SOAR: Significant highlights
2019/2020 is the first year (since its launch in 2007) that NES took on the maintenance and development of SOAR fully inhouse without the reliance of an SLA (Service Level Agreement) with external developers.
Following years of continuous development to get the system “Revalidation ready”, we are now in a fortunate position where we can focus on resolving and improving the “under-the-hood” infrastructures. Most of the work done this year on SOAR has been about compliance with NHS Scotland’s ICT Infrastructure Standards, as well as enhancing administrative functions for health board teams.
A history of SOAR’s development deployment is available on the Medical Appraisal Scotland website.
Some of the development highlights are:
Addition of new GMC “Deferral” categories for Revalidation
Several admin function improvements (auto removal of unassigned Ed Sup roles; Appraiser sub-types to identify non-medical Appraisers such as dental and University etc)
Changing of SOAR helpdesk provider
Disabling of access for older unsupported web browsers
Ceasing access for older web browsers
Last year we reported that we would no longer develop SOAR to work with older unsupported web browsers in line with the “NHS Scotland ICT Infrastructure Standard and 2021 Operating Model”. We have now taken the decision to cease access to SOAR via the obsolete technologies.
Working with health board IT teams who we notified in Oct/Nov 2019, access via the older web browsers was switched off in March 2020. Thus far we have not had any issues reported to us, and SOAR is now compliant with the NHS Scotland ICT Infrastructure Standard.
Helpdesk change
We had worked behind the scenes for a significant period of time to move our helpdesk provider over from Zendesk to the NES corporate tool called Jira. The move took place in March 2020 and we have successfully been using the new tool since then, which has in turn represented a significant annual saving. Our thanks to NES Digital colleagues for helping make the transition happen seamlessly.
SOAR continues the provision of MSF via our 3rd party provider, WASP Software. This arrangement has been extended through to the end of March 2021, covering the 2020/2021 period.
The longer-term plan of a multi-disciplinary one-MSF tool is still being discussed with NES Digital, but that has been pushed back due to COVID-19.
NES will continue to provide MSF via WASP Software.
During 2019/2020, the SOAR helpdesk resolved 6052 enquiries – 405 less compared to last year. Of the queries we dealt with, more than half (51%) were from Secondary Care users (Consultants and Secondary Care Admin teams); under a quarter (24%) were from Primary Care users (including Admin teams); Trainee queries came to 12%; and queries from MSF Raters, Pharmacists, Dental, GP Practice Managers, and DMEs (Directors of Medical Education), EOs (Educational Organisations) and Others make up the rest.
Nearly a third of our overall queries this year related to MSF (32%), mostly requests to repeat their MSF in preparation for their next Revalidation. 19% of our tickets revolved around helping users log in to SOAR. A new theme that has emerged from the helpdesk this year is that 17% of the tickets we resolved were due to incorrect data or information on the systems.
There were two common types of incorrect information. There were a number of tickets raised where, due to rescheduling, duplicate appraisals were created instead of editing the existing meeting.
The other common incorrect data query was around Trainer and Trainee data (e.g. incorrect Educational Supervisor details for Trainees; or incorrect Trainer roles associated with Recognition of Trainer). All Trainee and Trainer information on SOAR is imported from Turas to ensure a single data-source; if the information is incorrect on SOAR, the appropriate teams (Deanery, DMEs etc) need to be contacted to update Turas in the first instance.
(all helpdesk figures taken from Zendesk)
Looking back, there has been a steady downward trend in the number of helpdesk tickets since the implementation of our helpdesk software (Zendesk) back in 2014/2015.
It is pleasing to see this continuing trend as an indicator the changes we have made (all stemming from user feedback) are having a positive impact for our users.
We will continue to support our users via the helpdesk, accessed either via the website directly or via email to SOAR@nes.scot.nhs.uk. Please also continue to send your suggestions to us; we might not be able to address all feedback, but they are all reviewed and considered at our planning meetings.
With Medical Appraisal and Revalidation related activities postponed, there has not been any significant work required on SOAR during the pandemic. However, Trainees have been asked to continue to complete their annual self-declarations on SOAR as part of their ARCP review.
The only change was - to ease the burden on Educational Supervisors and Training Programme Directors who might have been redeployed - the declarations will not require their sign-off and will instead just be reviewed by the panel.
This change was made on SOAR and deployed on 30 April 2020; and will be reversed once it is safe to do so.
As mentioned in the “Plans for 2019/2020” section, we will be focusing our efforts in supporting the delivery of the new training course content and delivery, in whatever format it may take.
We are still looking to integrate the existing training course application process into SOAR, but priority will be given to the training courses development and any other urgent COVID-19 related work that may emerge.