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Medical Service Increment for Teaching (SIFT) funding report

May 2007

Concerns have been raised that funding flows for medical education are not transparent. In undergraduate medical education, however, it is critical to ensure that adequate funding is available for exposure to the clinical environment, since it is essential for medical students to acquire practical knowledge as a key component in their transition from undergraduate students to registered doctors.

In recent times, pressures on how undergraduate medical education can be delivered, and in particular on how this clinical exposure can be provided, have increased. Factors which have contributed to this include the increase in the number of medical students, the decline in the numbers of medical academics (which may itself be linked to funding flows) and financial pressures within the National Health Service (NHS).

For some time the British Medical Association’s (BMA) Medical Academic Staff Committee (MASC) has been expressing these concerns.

This report examines the main funding flows, and then focuses specifically on one key aspect, the Service Increment for Teaching (SIFT) allocation and spending in England. A desire to understand how SIFT funding is spent by recipient trusts led MASC to request information on SIFT funding via the Freedom of Information Act in August 2006. The results of this exercise are examined in detail in the second part of this report.

Download the report as a PDF here or using the link on the right.