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Annex A: Criteria for Distinction Awards
Awards are not seniority payments, nor are they given to holders of particular types of post as of right. All doctors and dentists are expected to display, and maintain, very high standard of conduct and professional competence, taking account of guidance issued by the GMC and GDC where appropriate. To warrant consideration for an award, SACDA will look for performance over and above what is normally expected in respect of service to patients, teaching and the management and development of the service. In general SACDA will expect a record of achievement across a range of the criteria listed below from consultants nominated for awards; special achievement in only one or two of these areas will not normally be sufficient.
- professional excellence, which for most consultants will be founded on the sustained quality of the service they provide to patient care, overall contribution to the NHS and recognition of leadership;
- research, innovation and improvement in the service. The expectations will vary for different groups - eg Health Board , teaching or district hospital, honorary or NHS contract - and will relate to the differing opportunities in these various environments and within different contract arrangements.
- outstanding administrative or management effort, including effective implementation of innovations, involving activities often of national significance, which will again be related to opportunity and normal expectations. For example, honorary NHS contract holders (e.g. clinical academic staff, research workers), whose duties include a small NHS management content will often not contribute substantially in this area. On the other hand consultants working in community and management-based specialties such as public health medicine and dental public health are expected to secure measurable achievement in service development as part of their normal work;
- outstanding contribution to clinical audit, clinical governance, the effective promulgation of evidence based medicine, and external evaluation and audit;
- teaching and training; for example, special effort to train junior staff, or taking a leading role in undergraduate teaching or postgraduate medical education, especially if undertaken in addition to ordinary duties. Contribution by consultants to the training of other NHS staff, and also to public education and health promotion will also be relevant;
- outstanding commitment to the achievement of service goals, successful implementation of developments in practice, and the sustained delivery of high quality patient care in hard-pressed service areas.
Those recommended for an A award will need to show continuing satisfaction of the criteria, at a higher level than for a B award. They might normally be expected, for example, to be the Chairman or Vice-Chairman of local and regional and/or national specialist, management, advisory or executive committees, and to be showing substantial leadership in service, teaching and (if appropriate) research.
For the small number of awards available at A and A+ level, a very high standard is required. Awards might be recommended for those who are evident leaders in a clinical or scientific field, those with outstanding clinical and managerial skills, those who contribute new ideas of proven worth, those who effectively implement innovations, those who are generally accepted as leaders of the profession in their region and in the country as a whole and those with a national or international reputation.
Further guidance on what SACDA looks for in nominations is given in Section 5 of the Guide to the Awards scheme and in the Guide to the Scoring System.