Clinical academics are individuals who have an honorary role with the NHS. It was agreed nationally in Scotland that clinical academics should not have to go through a separate university appraisal and the work they do there should be discussed as part of the "whole practice" appraisal approach.
This applies to both Primary and Secondary Care; and as such SOAR has been set up so facilitate a "joint" appraisal meeting with appraisee, appraiser and university appraiser (referred to as "co-appraiser" on SOAR).
Those appraisees identified with the clinical academics role will have an additional "Academic Medicine" form to complete as part of their appraisal submission; additionally, their Form 4 summaries will need to include the university appraiser (referred to on SOAR as "co-appraiser") sign off.
If this applies to you, please check the following on SOAR first:
If you answered "no" to either of the above, please liaise with your health board's appraisal admin team or the university admin teams in the first instance. If this is not correctly setup before the appraisal meeting is created by the appraiser, it will affect the Form 4 sign off process.
Animated steps of co-appraisal process (pt1) - click for still image
Animated steps of co-appraisal process (pt2) - click for still image
The co-appraiser from the university will/should already be an appraiser on SOAR, if not, the admin teams will be able to action this.
There are four sections to the Academic Medicine form for your completion:
Section 1: Supporting Documentation
This is where you upload relevant supporting information, for example copies of reports or funding letter confirmations etc. Ensure you include your reflections in the comments section.
Section 2: Assessment Against Previous Years' Academic Objectives
Learning items from last appraisal's Form 4 (similar setup to PDP) will be listed here. You are require to provide a status on each item as to whether or not the objective is "Completed", "Progressing" or "Not continuing".
Add applicable reflections in the comments box provided.
Section 3: Summary of Activity Undertaken
In this section you are asked to detail your activities in the following areas:
You may wish to refer to the guidelines from your university.
Section 4: Academic Objectives for the Forthcoming Year
Detail your objectives (max 5) for the year ahead (title, details, comments).
The appraisal may be undertaken jointly between a university appraiser and an NHS appraiser unless there has been agreement between the academic institution and the Chief Executive of the NHS Board where an appraisee may have a single appraiser who acts on behalf of both.
Whilst the aspirations is for a 3-way joint appraisal meeting, it's acknowledged that this could prove logistically challenging. Keep the dialogue open between all parties concerned. It may not work for everyone all the time, but the idea is to ease the pressures on you - the appraisee - from having multiple meetings for the same appraisal.
We have a roleplayed example of what a joint meeting may look like from a practical standpoint which you may find useful.
This page was last updated on: 05/11/2024
