England

This week we come together to mark SAS Week 2025 – a celebration of the contribution of specialist, associate specialist and specialty doctors across the UK. It is also a moment to reflect on the progress we have made, the challenges that remain, and the opportunities we must seize to ensure SAS careers continue to thrive.

SAS doctors make up a significant and growing proportion of the medical workforce. Every day, we deliver high-quality, patient-focused care, while also leading research, education, leadership projects and advocacy. Yet our contribution has too often been overlooked.

SAS Week is our chance to celebrate the breadth of what we do and to push forward with improving the landscape for current and future SAS doctors.

This year, SAS Week brings together activity across all four nations. We are working closely with NHS Employers, the BMA specialist, associate specialist and specialty doctors committee and our colleagues in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to shine a light on our experiences and priorities.

By showcasing these perspectives, we remind policymakers and employers that SAS doctors are not a hidden workforce – we are central to the care the NHS delivers to patients.

There have been major advances in recent years, not least the introduction of the specialist grade and the refreshed SAS charters in Wales and Scotland. These have created new opportunities for progression, recognition and improved working lives.

Yet challenges remain. Many SAS doctors still report barriers to career development, lack of proper recognition and the need for improved working lives. That is why SAS committees across the UK continue to press for:

– pay restoration

– creating more specialist roles

– improving access to the Portfolio Pathway

– involvement in leadership roles.

This week you will see stories, interviews and blogs from SAS doctors across specialties and nations.

As SASCUK chair, I am proud of how far we have come and determined to go further. This SAS Week is about visibility, pride and advocacy. But it is also about action.

We will continue to push for fair contracts, supportive workplaces and career pathways that recognise the breadth of SAS doctors’ expertise. We are also keen to listen to and amplify the voices of SAS colleagues across the UK.

Thank you to everyone who has contributed to SAS Week – from our members who share their stories, to those working behind the scenes to make improvements.

Together, we are shaping a stronger future for SAS doctors, for our patients and for the NHS.

Ujjwala Anand Mohite

Chair, UK SAS committee

Northern Ireland

This past year we have delivered a pay deal for SAS doctors without having to ballot the profession unlike elsewhere in the UK. However, we are deeply disappointed and frustrated by delayed implementation of non-pay asks as part of the deal and continue to engage with Department of Health on addressing these delays.

In the meantime, it is vital that we all make use of the BMA Northern Ireland SAS rate card to ensure proper renumeration when we work beyond our standard contract. Despite this, there is still much to celebrate. BMA Northern Ireland specialist, associate specialist and specialty doctors committee deputy chair Clodagh Corrigan continues to be a shining example of SAS progression within BMA. Along with her re-election as deputy chair of Northern Ireland council, she is the first SAS doctor to be elected as deputy chair of BMA’s representative body. This will be the first time in BMA’s history that both chair and deputy chair of RB are SAS doctors.

The sense of community and shared purpose of the SAS grade across Northern Ireland grows year-on-year and can be seen in the number of events organised to mark SAS Week in workplaces across the country. I would encourage you all to check-in with the SAS lead in your trust to find out what is planned and go along. NISASC will be hosting a special webinar ‘Unlocking the potential: Specialty Doctor to Specialist’ that I would encourage you all to register for, and be sure to check out BMA’s webpage for resources and other member events to mark SAS Week.

Leanne Davison

Chair, Northern Ireland SAS committee

Scotland

I am pleased to support SAS Week this year along with our colleagues in the other UK nations. This has been another very busy year for Scottish SAS committee, and this is a good opportunity to share some updates with you and you may also have seen my recent blog.

We have a further meeting this week with Scottish Government and NHS employers to discuss the final draft of the process for Scottish specialty doctors to progress to Specialist. I remain hopeful that we will be able to announce the details of the policy and process very soon. It has taken a long time to make progress on this, but once it is launched I hope you will see it as a significant step in making SAS careers more attractive, and that the regrading process itself may help to encourage employers to create new Specialist posts for open application.

We were extremely disappointed not to make any progress in pay restoration as the Scottish Government indicated that there would be no more negotiations on this year’s pay award following their acceptance of the DDRB recommendation of a 4% uplift. Despite our continued efforts over the summer, they rejected our proposals on non-headline pay. It remains a very challenging environment to make progress towards pay restoration. Our survey of senior doctors following the pay announcement showed us that whilst SAS doctors are disappointed in this pay award, there is insufficient support for taking any form of industrial action.

We are now working on our priorities for next year’s pay award, and are looking for your feedback on the ongoing pressure of working in the Scottish NHS. You can help by completing the wellbeing survey . This will help inform us of the things that matter most to you as we continue to seek ways of improving all our working lives.

SAS week is an opportunity for us all to share with our colleagues the significant contribution that SAS doctors make in our NHS. Do look at the SAS week page for all the latest information and share widely.

Sine Steele

Chair, Scottish SAS committee

Wales

I am pleased that we have come together with NHS Wales Employers once again this year to celebrate SAS doctors in Wales and our invaluable contributions to the NHS. This an excellent opportunity for me to share the many positive changes that BMA Cymru Wales, and your WSASC, has achieved in the last year for SAS doctors working in Wales.

Earlier this year, I was pleased to confirm that BMA Cymru Wales, the Welsh Government, and NHS Wales Employers successfully agreed a policy for the regrading of specialty doctors to the specialist grade.

This is a significant achievement for our profession, providing a long-awaited and much-needed route for the progression of highly experienced specialty doctors. Through this policy, those who are successful will be able to access the greater autonomy, higher pay, and better opportunities that the specialist grade provides to senior SAS doctors.

This new process cements the SAS grades as an aspirational and fulfilling career choice. We are now working closely with NHS Wales Employers to monitor the number of applications made as part of this process, and we hope to see an increase in the number of specialists as a result.

As part of our pay deal for 2023/24, we secured a change to plain time hours for those on the 2021 contracts, reverting these to 7am-7pm on weekdays. In doing so we removed one of the main barriers to transferring to the 2021 terms and conditions for those on the older contracts. Alongside this we secured a revised policy for doctors wishing to transfer to the 2021 terms and conditions which specialty doctors across Wales are now using.

We have also secured a commitment from all health boards in Wales to the proper recording of the activity of SAS doctors in patient administration systems. This is an important step in ensuring SAS doctors are recognised for the work we do.

Whilst we’ve achieved significant improvement to SAS working conditions, we continue to push for pay restoration. Following the disappointing pay award for 2025/26, I wrote to the cabinet secretary for health and social care alongside colleagues from the Welsh consultants committee and Welsh resident doctors committee expressing my disappointment. In this letter we also called for the resignation of returning members of the pay review body and for more tangible progress to full implementation of the SAS charter.

SAS week is a time to celebrate the contribution of SAS doctors in the NHS and I encourage you to find out what is happening within your health board. Please check out the SAS week page here for the latest information and join us for the Specialist webinar on Tuesday evening.

Ali Nazir

Chair, Welsh SAS committee