Soaring through 2015/16 and beyond

Contents

SOARING THROUGH 2015-16 AND BEYOND

AN OVERVIEW OF DEVELOPMENTS IN SOAR

Supporting SOAR Users

To support users following the successful deployment of the SOAR Redesign project last summer, we organised a series of weekly live SOAR demos via WebEx (online conference tool), running from August to December 2015. The demos allowed us to demonstrate the appraisal process on SOAR, the new features introduced, and giving the participants an indication of what is expected of the Appraiser and Appraisee. It also gave the participants an opportunity to ask us questions as we went through the live demos.

Out of the 17 sessions organised, we had 61 bookings (averaging 3.6 participants per session), but disappointingly only 34 people ended up attending (averaging 2 people per demo). Due to the low uptake on the WebEx sessions, we reviewed the situation and opted to offer two live demos every two months, starting from February 2016. We will be reviewing to see if this frequency will maximise our capacity better.

Perhaps the reduction in SOAR demo participants can be attributed to the success of the SOAR redesign itself. Despite some early struggles, the overall feedback on the redesign has been very positive, especially around the improved usability and clarity offered by the new timeline feature, showing what the Appraisee needs to do at what stage of the appraisal. This is certainly reflected in the helpdesk numbers where we have resolved 7460 queries this fiscal year (averaging 31 tickets per day) – 24% less than last year.

Of the 7460 queries we dealt with, 24% came from Primary Care users, 39% from Secondary Care, 8% from Administrators, 19% from Trainee users (Trainees, Educational Supervisors, TPDs, etc) and Deanery support teams. 10% of the queries were from other users, including Directors of Medical Education (DMEs) and Educational Organisations (EOs) with Recognition of Trainer queries, and MSF raters who are not SOAR users (Pharmacists, Receptionists, GP Practice Managers, etc).

Figures taken from Zendesk support system

Despite the lower number of queries, 2015/2016 has been a very busy year for SOAR with the introduction of some key new functions.

SOAR Redesign

As part of the SOAR redesign, a new timeline feature was introduced when, for any open appraisals, a timeline appears highlighting what has been actioned, what’s not, and where the appraisal is at. Additionally, we also introduced a CPD log feature for all users, which replaced the spreadsheet previously used.

Both these features were very well received and a lot of further suggestions were made.

All SOAR development work is based on user feedback, so we will collate all suggestions and consider them all in our project planning phases.

Recognition of Trainers on SOAR

The Recognition of Trainer (RoT) form was launched last July, intended for all Secondary Care Trainers who are in a “named-trainer” role to complete. (These are identified via data imported from “Turas”, the NES Training Management system). We amended the form in November so this was enabled for Non-approved GP Trainers in a named-trainer role as well. (Approved GP Trainers are NOT required to complete the RoT form.)

Guidance for GPs and RoT is explained via flowchart on Appendix C.

Further to this, we also built the mechanisms necessary to allow the Directors of Medical Education (DMEs) and Educational Organisations (EOs) to use SOAR to make the Recognition decisions.

This particular function was not in the original project scope and with the tight timescale involved, only the basic core functions were built to enable the Recognition processes. Further development to support RoT processes in Year 2 onwards has since been planned, with building work and deployment scheduled for early 2016/2017.

RoT Process

The RoT process itself is a self-declaration process. The Trainer completes the RoT form as part of their appraisal process; and the Appraiser is simply asked to verify the submitted supporting information and document the discussion accordingly on Form 4 – just the same as with any other aspects of the appraisal process.

Once Form 4 is signed off, the appraisal is considered to be completed and a Form 7 is automatically generated, which contains the RoT information ONLY from Forms 3 and 4. The DMEs and EOs have no access to Form 4, only the RoT information on Form 7; and the Recognition decisions are made based on Form 7s.

Depending on how the Trainer completes their RoT form, Form 7 will be placed in “Ready”, “Partial Ready” or “Not Ready” lists (or “Not Appraised”). The DMEs will review the different lists and make a recommendation against the Form 7s; and the EOs will review the DMEs’ recommendations and make the final Recognition decision then.

Once the EOs make their decision, the Trainer will then be considered “Recognised”.

For further guidance please visit the Scottish Trainer Framework website: www.scottishtrainerframework.org

Merging of Primary and Secondary Care Appraisal Forms 3 & 4

The online appraisal forms on SOAR for Primary and Secondary Care were introduced at different times and development of both had been kept separate. As more functions were added to SOAR to meet the needs of Appraisal, Revalidation, and more recently Recognition of Trainers, it was evident there was a lot of duplication to make the functions work for both Primary and Secondary Care.

In an effort to reduce potential cost (and time) of future development work, it was agreed with the Revalidation Delivery Board Scotland to merge Forms 3 and 4 on SOAR so that all doctors are using the same set of forms for appraisal, irrespective of Primary or Secondary Care. Forms 1 and 2 will remain different to highlight the different background information.

Work for this was completed and successfully deployed in March 2016.

Changes to Trainee Revalidation Dashboard

Due to internal changes within NES, development work was carried out on SOAR to enable those responsible to revalidate trainees by Specialty Training Boards (previously it was by Deanery regions). This allowed for those going through revalidation to be revalidated by someone more familiar with the trainees’ work and circumstance.

Trainee Revalidation process

The Trainees’ Revalidation process is similar to that of a consultant or GP. The Trainee is expected to complete their annual self-declarations on Health, Probity, Complaints and Work History; this is to be discussed, reviewed and signed off by the Trainees’ Educational Supervisor. The self-declarations form part of the ARCP review process.

If the Trainee is due for Revalidation, their Training Programme Director (TPD) will be asked to make a suggested outcome to support the revalidation decision. After which, the RO (or proxy ROs) will login to make the Revalidation decision on SOAR based on the information provided. This gets sent to GMC Connect and once verified, SOAR will be updated accordingly via automated processes.

Reporting Tools on SOAR

Historically, all reports on SOAR had to be built individually by the developers, and as the complexity of the system and data grows with each new feature built, so have the reports and requirements for the reports themselves.

As part of the redesign project, we upgraded our web host server setup to give us capacity to create SOAR reports in-house. This is intended to give us greater flexibility and control over reporting of SOAR data. The SOAR support team underwent training sessions, and with the support of NES Digital colleagues we are now in a position to provide any additional reports not on SOAR on an ad hoc basis. The next step is to make these reports available on SOAR and we are aiming to achieve this in 2016/2017.

MSF on SOAR

MSF continues to be supported on SOAR via WASP Software following last year’s renewal. As most (if not all) doctors in Scotland have now completed the first cycle of Revalidation, we have negotiated a reduced renewal fee with WASP to continue the provision of MSF on SOAR for a further year.

We will continue to explore different options for maintaining MSF support on SOAR after March 2017.

Other developments

PEN Testing

SOAR underwent its scheduled “Pen” testing in February 2016. “Penetration” testing is the practice of testing a computer system, network or web application to find vulnerabilities that an attacker could exploit. There were no high level items found in this year’s testing, only a couple of medium and low level advisory items, which were all addressed and resolved as part of our ongoing commitment to ensure SOAR continues to be a safe and secure environment for our users.

Service Level Agreement with Developers

With Recognition of Trainers still a process in its infancy, we envisage changes will be required as time progresses. With this and other possible projects on the horizon, we negotiated an improved Service Level Agreement (SLA) with our developers to give us greater flexibility should changes to any aspects of SOAR be required (from minor bug fixes, or text changes, to more complex functional amendments).

GP CPD Connect

Last year we reported the possibility of SOAR being linked to a new NES IT system called “GP CPD Connect”. This project went live in March 2016 and the links between these two systems are now in place.Users of GP CPD Connect simply log in to the system, search and attend any courses required, document their reflection/learning, and with one click the information is sent to SOAR without the need to re-enter the information.

Early feedback from GP users has been positive and we continue to monitor and learn from this collaboration project as we look to engage in similar projects in the future. www.cpdconnect.nhs.scot

MSF - beyond 2017?

Funding and resources have NOT been committed beyond March 2017, but we will be exploring all options and hope to make an announcement once decisions have been formalised.

SOAR Helpdesk

The SOAR Helpdesk software will be changing in 2016/2017. The current software licence (Zendesk) will not be renewed beyond March 2017 and plans are in place to move to a new helpdesk support (ServiceNow) before then.

From a user’s point of view, there is no change or impact on them. All SOAR queries should continue to be sent to SOAR@nes.scot.nhs.uk and they will be picked up and actioned as per normal.

Future projects and Impacts

Recognition of Trainers – Supporting Year 2 processes

A number of amendments and additions are required on SOAR to support ongoing Recognition of Trainer processes.

Part of the changes will include:

- New simplified RoT form

- Using Trainers’ “Revalidation due date” as next “Recognition due date”

- Improving DME and EO functions

- Improve data sharing between SOAR and Turas

- Expand Form 7 access to Appraisers and Appraisees

The new changes will be deployed in two phases, scheduled for mid-May and mid-July 2017.

SOAR team moving to NES Digital

We reported last year that the SOAR team would move to the NES Digital directorate last June. Due to HR complications this did not materialise. This is now planned for 2016/2017, but this internal NES restructuring will not impact on SOAR users or the level of support we provide.

The move will see the SOAR support team, consisting of Information Manager (William Liu) and 2x Information Technicians (Kris Wright and Alistair Bryan), moving out of the Medical directorate and into the new NES Digital directorate.

The idea is to put all the IT minded/skilled personnel into one centrally organised and managed directorate to improve efficiency and resource. As some of you might be aware, the previous NES training management programme was rewritten successfully into a new system called Turas. The plan going forward is to pull all NES IT systems onto the same Digital Platform to improve system interaction and collaboration, more akin to a one-system approach.

SOAR is not scheduled to be written onto the NES Digital Platform until 2017/2018.

From a service and user point of view, similar to the SOAR helpdesk change, there should be no impact on our service as we will still be providing the same service as before.