The CMAS Mid Year meeting was held at Birmingham International Airport on October 14th 2011. Attendance was excellent, with over 30 participants.

The main discussion in the morning session was around staffing. Five different laboratories gave short presentations on induction, training, record keeping, peer review and the challenges of running a small laboratory. Mark Corbett brought along voting units which made the standards session much more entertaining.

Presentations in the afternoon covered different aspects of the use of gait analysis as an outcome measure. We discussed what makes a good outcome measure and the use of a number of different overall indices of gait quality. The session finished with a lively debate over the outcome of a particular child who had received multilevel surgery. Once again the voting units came into their own. A number of issues were raised during the afternoon discussions, and members were keen to pool gait analysis data into a single national database for multilevel surgery in cerebral palsy.

A standards committee meeting also took place on October 14th. Overall the auditing and accreditation processes are running smoothly. A number of new labs have expressed an interest in joining in with the accreditation process, though none has requested an external audit to date.

Sally Durham is standing down from the standards committee at the next AGM, and the main CMAS committee are in the process of identifying a replacement. Caroline Stewart will also be completing her term as Chair, and Mark Corbett has agreed to take over.

In the New Year members will once again be asked to ballot on changes to the standards. This year the changes should be relatively modest, as the consensus meetings have had less direct impact on the areas covered by the standards. If any members would like to suggest changes to the standards a form is available in the latest version.

Now that accreditation has been achieved the standards committee are planning to publicise the work more widely. Caroline Stewart and Linda Eve have started work on a paper for submission to Gait & Posture. The committee has also joined up with the CMLA (the accreditation body in the States) to offer a tutorial at GCMAS. Those interested in seeing an alternative approach to accreditation might like to look at the CMLA website (www.cmlainc.org).

We look forward to seeing everyone at the AGM in Liverpool.

Caroline Stewart—On behalf of the CMAS standards and accreditation committee.

You can contact members of the standards committee directly, or send emails to standards@cmasuki.org, and they will be directed to the appropriate person.