforce is vital to improving health systems worldwide. The RCN strongly supports and promotes the importance of both physical and mental health in nurses and has a wide range of help and advice guides which are available to our members as a free resource. Do please make use of these, they are all available here on our website.  

Another North West event to look forward to is our annual conference specifically for members employed in independent health and social care settings. This year’s event, being held in-person in St Helens on 23rd April, is exploring the importance of research and innovation in IHSC and promises to be a thoroughly engaging and informative event with some excellent speakers. We are nearing capacity for this event so I urge you to book your place now. 

I’d like to close by extending the thanks of all of us on the North West Regional Board to Glenn Turp, who has been covering the Regional Director role for the past few months before Simon’s arrival. Glenn has displayed exceptional leadership in that time and been a true support. We are most grateful for your guidance.