Three levels of award are available in England, from lowest to highest: National 1, National 2 and National 3 (N1, N2, N3). In Wales, a lower level (National 0) also exists. The awards are held by the successful applicants for five years and have an annual, non-pensionable value of £10,000 (N0), £20,000 (N1), £30,000 (N2), £40,000 (N3).
Timeline for 2026 round
| 1 April 2026 | Applications opened |
|---|---|
| 20 May 2026, 17:00 | Applications closed |
| Early 2027 | Notifications sent to successful applicants and finance processes initiated to pay awards |
| Early 2027 | Appeals window opens |
Who can apply
Doctors can apply for a new award at any time after completing a full year in an eligible role as a fully registered medical practitioner.
If you already hold a Clinical Excellence Award granted under the old scheme, transitional arrangements apply in England between the old and the new schemes.
See more details about eligibility on ACCIA web pages
How to register and apply
You can register on the ACCIA's online portal at any time, but you will only be able to start your application once the application window opens. The applications window is currently closed.
If registering for the first time, select New to the system | Register and complete the form as a Contact of an Existing Employer. If your employer is not listed, contact accia@dhsc.gov.uk. You will receive an email with your login details and be asked to create a password. (Please note RCPCH has no access to the ACCIA’s online portal and will not be able to assist you.)
Your application needs to show what you have delivered that has had an impact at a national level, exceeding the expectations defined in your job plan.
There are five domains, against which you should explain your contributions with supporting evidence:
- Developing and delivering a high-quality service
- Improving the NHS through leadership
- Education, training and people development
- Innovation and research
- Additional impact - in which you can provide other evidence, particularly if it relates to published NHS or other relevant health objectives.
In all of the domains, you should consider providing evidence of national impact relating to equality, diversity and inclusion.
You must not repeat information from other domains. Duplicated evidence will not be scored.
See applicants' guide for 2026 awards round on ACCIA web pages
Significant changes
ACCIA made some significant changes to the processes and policy as of the 2025 round, following a consultation in 2024. In summary:
- Employer citations/statements - These will no longer be required, instead ACCIA will ask a series of questions to confirm that the contents of the form are correct and the applicant is meeting their contractual obligations.
- Care Quality Commission/Health Inspectorate Wales ratings - Applicants will no longer be asked to provide these although they can still comment on their impact on such ratings in their domain evidence if they wish.
- Timing of award payments - All new awards granted in the 2025 round will commence 1 April 2026 and run for five years from that date. This will harmonise all awards granted in any given year, making re-application timing consistent and easier to understand.
How the level of the award is decided
ACCIA has a single online application form for all awards. ACCIA’s regional sub-committees and its main committee will recommend applicants for national awards to health ministers to approve.
The level of award recommended depends on the scores given by the ACCIA committees after a careful review of the evidence in each application. The relative ranking of all applicants determines who gains which award level based on the number of awards available at each award level.
Support for applications
Previously, accredited Membership Organisations (MOs) such as RCPCH were allowed to provide a limited number of citations to support applicants. As of 2023, this is no longer available.
As such, we cannot provide supporting citations to members' applications to NCIA.
Tips for your application
- For each of the five domains, refer to the national impact of your work. If there is international impact, explain the direct benefit to the NHS's reputation or to the wider UK health economy
- Include specific dates for each evidence you use
- Include different evidence and detail for each of the domains. Repetition is not recommended as you can only gain a score for a specific activity once
- Provide evidence only from the last five years and date all the evidence
- Have a job plan that is clear, both in terms of time allocated and employer, particularly for a clinical academic who has both University and NHS responsibilities
- Explain all acronyms and abbreviations
- As an applicant, you can receive support from as many Membership Organisations (MOs) as you wish. That includes this webpage and other RCPCH resources and resources from other MOs. You should indicate which organisations you sought advice from
- Remember that MOs (including RCPCH) cannot provide citations to applicants
- ACCIA has given an example for Domain 2: Leadership, which you may find helpful - you can download the leadership domain example below
Nominal roll
The Advisory Committee on Clinical Impact Awards (ACCIA) publishes an annual nominal roll of all consultants in receipt of a national Clinical Excellence Award, Clinical Impact Award or Distinction Award in England and Wales. The nominal roll lists all active award holders and is updated annually.
See the most recent nominal roll on the ACCIA web page
See personal statements from 2025 award holders detailing their work and achievements
Any questions?
You should find everything you need to help you on the ACCIA home page – and if you have any questions that are not covered, you can contact ACCIA at accia@dhsc.gov.uk.
If you have any questions for the RCPCH team, please contact ncia@rcpch.ac.uk – we will answer them if we can!