The Board's Accreditation Committee

The Accreditation Committee (AC) carries out, on behalf of the Board, the ongoing monitoring and administration of all accreditation activities. Its members are drawn from a wide spectrum of the acupuncture profession, together with others from either health or educational backgrounds who have experience of the accreditation process.

The AC keeps the Board informed on all matters related to the accreditation of institutions in a formal relationship with the Board. It reports to the Board with recommendations about such matters, as well as about its own membership, its processes and other relevant issues. Reports from the AC to the Board during the academic year include an annual schedule of proposed visits to institutions, an account of all such visits with detailed recommendations to the Board, and a commentary on any emerging issues arising from the annual reports provided by all institutions in a formal relationship with the Board. Decisions and recommendations of the AC are subject to Board debate, approval and ratification.

In addition to regular reports produced three times a year for Board meetings, the AC provides the Board with an annual report which critically evaluates its own performance over the previous year, sets itself an action plan for the coming year and reports on the status of all institutions in a formal relationship with the Board.

The AC has equal membership of acupuncturists and non acupuncturists with the addition of a non-acupuncturist chair.

Members may serve for 3 years and may be appointed for one further period of office:

  • 4 acupuncturists are appointed through advertisement in the BAcC professional journal and within the teaching institutions.
  • 1 representative of the public interest
  • 4 educationalists from professional healthcare education.

Committee members may neither vote on nor review their own institution, nor any other institution in which they have an interest or where there is a potential conflict of interest.

Accreditation Committee

Linda Wicks (Chair of Accreditation Committee)
LindaWicks

Linda Wicks qualified as a homeopath in 1986 and has been in part-time practice in Cornwall since then. Also qualified in Education, she has 20 years' teaching experience in a variety of settings.  Recently, she was involved in setting up one of the first School-based Integrated Health Centres in the country, designed to make health care and the promotion of wellbeing more accessible for young people.  For 16 years she was Senior Education Advisor for The Society of Homeopaths, having developed and maintained a recognition system for homeopathy courses across the UK.  She is now a director of the Society of Homeopaths.

   
  Charmian Wylde (Acupuncturist member)
 charmain

Charmian Wylde BA MBAcC (Fellowship HEA) has been in practice as an acupuncturist since 1989, having trained at The London School of Acupuncture and subsequently in Nanjing, China.

From 2004 - 2014, Charmian wrote and led the BSc Acupuncture degree at The University of East London. During that time she acted as consultant and external examiner to a number of institutions including the Universities of Bedfordshire, Greenwich and Middlesex, and was co-chair of The Council of Heads of Acupuncture Courses (CHAC). Her interest in the migration of Chinese medicine beyond the Orient led to an investigation into the integration of acupuncture into the Cuban health service.

The challenges encountered in winning acceptance in the UK for Chinese Medicine have inspired Charmian to undertake a Masters degree in intercultural Communication as a means to better articulate what acupuncture is and how it works as a therapeutic intervention.

Charmian has practices in Saffron Walden and Dorset. 

   
   
Dr Ann Rumpus (Vice Chair and Educationalist Member)
 Ann Rumpus

Ann Rumpus, formerly Head of the Educational Initiative Centre at the University of Westminster has had 40 years experience in Higher Education. This was initially as a lecturer in Biological Sciences, but then embraced many aspects of learning and teaching, with particular interests in assessment, accreditation of prior learning, capturing the student voice and curriculum design. She was Chair of the South East England Consortium for Credit Accumulation and Transfer, of the London Open College Federation and of the Westminster Education Action Zone, and has significant experience as an external examiner and QAA reviewer. She has delivered many courses and staff development sessions in learning and teaching, both in the UK and abroad. She is pleased to bring this expertise to the support of of acupuncture education. 

   
Ric Chamberlain (Educationalist Member)
 RChamberlain

Ric Chamberlain qualified with an MSc from the Northern College of Acupuncture in 2003. He has been teaching at the NCA ever since, holding different positions from senior lecturer to Chinese Medicine stream leader. His teaching covers TCM theory and practice with a strong emphasis on clinical application. He was awarded his PGCHE from Middlesex University in 2017.

Ric is also currently the Senior Lecturer in Acupuncture at Wrexham Glyndwr University where his teaching covers all three levels of the University degree course as well as clinic supervision. He is also responsible for the development and running of the Acupuncture program at WGU.

Ric has a private practice in Ruthin and Flint in North Wales. He is the external examiner for International College of Oriental Medicine in East Grinstead and has sat on the validation committee for Lincoln College on behalf of the Open University.

Prior to his career in Acupuncture, Ric worked for many years in medical research specialising in HIV and Hepatitis C. He has a PhD in molecular virology from the University of Reading and a BSc in genetics from the University of East Anglia.

   
Helen Thomas (Educationalist Member)
HThomas  Helen’s academic background is in teaching English as a foreign language and applied linguistics. She taught both overseas and in the UK in HE. After nine years as a British Council Officer in the overseas service, she settled in the UK where she has spent over 20 years working in HE. This has included roles as Dean of School at Thames Valley University (now University of West London), chief academic auditor at King’s College, London and QAA review coordinator. She spent eight years as Assistant Director at the Higher Education Academy where she led the development and implementation of the UK Professional Standards Framework for teaching and supporting learning in higher education and also directed the associated accreditation and recognition services. She is currently a freelance consultant, focussing principally in the areas of teaching quality enhancement, quality assurance. She is a Trustee and Director of the Northern College of Acupuncture and acts as a quality assurance expert for EKKA. She was an accreditation officer for BAAB in 2016, and has acted since as accreditation adviser to the British Acupuncture Accreditation Board.
   
Olga Crosse (Lay Representative)
  OCrosse Olga Crosse serves as a lay member of the Board's Accreditation Committee, advising on Human Resources matters. A HR specialist, Olga has successfully provided HR advise at all levels for over 20 years. She runs Crosse HR, a company providing HR consultancy services.
   
Susannah Fone (Acupuncturist member)
 SFone

Susannah Fone has been in practice as an acupuncturist since 2008, she qualified with a BSc in Acupuncture and has been teaching in various roles at the College of Integrated Chinese medicine for the past ten years. From 2016 to 2022 Susannah was the Academic Director at CICM, she is currently the Clinical Development Director at the college and is also an external examiner for the City College of Acupuncture.  

Susannah has a private practice in South Oxfordshire and has completed post graduate courses in Chinese Herbal Medicine and Tui Na.  Prior to qualifying as an Acupuncturist, Susannah worked at the University of the Arts London, leading the Young at Art programme which encouraged young people from diverse backgrounds to consider a career in art, design, and communications.  Susannah has a BSc in History of Art from the University of East Anglia.  

   
Mike Potter (Acupuncturist member)
MPotter

Mike Potter has been practising acupuncture for 42 years, having initially trained at the College of Traditional Chinese Acupuncture, Leamington Spa. He has been teaching East Asian medicine for over 30 years and has taught at four accredited institutions; he currently teaches on the BSc Chinese Medicine Acupuncture program at the University of Westminster. He also serves on the Accreditation Committee of the European Herbal and Traditional Practitioners’ Association (EHTPA).

Mike currently practices acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine in Totnes, Devon

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