SOAR (Scottish Online Appraisal Resource) is an online system used to manage the appraisal process for doctors working in Scotland. It is managed locally by the territorial health boards, who are in turn supported nationally by NES, NHS Education for Scotland.
Medical appraisal is an annual opportunity for doctors, referred to as "Appraisees" in this guide, to discuss their work, achievements and development in a private environment with a trained peer, more commonly referred to as an "Appraiser".
SOAR sits on the Turas platform, designed by NES to be a one-stop shop for all health and social care tools and learning resources. Because of this you will require a Turas account to access SOAR. (Think of it like an Open Athens account.)
SOAR can be accessed on the Medical Appraisal Scotland website, an information portal hosting and signposting numerous appraisal and revalidation resources for doctors working in Scotland.
The below describes the systems setup and the appraisal process on SOAR for appraisees and appraisers.
Let’s start by looking how to obtain a login.
To gain access to SOAR, you require:
If you don't have an existing SOAR account, start by liaising with the health board teams, who will conduct their local HR protocols. This is because SOAR is not open for public consumption. Once verified, they will provide you with temporary SOAR login details.
Whilst you wait for this to come through, check and make sure that you have a Turas account.
Once Turas has been set up, and you have your SOAR account details, you just need to link the two accounts.
For practical step-by-step on how to do this, please visit the "How to login" page.
In summary, access to SOAR is facilitated by Turas and is managed by the boards via different user roles.
For example, an appraisee will not be able to access an appraiser’s dashboard or functions. Equally, an appraiser cannot review someone’s details whom they are not allocated to, even if they might have appraised them in the past.
There are three key user roles on the system:
The key tasks for the local admin teams are assisting with login requests as they come in; and allocating Appraisers to Appraisees. In Scotland, you cannot pick and choose your own Appraisers. This is all managed by the Admin teams in collaboration with the Appraisal Leads.
Some individuals in some health boards require to be informed of the appraisal process for certain individuals, but are not necessarily involved with the process itself - for example line managers, clinical leads or associate medical directors etc. These individuals are given the "Appraisal coordinator" role on SOAR and this is managed by health board teams also. Access for the appraisal coordinators is restricted to those they have been manually assigned to.
Admins can also create appraisal meetings on SOAR, but due to resources this is normally done by the appraisers after they have arranged the meeting with the appraisee.
Once the appraisal is added, the appraisee has two very important tasks they must do prior to the appraisal. First, they need to complete the Appraisal Forms - which is broken down by the different supporting information categories. Appraisal forms can be completed throughout the year in preparation for the appraisal, they just can't be shared with the Appraiser until an appraisal is created.
Then, to share the completed forms with the appraiser, the appraisee needs to go to the appraisal page to make the submission.
When submitted, the system will send out an automated email notification to confirm; inviting the appraiser to review the submitted documents prior to the meeting.
After the meeting, it is the appraiser’s job to draft and forward the Appraisal Form 4 (Summary) to the appraisee.
The Form 4 process is as follows:
There are other linked processes to SOAR, such as Multi-Source Feedback (MSF), Recognition of Trainer (ROT), Academic medicine, and Form 6 feedback.
This is how they fit into the overall SOAR processes:
Multi-source Feedback (MSF) is provided on SOAR by an external provider, and this is linked to our appraisal processes - but this is optional. If you wish to use a different MSF service, check with your health board to ensure it’s acceptable to the Responsible Officer for revalidation purposes.
Recognised Trainers who are on Turas are imported into SOAR via overnight automated processes. If you have a recognised GMC Trainer role, you are asked to complete an additional ROT form as part of your appraisal. Appraisers will summarise the discussion in a separate section on Form 4.
If you are a Clinical Academic with an honorary role with the NHS, you should be marked as such on SOAR by the health board admin teams; and will subsequently be required to complete the Academic Medicine form as part of your appraisal. Usually, these appraisals also include an appraiser from the university, who will also be involved with the Form 4 review and sign off process.
Once the appraisal is concluded, both the Appraiser and Appraisee are invited to provide feedback on the appraisal process. This is facilitated via the Feedback Form 6.
This page was last updated on: 28/01/2025
