It was agreed at Scottish Government level that SOAR would be used as the common pathway tool for all doctors working in Scotland for the purposes of Medical Revalidation.
Resident doctors in Scotland are asked to use SOAR to complete their Health, Probity, Complaints, and Work History declarations prior to their ARCP review meetings. These self declarations, along with ARCP outcomes and other information available to the RO, will help form the basis of the doctor's Revalidation recommendation.
If you are in a training programme and are FY2 and beyond, then you require to login to SOAR to complete your self-declarations as part of your ARCP review. However, there are some who are NOT required to login to SOAR to complete the self-declarations:
- Dental Trainees
- FY1
- Doctors in LAS Posts (see #2)
- Doctors in LAT Posts for less than 3 months (see #3)
Those who are in LAS (Locum Appointment for Service) posts are not the Deaneries’ responsibility. As such, they should adhere to the processes of the locum agency they are employed by or NHS Board they work in (such as annual appraisals).
Locums for service need to comply with the policies of the organisation for which they work, and may have to use SOAR during their employment.
The RO for resident doctors in a LAS post will either be the locum agency or the NHS Board they work in, depending on the length of their employment.
Those who are in LAT (Locum Appointment for Training) posts for more than 3 months will require to complete the annual self-declarations as part of their ARCP.
Those who are in LAT posts for less than 3 months are treated in the same way as those in LAS posts, and they are not required to complete the declarations.
In the Health Statement, you are asked "Since your last appraisal, have you had any illness or physical condition which results - or has resulted in - your restricting or changing your professional activities?"
If you wish, you can state that you were Out Of Programme due to maternity leave in your Work History, but normally no - you do not need to declare this in the Health statement.
What does it mean when asked "I have complied with the conflict of interest mechanisms of the Boards within which I work"?
This declaration simply means you have complied with the conflict of interest policies/guidance in the Health Board you worked in (e.g. I have not used Health Board funds inappropriately / I have not referred patients inappropriately to the private sector, etc).
For the purposes of appraisal and revalidation, you do not have to declare speeding tickets in the Probity section. But if you had to appear in court because of this, contact your supervisor and discuss the severity of this and if applicable, note it accordingly on your declarations.
There are a very small number of non-doctors in training programmes (e.g. Public Health, Dental). Because they are not doctors, they will not have a GMC number and as such, they cannot be revalidated via SOAR. Please contact your deanery regional team for further guidance.
If you have already CCT'ed, working in a health board and being appraised by your employer but undergoing re-training in a different specialty, the expectation is that you would continue to be appraised by your employer. However, the complication is around your revalidation.
Because you are in a training programme, NES will be your Responsible Officer and therefore responsible for your revalidation.
To facilitate this process, you are asked to complete an additional form after your appraisal to either share a copy of your Form 4 with NES or, if the appraisal took place on SOAR, give NES RO permission to review your Form 4 for the purposes of your revalidation.
For further guidance please check out the steps outlined in the SOAR section.
