RCPCH approach

The College is designing and implementing a system to support specialist revalidation that will command the confidence of the public, the GMC and the doctors who participate.    Use the links to move to the relevant section.

• Setting specialty requirements
• Advice and guidance for paediatricians
• Academy funded revalidation projects
• Department of Health/Revalidation Support Team (RST) pilots
• Academy working groups involvement
• Consultations with members
• Revalidation Development Committee

Setting specialty requirements for revalidation

The Revalidation Development Committee (RDC), specialty advisory committees and specialty forum have developed paediatric specialty supporting information for revalidation in line with GMC and Academy of Medical Royal Colleges expectations.

Doctors must collect supporting information for revalidation.

Appraisers will assess doctors' supporting information at annual appraisals.

The College's  revalidation overview.pdf (11 pages, 149 KB) and  supporting information guidance.pdf (12 pages, 83 KB) were both updated in August 2011 following consultation, piloting and feedback.  They will undergo further testing in 2011/12.

Advice and guidance for paediatricians

To manage the range of queries and to ensure consistency of responses across paediatrics, queries from paediatricians, appraisees, appraisers, Responsible Officers and others should initially be submitted by email to the revalidation team. The query will then be directed to the Revalidation lead or committee at the College for response.

Over time, as guidance and knowledge is developed and training can be provided, it is anticipated that the College will use a network of advisers to provide support and guiddance at local level to paediatricians, supplemented by written material.

Academy funded revalidation projects

The College has received external funding for some aspects of revalidation. Current Academy-funded work includes:

• Development of an online e-system for revalidation (project began Jan 2010)
• Review, modification and piloting of the Paediatric Carers of Children Feedback (PaedCCF) tool (project completed July 2011)
• Review and upgrade of online CPD for use in revalidation (project completed May 2010)
• Member consultation (see below)

Department of Health/Revalidation Support Team (RST) revalidation pilots

The College was involved in an England-wide pilot of revalidation processes, coordinated by the RST, to review appropriateness of strengthened medical appraisal and revalidation standards.

The RST selected several NHS pilot sites for a series of 'pathfinder pilots' running from January 2010 - April 2012, to test:

• Strengthened appraisal training for revalidation;
• Collection of supporting information against GMC and specialty standards for revalidation;
• Assessment at strengthened appraisals of supporting information against GMC and specialty revalidation standards;
• Use of strengthened appraisal forms to record outcomes of appraisals;
• Use of an online revalidation pilots appraisal toolkit for collection of supporting information and completed appraisal forms;
• Ability of a Responsible Officer to make a decision to recommend a doctor for revalidation (or not) based on information resulting from appraisals.

A range of specialties and sectors with different working patterns were involved in the pilots.

Individual Colleges/Faculties acted as observers on pilot project boards, feeding back key issues and challenges to the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges (AoMRC).

Academy revalidation working groups involvement

The Academy of Medical Royal Colleges and the GMC are leading on the development of revalidation. Several interlocking groups work on this and the College has a member representative on most groups who acts as liaison between the RDC and their working group. Working groups have covered, or continue to cover:

• Appraisal and advisor guidance
• Continuing Professional Development
• Clinical audit requirements
• Medical note keeping and revalidation
• Multisource feedback (peer and patient)
• Non clinical work standards
• Quality assurance of revalidation
• Remediation
• Return to work
• Revalidation online portfolio
• Specialty guidance frameworks

Consultations with members

Work to consult with members on revalidation includes:

• Revised supporting information for paedatrics - carried out in July & August 2011

• E-survey of College members -October 2008  See summary of responses to member survey.doc (6 pages, 61 KB)

• Focus group with College members - carried out 22 July 2009 at RCPCH London. Go to focus group 2009 report summary.doc (7 pages, 67 KB).

Revalidation Development Committee

The Revalidation Development Committee (RDC) membership comprises College Officers, Chair of Clinical Standards Committee and College Directors. The Committee is chaired by Dr Alistair Thomson, Vice President (Education) and Revalidation lead. Go to Revalidation Development Committee terms of reference.doc (2 pages, 36 KB).

The Committee oversees all areas of work around revalidation and ensures the College fulfils its aims and objectives in this area:

• Encourage all Members and Fellows continually to improve their practice.
• Allow those who are working at acceptable levels to recertify without undue difficulty or stress.
• Command the confidence of patients, the public and the profession.
• Be affordable and flexible, starting simple to allow further development.
• Use existing tools, College standards and processes where appropriate.
• Equitable across the specialty, independent of differing areas of practice, working environments and geographical location within and outside the UK.
• Designed to allow early warning of potential failure so remedial action can be taken.
• Identify those whose practice falls below acceptable levels and give advice and monitoring to allow revalidation to be reconsidered.