Designing, recruiting and embedding specialist roles
Why the specialist grade is important
The specialist grade provides a career progression opportunity for highly-experienced specialty doctors and is a workforce solution to improve retention.
This practical step-by-step resource supports employers to identify workforce need, create specialist posts, recruit fairly and successfully embed roles to support career progression, retention and high-quality patient care.
Decide whether there is a need for a specialist role.
Identify whether there is a need to create a specialist role within your organisation.
Consider:
- workforce gaps or rota pressures
- retention of experience SAS doctors
- new or expanding services
- existing vacant or hard
Plan and assess the benefits of the role
Review your clinical and workforce needs and consider how a specialist role could support service delivery. Think about the benefits the role could bring in terms of capacity, efficiency, recruitment and retention.
Use our guidance on the establishment and introduction of the specialist role in England to support your decision-making.
Consider:
- whether hard-to
- how increasing the number of autonomous doctors could help address waiting lists and service pressures
- whether the specialist role could support service transformation and workforce redesign
- the potential impact on recruitment, retention and succession planning.
Engage and promote the SAS career pathway.
Before creating a post, ensure stakeholders understand the value of the specialist role. Consider how you can promote SAS career pathways and increase awareness of progression opportunities.
You should:
- highlight development opportunities, including leadership, management, teaching, academic and research roles.
- engage with the SAS workforce and participate in initiatives that promote SAS careers
- promote opportunities for autonomous practice and recognise the contribution SAS doctors make to patient care
- work with key stakeholders, including SAS advocates, SAS tutors, clinical leads and Local Negotiating Committee (LNC) representatives.
Define the specialist post
The specialist grade provides a progression opportunity for highly experienced specialty doctors and can help organisations recruit, motivate and retain senior clinicians.
Things to remember when defining your new post:
- Design the role around local service needs.
- Clearly define the scope of practice and level of autonomy.
- Highlight opportunities in leadership, teaching, service improvement and education.
- Map the role to the specialist generic capabilities framework.
- Use national templates and supporting resources where available.
- Use this guidance from the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges on leadership development.
Gather evidence and identify suitable candidates.
Gather evidence and identify suitable candidates.
Consider how existing talent within your organisation could progress into specialist roles.
- assess workforce gaps, vacancies and service requirements.
- review where there are already several highly-experienced specialty doctors and associate specialists. Does the headcount of the department need to remain the same? Is there a need to retain talent within the department and/or team?
- ensure the candidate can evidence required skills ensuring their portfolio is mapped to the generic capabilities framework (opens a PDF).
- review portfolios to confirm they meet the required standards.
Recruit to the specialist role.
When recruiting:
- advertise specialist roles internally in the first instance to support career progression and retention
- ensure candidates meet the specialist generic capabilities framework and the person specification
- use the specialist grade appointment guidance and supporting evidence templates
- follow local recruitment policies and procedures.
Select the successful candidate for the specialist role
Use a fair, robust and transparent selection process.
This should include:
- a structured panel process
- capability-based assessment and scoring
- consistent evaluation criteria
- transparent decision-making.
Embed the specialist role
The successful introduction of a specialist role requires effective planning and support.
Consider:
- agreeing an appropriate job plan.
- integrating the role into existing rota arrangements.
- clarifying responsibilities, accountability and autonomy.
- providing support as the individual transitions into the role.
Sustain and develop the role
Specialist roles can support career progression, workforce retention and service improvement when they continue to be developed over time.
Consider:
- annual appraisal and ongoing professional development
- leadership and career development opportunities
- continued capability development
- monitoring the impact of the role on service delivery and patient care
- supporting retention of experienced clinicians within the organisation.
