- Appraisee and appraiser liaise with each other to agree meeting date, time and location
- But before Appraiser adds meeting on SOAR…
- Please check appraisee’s appraisal history for old incomplete appraisals
Normally the Appraiser or the Appraisee would reach out to one another outside of SOAR to agree a date and time to meet up.
But, before all of that happens, both the appraiser and the appraisee are asked to check the status of the appraisee’s appraisal history FIRST.
The reason for this is because SOAR is set up to only handle ONE annual appraisal at a time.
Let's look up an appraisee's appraisal history to demonstrate.
For Appraisers, to check your appraisee's appraisal history, login to SOAR and then go to your list of "Appraisees" from the sub menu (1) to search for the appraisee in question.
Click on the corresponding "View List" link under the "History" column (2).
This will open the appraisee's appraisal history as recorded on SOAR. Check the "Status" column to make sure there are no incomplete appraisals awaiting sign off.
If there is, do NOT create a new appraisal. Liaise with the appraisee and the health board admin team to get this closed off as soon as possible. Alternatively contact the SOAR helpdesk and we will assist as best as we can.
If you were to create a new appraisal, so that the appraisee's record shows two incomplete appraisals (as illustrated below), the appraisee will NOT be able to submit and share their documents with you until the old appraisals are concluded. If the appraisee tries to submit their forms, it will go into the OLDEST appraisal rather than the latest.
So check for old incomplete appraisals first.
If there are no old opened appraisals, then you are free to go ahead and create a new appraisal meeting as agreed with the appraisee.
To create an appraisal, the appraiser clicks on "Interviews" from the menu (1), followed by the "Create New" button (2).
Select the appraisee from the dropdown menu (3), then populate the rest of the fields on the page. Click "Save" when finished (4).
The Appraisal Period on SOAR (5) uses the fiscal period from April to March; and this is determined by the meeting date rather than what materials were discussed. Anecdotally we would expect ALL appraisals to discuss and review materials either since the last meeting, or materials collected in the last 12 months.
The appraisal period on SOAR is used for reporting purposes, such as the annual Medical Appraisal and Revalidation Quality Assurance (MARQA) report, or ad-hoc reports to the Scottish Government or the boards, where we are asked for example, "how many appraisals took place in a given fiscal period?" or, "how many doctors were revalidated in a given appraisal year?“
Once the appraisal is created, it will appear on the appraisee's dashboard. If it’s their only appraisal, it will appear as their "Current appraisal".
Remember to check the appraisee’s appraisal history first to ensure there is no existing or ongoing appraisal with the appraisee.
If there’s more than one appraisal opened for the appraisee, SOAR will not allow the completion of the latest appraisal until the old one is approved or closed off.
If you need further assistance with this, or if duplicate appraisals were created by mistake, please get in touch with the helpdesk with details of who the appraisee is, and we will take it from there.
This page was last updated on: 27/01/2025
