Retired members - Join RCOT today

As a retired member you can still enjoy many of the RCOT membership benefits. RCOT invites you to continue to be part of our professional community and continue with your membership as a retired member.

Just some of the benefits of RCOT membership:

• Professional Advisory Service
• Guidance and support throughout your career
• Member logo and post-nominals
• BJOT, international journals, OTnews, publications and library service
• UNISON membership
• Professional indemnity and public liability insurance up to £6 million
• Professional networks, including regional and local groups, specialist sections, email networks, social media, eligibility to join the World Federation of Occupational Therapy (WFOT) and much more
• Promote the profession and influence policy
• Keep your finger on the pulse of your profession

Membership costs just £6.14 per month.

There are lots of volunteering opportunities within RCOT as a retired member and here are a few examples of how you can get involved:

• Regions – serve as a committee member, co-opted member or local group lead.
• Specialist Sections – participate as a committee member, clinical Forum lead, or general member.
• Council/advisory groups – become a Council elected member.
• Committees – for example, the Conference Development Team; RCOT has several committees, and you could be nominated as a member of these groups.
• Writing an article for OTnews
• Events – RCOT hosts various events and we value volunteer support. You can find these listed on our website under the event listing. If you're interested in helping out at an RCOT event, contact Lisa Marsh, our Events Officer, at lisa.marsh@rcot.co.uk.

RCOT has resources to support retired members and supports members in a variety of ways throughout their career and beyond.

For example, the Career Development Framework: Guiding Principles for Occupational Therapy is not just for when you are working and can be a useful tool to structure life after paid work. It is an over-arching set of guiding principles for occupational therapy and offers a structured process to guide careers, learning and development within our profession.

It contains four interacting Pillars of Practice each with nine career levels:

• Professional Practice
• Facilitation of Learning
• Leadership
• Evidence, Research and Development

It can support you to identify the things you have already learned and areas for continuing professional development right through into retirement.

• Find out more about the Career Development Framework.

Our monthly membership magazine, OTnews also contains a range of informative articles for members, with some specific recent items looking at retirement as a career transition, and how the RCOT supports retired members.

• Find out more about OTnews.

A RCOT member with at least two years' continuous membership in the Professional, Associate, Student or Career break categories immediately prior to their retirement (who is in receipt of a pension and who is not in other paid employment) can pay a £15 life membership fee (2013) to become a UNISON retired member.

• Find out more about UNISON support
• View our resources for UNISON stewards
• See our UNISON FAQs
• Visit the UNISON website

Further information on becoming a UNISON Retired Member is available by phoning UNISON Direct on 0845 355 0845.

HCPC understands that many people want to retain links with their profession after they retire, however, remaining on the HCPC register following retirement implies that you are currently in practice and fit to practise.

RCOT therefore encourages members who have retired, are not in any paid employment as an occupational therapist and are not practising as an occupational therapist to come off the HCPC register and stop using the protected title ‘occupational therapist’.

However, if you still work occasionally or part-time, you will need to be registered.

HCPC states ‘A designated title (or related expression) can be used 'by a person who is no longer on the HCPC register but who is clearly not claiming to be so. An example of this is a journal article in which the author is described as a “retired biomedical scientist”. 

Therefore, the phrase ‘retired occupational therapist’ can be used.

As part of your RCOT membership as a retired member, you are covered by liability insurance.

Find out more about our liability insurance.

As a retired member you may well have an enquiry you would like assistance with. Our Professional Advisory Service line is here to help you and can be contacted Monday-Friday from 9am-5pm.

Find out more about our Professional Advisory Service.