Guidance

ACCEA newsletter July 2015

Updated 10 July 2015

1. Content

This newsletter contains an update on the 2015 Awards Round, including timescales for reaching decisions on applications. It also has specific information about local appeals which may still be entertained at national level, even though appeals submitted at local level after 16 June 2014 cannot be considered at national level.

2. 2015 applications

1,431 consultants submitted an application by the closing date of 17 June 2015. 306 of these consultants applied for both a new award and to renew their existing award. Therefore 1,737 have to be considered for either a new award or a renewal.

There were 892 applications for a new award only. With the 306 who are also seeking renewal there are 1,198 applications for a new award to be considered.

233 consultants applied for a renewal only. With the 306 who also applied for a new award there are 539 renewal applications to be considered.

3. 2015 applications for a new award

As in recent years there will be 300 new awards in England and around 17/18 in Wales. Therefore the process will be a very competitive one, with 1,198 consultants seeking to receive a probable 318 awards in England and Wales.

The applications for new awards at Bronze – Gold are being scored by the relevant regional sub-committee, who will shortly be given indicative numbers for new awards at each level. In most cases the regional score will determine success in relation to the indicative number for that region. However there will be a number (73 in 2014) who will be referred for national rescoring by the NRES Committee, which includes representatives of all the regions. The main ACCEA Committee will take final decisions on the recommendations which will be put to Ministers for new awards. In doing so they will be guided by the regional sub-committee scores and where appropriate NRES scores.

Applications for a new Platinum award will be scored at national level and ACCEA’s main Committee will decide how many of these should be successful.

New awards will be backdated to 1 April 2015.

4. 2015 applications for a renewal

The policy on considering renewals is clearly set out in the 2015 Guide for Applicants:

4.2.2 The renewals process is a competitive one, against the standard for new awards at that level and in that region. This standard has increased over the last few years and has been accompanied by the introduction of scoring of renewals. Renewals are not competitive against other renewals as there is no restriction on the number of successful renewals. To be successful, a renewal application must demonstrate that the contribution is at least as good as the lowest ranked successful applicant for new awards. In order to smooth out variations from year to year and to take into account regions with small numbers of applications, a three year rolling average will be used. All renewal applications which meet the standard will be agreed.

Decisionson renewal applications at Bronze – Gold level will depend solely on the scoring and the above policy. Decision on renewal applications at Platinum level will depend solely on national scoring and whether and an individual’s score at least meets the level of the lowest successful new Platinum award in 2015.

Successful renewal applicants (whose current awards run to 31 March 2016) will have their award renewed from 1 April 2016.

In most cases unsuccessful renewal applicants will have their awards ceased on 31 March 2016. However renewal applicants at Silver – Platinum levels will, if they are unsuccessful in renewing at that level, be considered for renewal at a lower national level if their score justifies it. If their score does not justify it, they will like other unsuccessful renewal applicants have their award ceased on 31 March 2016.

5. Timescale for consideration of 2015 new and renewal applications

New and renewal applications at Bronze – Gold level are currently being scored by the relevant regional sub-committee. National scoring of new and renewal Platinum applications is also underway.

Over the Autumn the ACCEA Chair and Medical Director will have a meeting with each of the English regional sub-committees and the Welsh committee.

As explained above some new applications will then be rescored at national level (NRES). ACCEA’s Platinum committee will consider new and renewal Platinum applications in the light of the national scoring.

ACCEA’s main Committee will meet towards the end of 2015 to decide on its recommendations to Ministers for new awards and renewals.

Applicants will receive notifications about the success or otherwise of their applications around the turn of the year.

As usual the list of successful new and renewal applications will be posted on the ACCEA website and for the first time in 2015, in the interests of transparency, the full applications of those individuals will also be placed on the website.

6. Local appeals in process at June 2014

From the publication of the 2014 Guidance on 16 June 2014 ACCEA no longer accepted at national level any appeal against an Employer Based Awards decision, if that appeal had been lodged locally after 16 June.

It is possible that a small number of individuals had a local appeal in process at 16 June 2014 and might have wished to take an unsuccessful local appeal for further consideration at national level. The following two specific provisions are therefore being made available:

• a consultant who had a local appeal in process at 16 June 2014 and heard that they had been successful after that date can, if they wish, submit an appeal to ACCEA at national level, provided that they do so by 31 August 2015

• a consultant who had a local appeal in process at 16 June 2014 and has not yet heard the outcome may if they are unsuccessful, and wish to do so, appeal to ACCEA at national level. Any such appeal would need to be received within four weeks of the notification of the outcome of the local appeal.