As a result of the joining of the Medical Appraisal Conference with the Scottish Medical Education Conference, there was no annual national appraisal conference scheduled to take place in the year April 2014 – March 2015.

We felt this was too long an interval without an opportunity for appraisers to meet for development and networking at a national level. For this reason we put together a programme of regional meetings based around the five NES Medical Regions which took place on six occasions between September 2014 and February 2015. Around 250 appraisers attended these meetings in total, with the bulk of attendees coming from Secondary Care.

The workshops were divided into three topics. We began with an experiential exercise designed to encourage appraisers to think about the place of reflection in appraisal, we moved on to an information-giving session about the new Recognition of Trainers (RoT) processes and we concluded with a Q & A session about topics of concern to the participants.

The RoT element provoked the most discussion, as this was the first opportunity many participants had had to discuss the issues around this in a group forum. It sometimes proved hard to focus the discussions on the role of appraisers in RoT, as wider issues about how training is managed by the service often came to the fore.

What Directors of Medical Education (DMEs) are hoping to achieve through the Appraisal and Recognition of Trainers

Feedback from the participants was mixed, with GP Appraisers in particular feeling that the conference plenary sessions did not relate to their needs as appraisers and that there was not enough on offer for them at the workshops. This is something we need to address in the future. However, this is the first time we have attempted to run a joint event so hopefully we can build on what we have learned and the feedback we have received to shape the conference so that it more fully meets the needs of all delegates in the future.

Support for Appraisal Leads and ROs

We continued to host and lead meetings for Appraisal Leads and Responsible Officers (ROs).

Meetings took place on 6 June 2014 in Edinburgh,  
7 November 2014 in Glasgow and just before the SMEC event on 27 April 2015 in Edinburgh.

Attendance at these meetings averages around 20 participants, with Appraisal Leads from both Primary and Secondary Care present together with some Responsible Officers.

All the territorial Health Boards in Scotland have been represented at least at some of these meetings, as have some of the independent providers.

The meeting provides a forum for discussion of areas of common interest or concern in relation to appraisal and revalidation, with a view to developing consistent approaches to issues.

A joint meeting of Primary Care (PC) and Secondary Care (SC) Local Administrators was held on 17 September 2014 in Edinburgh.  There were 12 Local Administrators plus 6 NES staff in attendance.   There were apologies from 15 Local Administrators and the National Appraisal Adviser.

During the meeting Marjorie noted that there was no Annual Appraisal Conference to be held in 2014.  Instead, there were to be 6 Regional Meetings across Scotland where there would be workshops and discussion about appraisal and trainer recognition.  In 2015, we will be joining up with the Medical Education Conference on 27 & 28 April 2015 at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre, and we would be holding the next Joint National Appraisal Group Administrators meeting on the morning of 27 April 2015.  An update on the status of Phase 4 Appraiser Training was noted and mention of the imminent Phase 5 Appraiser training from August 2015.

We had an update on Appraisal/Revalidation from the Health Boards from the local Administrators.  William then asked for feedback on the Local Admin User Guides for SOAR that he had recently sent out.

General discussion followed.  For doctors who are working and being appraised in different Health Boards – it is expected that doctors will be appraised in the Health Board where they do the most work.  At present all forms 4s stay on SOAR.  William noted that there are Dummy Appraiser/Appraisee accounts for Local Admins to allow them to learn how to help their Appraisers and Appraisees.  Fees for Appraisals for doctors who required a private appraisal were also discussed.  Some Health Boards already charge and NHS Lothian have a model contract.

William concluded the day with a summary of the recent developments on SOAR.

Team Members update

For the first time in a long time, we have enjoyed sustained support for SOAR users following the appointment of Alistair Bryan and Kris Wright to the posts of Information Technicians.  Changes will come as part of NES’ internal restructuring around Digital (see section on SOAR), but both Kris and Alistair’s posts have been renewed for a further year.  It means their invaluable contribution to supporting SOAR and Medical Appraisal will continue.

A significant change of note is the recent departure of Ian Staples, Project Team Manager.  Ian left on 10th July 2015 after nearly 9 years of dedicated service to NES to concentrate on his own business pursuit.  We wish him the very best of luck in expanding his business ventures.