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Following recommendations made in the Tooke Report on Modernising Medical Careers (MCC) £12 million of funds have been made available to SAS doctors to acquire consultant level competencies. These may be used to support an Article 14 application for entry onto the specialist register or to improve or expand an individual’s practice.

The deaneries have responsibility for overseeing the allocation of funds. The London Deanery has been particularly active and has funded many projects.

Frontier Project – London Deanery
The project aims at Breaking the boundaries in Continuing Professional Development for SAS doctors and was launched last Autumn at a meeting in central London by Elisabeth Paice, the Project Sponsor and Associate Dean, Tony Rao. Tony is a Consultant Psychiatrist and has the responsibility for delivering the initiative. He was selected for his track record of leading and improving a large training scheme, as well as his personal insight (both his parents worked in the SAS grade). In addition, the Deanery has employed 2 SAS advisors who work part-time on an annual contract for the project, as well as involving their Trust liaison deans.

To ascertain the training needs of SAS doctors, the Deanery conducted a survey. A program of free activities was then designed to meet these needs. Please visit www.frontier.londondeanery.ac.uk/. Included are sessions commissioned from the college on teaching, appraisal, job planning and maintaining a portfolio. The Deanery keeps in regular contact with all SAS doctors employed in the London Region via its website, e-mail database and SAS leads in each Trust.

Joint Venture
The London Deanery wished to develop specialist training days for SAS doctors. The new format was developed by me in a joint venture with the BGS. The day was divided with morning sessions delivering clinical CPD (epilepsy and therapeutic sessions) and the afternoon devoted to generic issues affecting SAS doctors (job planning and mentoring). The event aimed to deliver first class CPD whilst providing opportunities for SAS doctors to share their knowledge and skills. This was achieved by 3x 20 minute talks followed by 30 minute panel discussions. The format proved extremely successful with SAS doctors presenting alongside experts in the field and benefited from active participation from the floor. Special thanks to everyone who helped make the day a success but in particular, thanks to the speakers from the BGS (Simon Conroy, Jagdish Sharma, Aza Abdulla), Consultant Neurologist Bridget MacDonald and the SAS presenters (Jumoke Abili, Meng Aw-Yong, Anthea Mowat and Prem Ohri). The day has paved the way for other specialist days.

New from other regions
Deaneries in other regions have funds to distribute but there appears to be a wide variation in what is being currently offered. There is concern that some deaneries are less proactive in supervising the distribution and spending of funds and are forwarding these to Trusts to manage. If you have not been advised of funding in your area, contact your local deanery. In some cases, information may be available on their website.

Recurrent funding
Recurrent funding depends on demonstrating a successful outcome to the first wave of expenditure – it is important for us all to take full advantage of this opportunity. There is funding available for more substantive educational activities such as MSc or secondments to learn new skills.

Sue Morgan
Chairman
BGS Staff and Associate Specialist Grades Group

BGS Newsletter, February 2010
Issue 25 ISSN 1748-634000 25