A statement on the specialist role from the BMA and NHS Employers.
As part of the 2020/21 SAS contract negotiations, the BMA and NHS Employers agreed to the creation of a new national grade for senior SAS doctors, known as the specialist grade.
Applicants must meet a set of generic capabilities criteria to be eligible for this grade. Specialist posts will be created at the discretion of the employer, where they have identified a specific workforce need.
Specialty doctors on the 2021 and 2008 contracts will have to apply for specialist grade roles as and when they become available.
This is also the case for locally employed associate specialists appointed (e.g. Trust associate specialists), as they will be on local contracts. If you are seeking appointment to the new specialist grade, you will also need to use the approach set out in this guidance.
Implications for specialty doctors
Without any formal contractual means of regrading or progressing directly from the specialty doctor grade to the specialist grade, there is the risk that dedicated specialty doctors could be working at a senior level of responsibility and competence without appropriate recognition and remuneration. This also means employers have little incentive to create a senior grade post for which they could apply.
This issue has become more significant since the associate specialist grade was closed on a national basis in 2008/09, allowing the boundaries in roles and responsibilities between specialty doctors and more senior SAS doctors to become blurred.
Demonstrating a workforce need
The BMA and NHS Employers have published joint guidance to encourage NHS organisations to create specialist roles and embed them into their workforce.
In creating the specialist role, the BMA and NHS Employers have focused on the requirement for employers to identify a specific workforce need.
When an employer identifies such a need, they are expected to use their overall allocations to fund new specialist posts. The creation of new specialist posts was factored into the overall cost modelling for contract reform. This would mean opening a competitive and transparent appointment process for SAS doctors.
If you think that you are currently working beyond your level as a specialty doctor, and should be given the opportunity to be appointed to a specialist post, here are the steps you can take:
- understand the differences between the specialty doctor and specialist roles
- identify any current roles and responsibilities you share with the specialist grade
- reassess any acting up arrangements
- review your job plan, and dispute if necessary.
Roles and responsibilities
Each grade of doctor has distinct roles and responsibilities. By demonstrating that you are delivering activities at a specialist level, you are proving that your employer does indeed have a clear need for such a post. If you were not undertaking this senior-level work, they would need to create a post to ensure that it was being done.
We have produced a comparison table that sets out the differences between the specialty doctor, specialist and consultant roles to help you understand what roles and responsibilities should be expected of each.
What to do next
Once you have identified the aspects of your current role that you think are more closely aligned to those of the specialist grade, you should produce a document setting these out, highlighting the relevant parts of the generic capabilities framework that they relate to, and explain in detail what these activities involve.
This should be initially submitted to your line manager, with a suggestion of entering into a job plan review, but you may wish to escalate it to a more senior manager with overall responsibility for the service you deliver.
The BMA and NHSE have jointly produced a specialist grade appointment guidance for existing associate specialists on the 2008 national contract who wish to transfer to the specialist contract.
This guidance may also be useful to anyone looking to make the case that they meet the essential requirements of the grade, or that their existing role requires work that should ordinarily be expected of a specialist role.
It will assist you in reviewing the generic capabilities framework and making suggestions for how each can be demonstrated using evidence that may already available elsewhere.
Webinar
Watch the specialist grade webinar which took place on 15 October, hosted in collaboration with NHS Employers.
We're here to stand up for SAS doctors' rights, support you in the workplace and champion the medical profession.