Newsletter content/transcript:
Hello everyone, my name is William Liu, I am the Training Manager for Medical Appraisal here at NES and it gives me great pleasure to welcome you to this brief summer video update; and I will start with an update on the SOAR redesign for appraisees.
As reported just before Christmas, the NES team has been working with an external developer to update the appraisee user journey on SOAR. Included in this is the introduction of the new updated Good Medical Practice 2024, which went live in January this year. Additionally, we have also been working on changing the SOAR login where we would move away from the current setup and utilise the Turas, Microsoft 2-factor login.
The original proposal for the appraisee redesign was to develop a new 'skin' or interface layer just for the appraisees role on SOAR. As part of the move to the new Microsoft login, SOAR had to be moved to a new hosting platform. Unfortunately, due to the age and differing technology on existing SOAR, the original plan of building this extra layer was simply not possible as the technology was not compatible. After much discussion, it was decided that a rebuild of the appraisee version of SOAR on the new platform would be more appropriate. This meant that SOAR would effectively be sitting in two places…
So, the user would login to SOAR using the Turas or Microsoft 2-factor login, and if the user’s default login to SOAR is the appraisee role, they would be redirected to the new setup just for appraisees.
If other roles are set as default, or if the user wanted to switch in to one of the other roles they have on SOAR, for example, Appraiser or Appraisal Lead, they would make the selection and be redirected to the existing version and platform of SOAR.
The developers have been making progress on this but as you can imagine, it’s taking much longer, and given the change in development not everything could be achieved within the allocated budget and timescale.
As a result, we’ve made the difficult decision to leave certain functions on the existing SOAR. So for example we have opted to leave the WASP MSF connection on SOAR, this was another example of older technology which would have required significant rebuild time. This means that although appraisees will be working with documentation on the new SOAR, they may at times be redirected to the old SOAR to complete certain aspects of their appraisal. For example when undertaking their MSF. This will not impact on the way the appraisal is completed, other than visually it will look different as you are directed between the two different platforms. We also opted to leave the Sessional GP claim forms on existing SOAR as this doesn’t impact too many people. We’ve also left Recognition of Trainer functions on existing SOAR as well, as again this doesn’t impact all appraisees.
There will also be some pages that have been left on old SOAR, like appraisal history, but the bulk of the user journey in terms of appraisal completion will be on the new setup.
I appreciate the experience for some appraisees might feel jagged flipping between old and new SOAR but this should give us a deliverable at the end of the project. Screenshots of what the new setup will look like is available from the Christmas newsletter video.
So, the one anxiety appraisees might have is: What happens if you are in the middle of your appraisal whilst the new system goes live…? Let me make this very clear – nothing will be lost.
If you have ongoing appraisals, carry on as you are. There’s no need to rush the sign- off of any Form 4s, but if you want to do this before the go live date, that’s fine too.
As part of the redesign, we took the opportunity to review the current appraisal forms and we streamlined this quite a bit to remove duplications where applicable. Reflecting the new GMP updates, some of the supporting information will now appear in different domain areas
For those in the midst of completing their appraisals, all the information that has been entered will still be there, but in some places it will just be merged with other boxes, and some of the documents may appear in the wrong sections due to the GMP changes.
I said this at the Christmas update and I’ll make the same plea to everyone again… so long as all the supporting information IS there in the submission, please excuse the misplacing of any documents in the wrong domains – this is not the fault of the appraisee, it’s part and parcel of the changes and mapping of the new GMP. So long as all the information is there for you to conduct the appraisal and draft the Form 4, please proceed as is. Don’t ask appraisees to resubmit.
There’s still quite a lot of development work to be done, but the developers are aiming to finish their part by late August, my team and my group of volunteers will spend the bulk of September robustly testing things out, and we aim to go live with the changes in early October. We will schedule in a series of webinars and demo the new appraisee setup thereafter to ensure everyone is familiar with the new changes, and further communications will be sent out nearer the time.
Plans are in place to work on the remaining appraisee functionalities and move them to the new setup in due course, to complete the full appraisee user journey… but it will depend on available resources.
We have liaised with NES Technology colleagues in relation to switching over the Turas login, and there is nothing anyone needs to do in advance of the go live in September/October. What might help is for those who have an existing Turas account is to update SOAR with the email address you use in your Turas profile to help with the data mapping later on.
Please contact us if you have any concerns.
Thank you.
The appraiser training courses are in full swing and this year we have scheduled 15 New Appraiser courses, and 15 Refresher Appraiser courses.
Additionally, we are in the process of piloting a new workshop aimed at experienced appraisers, looking at Improving Appraisal Conversations, utilising some of the skills associated with coaching and mentoring but not focussing on a specific model. These sessions will present opportunities to practice some of the skills discussed on the day and we are aiming to roll this out more widely once we’ve concluded the pilot sessions this year. If you are looking for practical opportunities to try out some appraiser skills within the safe and supportive environment, please join us for one of the pilot sessions. For more information please visit our website.
You’ll not be surprised to hear that we are currently working on updating all our training modules and videos, as well as our website resources to ensure they align to the new Good Medical Practice. This is ongoing and I hope to publish these in the coming months. We don’t yet have a date planned for the next Appraisers conference, but I hope to provide an update on this later in the year.
As you may or may not have heard, Dr Christiane Shrimpton our Associate Post Grad Dean for Appraisal and Revalidation has now retired from her role with NES, and also clinically with NHS Dumfries and Galloway at the end of May.
Christiane took over in 2018 and during her leadership, she guided us through the pandemic and together we converted the face-to-face courses into the now default remote delivery of all training events which helped shape Medical Appraisal in Scotland into the healthy position we are currently in. Had it not been for the changes introduced, the current financial difficulties we all face in the public sector would have been far, far worse. Of all the things in her job description, I am sure leadership through a global pandemic wasn’t one of them!
Christiane, we wish you a long and happy retirement – happy quilting!
So that’s it for this update, hopefully the next time you hear from us it will be to confirm date of deployment and some webinar dates… in the meantime, have a lovely summer everyone!
This page was last updated on: 27/06/2024
