The Advisory Appointments Committee (AAC) Unit manages the Royal College of Physician’s role in the appointment of NHS consultant physicians in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
An AAC is a committee formed to appoint clinicians (consultant, specialty doctor, honorary consultant) in the NHS.
The following information has been designed as a guide for trust medical staffing departments when planning appointments for consultant, specialty doctor or honorary consultant posts.
Before posts are advertised for consultant and specialty doctor posts, medical staffing departments should complete the job description review (JDR) form.
The JDR form and job description should be sent to the local regional office for processing. Browse UK regions for regional office contact details:
There are a few common reasons submitted JDs do not receive approval in the first review round.
Use this downloadable guide created specially to help NHS employers sidestep common errors, omissions and oversights in writing the JD, building the job plan, and completing the JDR form.
The average time taken to respond with a review of a job description is three weeks from receipt of the completed JDR form. This is because the RCP follows a 2-step review process. All JDs are reviewed first by a Regional Specialty Adviser, i.e. a consultant practicing in the specialty of the JD, usually nominated by its specialty society, and then by Regional Advisers, who are elected Fellows of the college.
If you are an RSA or wish to become one, kindly email rsaqueries@rcp.ac.uk. To learn more about RAs or how to become one, click here.
If you are already an RSA or RA, please download our guidance on reviewing Job Descriptions for the RCP below:
Role of the The Royal College of Physicians representative is a core member of an AAC panel. Their main role is to assess the training of applicants to make sure they are suitable for the post and have the necessary qualifications. RCP representatives are full members of an AAC and should be included in the shortlisting process except for SAS doctor AACs where shortlisting is not required.
As soon as an RCP representative is secured for an AAC, the health authority should contact them with details of the AAC. The RCP will send college representatives a guidance pack detailing the role. Here is more detailed information on the RCP representative role.
AACs
Royal College of Physicians recommends:
We will, of course, endeavour to do what we can to support the AAC process.
AAC Process For TrustsFor NHS trusts, the RCP has a statutory role to play in the appointment of consultants. The NHS (Appointment of Consultants) Regulations 1996 (amended 2004) states that an external representative from the relevant college or faculty should be included in the core membership of an AAC. The Department of Health (DoH) website has useful guidance on this subject.
If your post is based in Wales, please refer to the updated NHS (Appointment of Consultants) good practice guidance, June 2022.
NHS (appointment of consultants) good practice guidance
Appointment of consultants in the NHS in Wales revised guidance
It is a legal requirement for all doctors to be on the GMC’s specialist register before they can take up a consultant appointment. Specialist registrars who have CCT dates no more than six months from the date of an AAC may apply and be interviewed. It is advisable that all other categories of doctors should be on (or likely to be on) the specialist register, before being considered for a consultant appointment by an AAC.
For advice on job planning requirements refer to the RCP guidance for approval of NHS consultant job descriptions.
The RCP strongly advises universities wishing to appoint to senior clinical academic posts with honorary consultant status to seek advice from RCP regional advisers on the clinical component of job descriptions. Please note that holders of honorary contracts cannot fill paid NHS consultant posts without fulfilling the provision of the regulations.
Please refer to the NHS guidance above on senior clinical academics/honorary consultant contracts.
Universities should bear in mind the great importance attached by the profession to obtaining approval of the job description.
Please use the above 'Job description review form - consultant' when making approval requests for these job descriptions.
Specialist grade
The specialist grade introduced in April 2021 requires employers to use the generic capabilities framework and template person specification, which they will develop based on the requirements of the service. A doctor in this grade:
Specialty doctor
A doctor in this grade:
The RCP recognises that the majority of foundation trusts continue to involve the RCP in the AAC process, which is supported by a named RCP representative service. Medical staffing departments should email requests to the RCP who will try to secure an RCP representative for you. For NHS foundation trust AACs we can only process requests for a college representative with at least eight weeks’ notice prior to the AAC date.
