Appraisals For Designated Bodies

We will support you and take over the full management of an appraisal system, as well as manage the list of doctors, ensure sufficient capacity to deliver the service with quality-assured appraisers, and provide administration support.

This will include the allocation of appraiser to doctor, the notifications to appraiser and doctor, the use of our established processes through to the point of confirmation of documentation, payment of invoices to appraisers, and the quality assurance review of appraisal outputs using our QA tool SUPPORTS. For our internal QA process, please see below.

For any further information, please email us at susi.caesar@wessexappraisal.org.

Internal Quality Assurance

Standards Applied:

• Wessex Appraisal Service Ltd aims to apply or exceed the standards laid out in the Quality Assurance of Medical Appraisers (QAMA) NHS Revalidation Support Team, 2014.
• Outputs are continually reviewed against the national Framework of Quality Assurance for Responsible Officers and Revalidation (NHS England, 2014) standards, and the Medical Appraisal Policy (NHS England, 2015).

Recruitment, Selection and New Appraiser Training (NAT):

• The recruitment and selection of new appraisers is by open advert, application, interview, and successful completion of the summative two-day New Appraiser Training (NAT) course.
• Each new appraiser is supported by their Senior Appraiser for their first three ‘probationary’ appraisals in particular, with the Senior Appraiser and their Support Group remaining the first point of contact for any query or concern throughout their engagement as an appraiser. 

Continuing Professional Development (CPD) as an Appraiser:

• The responsibility to remain up to date remains with the individual appraiser. All appraisers engaged by the Service provide evidence of reflection on their appraisal-related competencies and their appraisal-related Supporting Information annually.
• There are internal requirements for each appraiser to provide Supporting Information demonstrating engagement with appraisal-related Continuing Professional Development (CPD), Quality Improvement Activities (QIA), and feedback annually. Updates in Equality and Diversity, as well as Information Governance/Data Security training designed to be applicable to appraisal, are provided on a rolling programme at the Annual Conference.
• Appropriate calibration of professional judgement is afforded by the local appraiser Support Group meetings (quarterly) and/or the Annual Conference, and discussion with peers or their Senior Appraiser independently (ad hoc).
• Any learning events (or Significant Events or complaints) applicable to an individual appraiser are addressed with the appraiser during the year as they arise.
• The Administrative Team, Senior Appraisers, Regional Director, and Deputy Lead provide ad hoc support and guidance, and encourage the appraisers to remember: “if in doubt, ask”.

Quality Assurance of Appraisal Outputs:

• The Appraisal Outputs from each appraiser are quality assured to ensure that the content of the Appraisal Summary, Output Statements, and PDP are of a sufficiently high standard to meet the demands of Appraisal and Revalidation. Quality Assurance involves assessment against a widely-used benchmarking tool developed internally but used nationally – SUPPORTS 2020 (updated June 2021 to SUPPORTS 2021) – which scores each Appraisal Output out of a total of 20.
• Each appraiser has at least one Appraisal Output marked against SUPPORTS QA criteria by their Senior Appraiser.
• The scores, and related formative comments on how to improve, are shared with the appraiser at the time of scoring, to allow areas which have been identified for improvement to be discussed and actioned in a timely fashion.
• Across the whole Service, a low score against SUPPORTS (<18) is calibrated by another Senior Appraiser and, if confirmed, automatically triggers a discussion with the appraiser to ensure improvement by clarifying any areas identified for development, followed by review of the next available documentation. Any subsequent lack of improvement is taken very seriously. A lack of capacity to produce appropriate Appraisal Outputs may result in an appraiser no longer being engaged by the Service.
• Any particularly low SUPPORTS scores (<16) are calibrated by a lay representative with expertise in the field. The introduction of lay involvement at this level has provided additional strength to the decision-making about the most appropriate action for appraisers with consistently low scores.
• The Service continues to strive towards continual improvements in Outputs, with a new emphasis on ‘encouraging excellence’ now that the other quality markers are well-demonstrated.