SOAR (Scottish Online Appraisal Resource) is the national tool used to facilitate the appraisal process for doctors working in Scotland, developed and maintained by NES. It is accessed by appraisees, appraisers, Appraisal Leads and local Admin teams.
Usage of SOAR for medical appraisal purposes is mandated by the employing health board's RO. ROs may support alternative provision if there are reasonable adjustment requirements but responsibility for this falls with the health board - not NES or SOAR.
For Trainee users (in Scotland) - completion of self declarations on SOAR is mandatory. Other processes on other electronic systems will remain, but for revalidation purposes, the Health, Probity, Complaints, Work History declarations need to be completed on SOAR as part of the ARCP review.
SOAR is encrypted on two fronts, the system / database itself is encrypted, and all files uploaded to SOAR are separately encrypted as well. The system is annually tested by an external IT Security company to ensure that we remain secure and kept up-to-date with technological advances.
Access to documents and user details are restricted by the user roles assigned. User roles are assigned by System and Admin teams, so users cannot assign themselves different roles that they should not have.
For an overview of SOAR security and who can access what, please visit the SOAR Security section.
