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Consultant programmed activities survey

This survey and related reporting are currently on hold while NES reviews the reporting requirements and suitable methods for data collection. More information in Limitations below.

Overview

A consultant job plan is a prospective agreement that sets out a consultant's duties, responsibilities and objectives for the coming year. The duties performed by each consultant are called Programmed Activities (PAs), and can be categorised under four types: Direct Clinical Care (including out of hours), Supporting, Additional, and Extra. 

Data for consultants PAs has been provided annually through a survey completed by NHS Boards from 2005 to 2019. This survey collects aggregated information by medical specialty and PA type for the number of consultants in post at 30 September. 

What data are published

These survey data are used to report the following aggregated information by medical specialty and PA type for consultants in post at 30 September. 

  • the whole time equivalent (WTE) of consultants with a signed-off job plan, and
  • the number of PAs signed off by type.

These data are released annually in December as part of the NHSScotland Workforce official statistics publication.

There are a number of known issues with this collection and reporting (see quality assurance section below).

Background

The duties performed by each consultant are called Programmed Activities (PAs) and can be categorised under four types: Direct Clinical Care, Supporting, Additional, and Extra. 

  • Direct Clinical Care Professional Activities (DCCPA): any work that involves the delivery of clinical services and administration directly related to them, and the sessions in out of hours.
  • Supporting Professional Activities (SPA): time spent continuing professional development and teaching and training.
  • Additional Programmed Activities (APA): responsibilities in addition to DCCPA and SPA
  • Extra Programmed Activities (EPA): external duties that are not done directly for the NHS.

Usually, each PA equates to four hours. So if a consultant is working full time (40 hours / week), they will have 10 PAs across DCCPA and SPA. Duties under EPA and APA are considered in addition to your contracted number of PAs. 

Further information

An overview of job planning is available at the British Medical Association.

Quality assurance and limitations

Quality assurance

A number of steps are in place to ensure that these data are reported accurately.

  1. A survey is circulated to NHS Boards in mid-September each year. Boards are asked to complete and return it to NES by the send of October. In the survey, NES provides each Board with a breakdown of the number of consultants by medical specialty in post at 31 August as recorded in SWISS as a guide.

  2. Once these data have been returned to NES, each survey is checked for any errors during completion and compared with previous figures for consistency. When required, NES will raise any potential data issues with data providers.

  3. Once data received are confirmed as accurate, these data are processed and used to populate an Excel table. The table is then checked to ensure the values are shown accurately and any additional data quality or interpretation notes are provided.

Limitations

There are a number of known issues with this data collection.

  • Whilst job plans are reviewed and agreed annually, NHS Boards undertake this process at different times. The survey collects data at a census date which means it may falls between the Boards' different planning cycles and may not provide a consistent picture across Scotland. 

  • Significant time and effort is required by personnel in NHS Boards to complete the survey. Some Boards use an electronic system to manage and record the job planning done locally. However, this system does not capture the detail currently required to complete the survey, therefore it needs to be used in conjunction with other data sources. The variety in methods used to complete the survey poses issues for data consistency.

  • The data return has mostly been the same since its inception (2005). A review into the key requirements for reporting these data is required to make sure the output is still relevant and adds value to our end users. 

This survey and related reporting are therefore currently on hold while NES reviews the reporting requirements and reliable method for data collection. There has been a delay in this process due to the COVID-19 pandemic affecting resourcing.