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 certain grades of clinicians in the NHS. The following information has been designed as a guide for trust medical staffing departments when planning appointments for consultant, honorary consultant or SAS doctor posts.
From April 2026, the RCP will transition from reviewing job descriptions to a proactive, guidance-based approach.
This means we will no longer provide job description approvals. Instead, we will publish comprehensive resources including specialty-specific guidance (where available from the specialities), checklists, and model job descriptions to support trusts and health boards, as well as provide greater support to physicians going to interview on what they should look for in a job description.
Our focus will remain on the statutory role medical royal colleges play at Advisory Appointments Committees (AAC).
Despite stopping JD reviews, our involvement at AACs will mean we continue to scrutinise roles via our Fellows, who act as external representatives, just before or at the interview stage, feeding back to recruiting bodies as required.
The RCP welcomes job description (JD) review requests from those NHS employers who require the presence of external representatives of the RCP at their AAC panels, until 31 March 2026.
Completed JDR forms sent in by statutory employers (NHS Trusts etc.) currently function as an aid to the AAC representative search, the details contained within them acting as the criteria for the search. NHS trust medical staffing departments should complete the correct job description review (JDR) form per the grade of the post, choosing from the options below.
The JDR form and job description should be sent to the local regional office for processing. Browse UK regions for regional office contact details:
The RCP has now ended JD reviews for NHS foundation trusts and other ‘non-statutory’ employers, i.e. those for whom external RCP representation at AACs is optional. Instead, there is interim guidance now available to help foundation trusts to get it right the first time when creating a post and writing a job description (download below).
(Comprehensive guidance covering all employers to be published soon.)
Foundation trusts who do not have a valid JD reference number must now complete the following form to request external representatives for their AACs. Along with the completed form (downloadable below), the JD itself must also be submitted to aac@rcp.ac.uk
** NHS trusts (non-foundation) and other statutory employers must also use this form from 01/04/2026, provided the AAC is for a post whose JD has not previously received RCP approval or is not currently valid.**
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. Those preparing job descriptions should also consult the RCP guidance Empowering physicians: effective job planning for better patient care, which outlines the core principles for effective job planning.
Each JD must contain only one job plan (though you may list as many posts as necessary with that self-same job plan.) Different job plans call for individual JDs, with a fresh JDR form expected to be completed for each. This allows reviewers to comment on the unique job plans and can speed up the review process.
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:
The RCP recommends that planning for an appointment should begin as early as possible – in case of replacement posts, this is as soon as it is known that a vacancy is to arise. As a rule of thumb, the RCP recommends that planning for AACs, including requesting lists of prospective external representatives, begin 8+ weeks before the proposed date of the AAC.
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. They are expected to ensure that the best candidate for the role is selected. 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.
The National Health Service (Appointment of Consultants) Regulations Good Practice Guidance lays out various important considerations to bear in mind as an AAC is organised and conducted. Annex D of this guidance enumerates exemptions from the regulations and is worthwhile reading prior to approaching the RCP for an external representative.
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
The 1996 Regulations and subsequent amendments do not apply to NHS Foundation Trusts although they can follow this guidance when appointing to a consultant post if they so choose. 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.
Having an external representative of the RCP at AACs for consultant posts is a statutory requirement for certain types of employers. NHS foundation trusts and universities are exempt. 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 resident doctors 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. The RCP will provide lists of prospective external representatives, when requested, for honorary consultant grade AACs, where the incumbent is expected to take on direct clinical care (DCC) responsibilities. 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.
Please use the above 'Job description review form - consultant' when making approval requests for job descriptions.
The RCP does not have a statutory role to play in the appointment of SAS physicians to positions in the NHS, however it considers its involvement best practice. The Royal Colleges/Faculties aim to help employers make suitable appointments and are able to provide an appropriately trained assessor to contribute to recruitment exercises that support the delivery of high-quality services. The
The RCP and other Royal Colleges recognise that they will be acting in an advisory capacity within the appointment process, to assess if candidates meet the required capabilities. It is the responsibility of the employer to initiate the creation of a post and would not require the input of College representatives.
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:
