Guidance

[Withdrawn] Applicants' guide: 2023 awards round

Updated 11 May 2023

This guidance was withdrawn on 8 May 2024

This guidance has been withdrawn because it’s no longer current. For up-to-date information, see Clinical Impact Awards: guidance.

Applies to England and Wales

About this guide

This guide is for NHS consultants and academic GPs who want to apply for a new national Clinical Impact Award (NCIA), previously the national Clinical Excellence Awards (NCEA).

It covers the 2023 national Clinical Impact Awards competition in England and Wales and tells you:

• how the award scheme works
• who is eligible to apply
• how to apply for an award
• how your application is scored
• how to appeal

Please read this guide before you start preparing your application. We have also created a useful quick guide you can refer to as you put your application together - you can find all guides on the home page of the Advisory Committee on Clinical Impact Awards (ACCIA).

If you’re based in Wales

If you’re based in Wales, you’ll find anything extra you need to know in the boxes throughout this guide.

Sending us your application

Please send us your application by 5pm on 5 May 2023. Any applications received after this will not be considered.

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 us at accia@dhsc.gov.uk.

Part 1: introduction

About ACCIA and the Clinical Impact Awards scheme

The Advisory Committee on Clinical Impact Awards (ACCIA) runs the national Clinical Impact Awards scheme for the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) in England. 

The Advisory Committee provides governance for the awards for the Welsh Government in Wales. 

Health ministers agree a limited number (up to 600) of new awards each year in England, so the selection process is very competitive. 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 last for 5 years and have an annual, non-pensionable value of £10,000 (N0), £20,000 (N1), £30,000 (N2), £40,000 (N3).

You can apply for a new award at any time after you have completed a full year in an eligible role. 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.

To be considered, your application needs to show what you have delivered that has had an impact at a national level, over and above the expectations defined in your job plan.

There are 5 domains for you to tell us about your contributions and provide supporting evidence:

1. Developing and delivering a high-quality service.
2. Improving the NHS through leadership.
3. Education, training, and people development.
4. Innovation and research.
5. 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.

There is a single online application form for all awards, so every applicant can highlight their contributions in the same way.

Based on the strength of applications, our regional sub-committees and our main committee will recommend applicants for national awards to health ministers, for them to approve. The level of award recommended depends on the scores given by our committees after 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.

Impact of transitional arrangements

Transitional arrangements only apply to applicants in England whose NCEAs are expiring after 2023. In Wales there are no transitional arrangements, however award holders may still be eligible for pension protection and should contact their employer in the first instance for further information.

Schedule 30 of the consultant contract in England provides transitional pay protection for existing NCEA holders. This protection is costly, peaking at over £30 million in 2025 to 2026, and this has an impact on the funding available for new awards in the transitional period.

Applicants should review the details of the transitional arrangements carefully and discuss their personal circumstances with their employers if they have any questions. Any questions relating to awards that employers cannot answers can be put to ACCIA.

The cost of pay protection means we have had to alter some elements of the scheme for the transitional period, with any adjustments made each year if possible. For example, although NCIAs will ultimately be able to be held concurrently with local awards, this is not yet affordable. Also, the numbers of NCIAs granted at each level may vary during the transition period. All these arrangements will be reviewed on an ongoing basis.

Local award schemes are managed by individual employers in England, more information can be found on the NHS Employers website. In Wales, employers give commitment awards. You can find more about these in from Welsh health boards.

More details on the transitional arrangements are in the annex. NCEA holders and their employers should read these carefully.

What the national scheme rewards

The national scheme rewards consultants or academic GPs who deliver national impact above the expectations of their job role or other paid work. They specifically recognise the dissemination and implementation of that work and its impact on the wider NHS and public health. You do not need to hold any local award or a previous NCEA to be eligible to for a national impact award.

If you apply, you need to give evidence of impact across the 5 domains described above. Only the evidence in these domains is scored - the other parts of your application are not scored but provide context for the assessment of your evidence within the domains. These domains are described fully in part 5 of this guide.

Work in other countries is not directly relevant for an award, so is not considered on its own, but if you can show your overseas work has helped the NHS and the health of the public directly or has had a direct reputational benefit for the NHS overseas, it may be supported. We do not give awards for standalone overseas work. See ‘domain 5’ below for more details.

How we assess your application

We run the scheme fairly and openly, offering every applicant an equal opportunity, and we consider all applications on merit. We include our analysis of each year’s competition in our annual report.  

We assess all applications against the same criteria, which you can find in part 5 of this guide. You can also find also detailed guidance for assessors on how to judge applications against these criteria on our home page.

Our sub-committees are regional groups that assess applications for national awards for applicants in their area. Based on application workload and to balance diversity and provide a degree of external scrutiny across these committees, we reallocate some sub-committee members to score in other regions.  

There are 13 regional ACCIA sub-committees in England: 

• Cheshire and Mersey 

• East of England 

• East Midlands  

• London North East  

• London North West 

• London South  

• North East 

• North West  

• South 

• South East 

• South West 

• West Midlands 

• Yorkshire and Humber

There are separate sub-committees for: 

• DHSC and arm’s length bodies 

• assessing the highest-scoring regional applicants for N3 awards (N3)

• assessing applications for which the initial scores are tied at cut-off points or where governance queries arise - the National Reserve Sub-committee (NRES)

Wales has its own sub-committees.

The sub-committees consider all applications in their area, except for those from public health consultants and academic GPs contracted by NHS England. These are assessed by the DHSC or arm’s length body (ALB) sub-committee, where they can be benchmarked more easily. Each regional sub-committee is allocated an indicative number of awards at each level. This is based on the number of national awards available, proportionately distributed based on the number of applications received that year, in each region. This means there is an equal chance of achieving an NCIA in all regions. 

Sub-committee members come from a range of backgrounds, with experience and expertise in many different areas. They assess and score applications independently. All the individual scores for an application are averaged and then ranked against the other applications in that region. The top-scoring applications in each region are provisionally allocated an NCIA. To ensure the highest-level awards are granted to those making the greatest national impact, a separate N3 sub-committee will rescore all those from each region falling within the N3 indicative allocation, plus an equal number of applicants scoring highest in the N2 allocation. This rescoring provides a national benchmarking to determine who receives an N3 award.  

Each sub-committee is typically made up of:

• 50% - medical and dental professionals 

• 25% - non-medical professionals or lay members 

• 25% - employers 

Sub-committees may be divided into scoring groups to manage the workload. We ensure there is broadly equivalent diversity of scorers across these groups, to minimise any unconscious bias affecting the scoring.

Each group scores applications consistently against the guidance. We expect there to be up to 600 new NCIAs available each year in England, subject to ministerial agreement and funding impacts during the transitional period. Our ambition is to award 330 x N1, 200 x N2 and 70 x N3 awards each year at a value of £20,000, £30,000, and £40,000 respectively.

If you successfully gain an award, it will last 5 years, backdated to 1 April 2023. For NCEA holders under transitional arrangements, awards will last 5 years from 1 April 2024.

In Wales, the process for assessing applicants is different. Please contact Chantelle Herbert at the Wales Secretariat for more details hssworkforceod@gov.wales.

After regional sub-committee scoring has closed and the ranked list has been produced, our chair and medical director review all the provisionally successful N1 and N2 applications that are not being considered for an N3 award. After their review, applications where questions arise, or clarification may be helpful, are discussed at the regional sub-committee meetings as part of our quality and governance review. Applications where questions have not be resolved are referred to the National Reserve Sub-committee (NRES).

Applications that are tied at the cut-off point for N1 or between N1 and N2 awards are automatically referred for rescoring by NRES. NRES is made up of the chairs and medical vice-chairs of the regional sub-committees, plus other experienced scorers. As a committee of our most experienced scorers, NRES acts as an additional quality assurance mechanism. 

Our chair and medical director recommend applications for awards to our main committee, based on the sub-committee and NRES scores. 

Following scrutiny from our main committee, English recommendations go to DHSC ministers.

Recommendations from the Wales sub-committee go to Welsh ministers for final approval after scrutiny from main committee. 

If your award is approved, we will let you and your employer know.

Local awards and commitment awards

We do not have any say in local awards in England or commitment awards in Wales. For more information about these awards, please contact your employer.  

Running an open, transparent scheme

You will find information about us and the scheme on our ACCIA home page including:  

• a list of all national award holders 

• personal statements from people who have received a new award 

• the members of our main committee and our sub-committees 

• this complete guide and the quick guide to refer to when you apply  

• a ‘Guide for assessors’ about how to assess and score applications  

• a ‘Guide for employers’ to help them sign-off applications 

• annual reports about each awards round 

• summaries of the minutes for the main committee’s meetings 

If you have a disability

In line with the Equality Act 2010, employers must consider making reasonable adjustments for employees with disabilities. These are changes to things such as equipment or processes to make sure people with disabilities can do their job.  

If you have a disability, please include details about any reasonable adjustments you have agreed with your employer in your job plan.  

We treat all applications equally and use the same scoring criteria for everyone.  

Extenuating circumstances

If there are extenuating circumstances you believe may affect your ability to submit a successful application, please let us know as soon as possible before the application closing date, so we can support you and make sure your application is considered fairly. We cannot take any extenuating circumstances into account after you have submitted your application and it has been scored. 

Each case is treated on its own merits, and the outcomes from each one are based on the rules relating to the current scheme. If you apply for an award and believe there are extenuating circumstances, you can describe these in the job plan, personal statement and/or relevant domains of the application form.  

We understand that it can be difficult to share personal information. Our assessors receive specialist training on how to consider these types of circumstances, and any information you share will be treated with respect and in confidence. Extenuating circumstances should not put you off applying - let us know about them so the sub-committee can take them into account in the scoring.  

Part 2: check you are eligible

Who can apply for an award

You can apply for an NCIA if you are a fully registered medical or dental practitioner on the General Dental Council (GDC) specialist list or General Medical Council (GMC) specialist list, or GP register.

You need to:

• be fully registered with a licence to practise  

• have been a permanent NHS consultant or academic GP in a permanent clinical academic role in higher education at the same level as a senior lecturer or above

You must have met both of these conditions for at least one year, on 1 April in the award year in which you are applying.

The year does not include time spent as a locum, but you can give evidence from your achievements as a locum in the same role. For consultants in a locum role for more than one year, we may consider you eligible for an NCIA if your employer confirms you are employed on terms consistent with a permanent consultant contract. 

In all cases, you must be on an NHS consultant contract expressed in programmed activities (PAs), or on an academic contract expressed in an equivalent pay scale. 

Consultants working in Wales must be on an NHS consultant contract expressed in sessions or on an academic contract expressed in an equivalent pay scale.

If you’re not sure about your eligibility, please contact us at accia@dhsc.gov.uk.

Qualifying criteria

You will qualify if you are any of the following:

• employed by an NHS organisation (in England or Wales), DHSC or its arm’s length bodies, the Welsh Government or similarly associated Welsh Government organisations, a university, medical or dental school, or local authority. Applications from employees of other organisations may be eligible, including those on consultant contracts providing contracted out NHS services. Please contact us at accia@dhsc.gov.uk before you apply, if you need any clarification

In Wales, you will also qualify if you are employed by similar Welsh Government-associated organisations. 

• an academic GP, if your responsibilities are the same as consultant clinical academic staff and you are fully registered with a licence to practise. You can apply for awards if you:
  • work at least half your hours as an academic GP
  • are a practising clinician providing some direct NHS services
  • do at least 5 PAs or equivalent sessions that help the NHS, including teaching and clinical research
• a consultant or a dental practitioner with an honorary NHS contract, who is fully registered with a licence to practise. Whether you qualify for an award does not only depend on your contribution to the NHS in the provision of direct patient care. If you are a full-time academic consultant, you will qualify for an award if you carry out at least 5 programmed clinical activities or equivalent sessions that help the NHS. This includes teaching, training and clinical research. An applicant who works less than full time and does fewer than 3 programmed clinically relevant activities (PAs) is not eligible to apply for an award
• a fully registered public health consultant on the GMC specialist register, or on the GDC specialist list, with a licence to practise
• a postgraduate dean, fully registered with the GMC or GDC, with a licence to practise, who competed for the role against GPs and consultants, and is responsible for postgraduate trainees across all specialties
• a consultant or academic GP later employed as a dean or head of school in medicine or dentistry, fully registered with the GMC or GDC, with a licence to practise. You can apply for an award based on your work in this post
• a consultant, fully registered with the GMC or GDC, with a licence to practise, working as an NHS trust clinical or medical director, or a similar level medical manager post. If you are not sure if you are eligible, please contact us and we will assess your contractual contribution over-and-above your expected duties, as well as your contractual status. If the majority of your work is in a management role, you can still qualify if you have an active consultant contract with a specific clinical, or clinical leadership, role and continue to renew your licence to practise. If you move into general management and/or have a management contract outside the consultant pay scale, you are not eligible to apply for an award

As an NHS consultant, it does not make a difference if you have agreed to national terms and conditions of service, or other terms with an individual trust. 

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) runs its own award scheme, but we also recognise eligible NHS employee contributions, over-and-above the expected standards, to military medical and dental services. These are assessed by a separate MoD committee.

If you work less than full time (LTFT), you can apply for an award if you undertake a minimum of 3 clinically relevant contractual PAs. If you are eligible based on this minimum PA requirement and are successful, we will pay you the full award, but if you are LTFT and under transition from a NCEA based on legacy award values, you will receive a pro-rated award.   

Our chair and medical director determine ‘clinically relevant’ eligibility by considering clinical care, teaching, training and clinical research PAs in job plans.

Retirement: things you need to let us know

If you retire and cease any work for the NHS in a substantive or honorary consultant role you are no longer eligible for an award. Your award will be paid up until the last day of employment.

If you retire during an awards round before we announce the results, we will take this to mean that you have withdrawn your application unless you are returning to work without any employment gap and maintaining the same job plan.

If your NCEA would have been due to renew in 2023 and you expect to retire up to 6 months after your award is due to expire in March 2023, because of changes in pension legislation from 1 April 2023 we will no longer consider extending your award. We will need to confirm if your award will be valid until you retire. If your retirement plans change, please let us know as soon as possible, as we may need to review or withdraw your award.

NCEAs are consolidated with your pension, which means it is taken into account when your pension is calculated. Because of changes in pension legislation from 1 April 2023, these awards no longer automatically stop if you retire or claim your pension after that point. If you take all or part of your pension (from the NHS Pension Scheme, Universities Superannuation Scheme or transferred-out benefits), you may still qualify for your existing NCEA or transitional arrangement protected NCIA if you remain otherwise eligible. We will review your new job plan and may shorten the period before your NCEA expires. If you have an employment gap and do not immediately recommence a new eligible contract your award will cease. If you then subsequently return to work on a permanent NHS consultant contract, retaining or regaining full registration with a licence to practise, you can apply for a new NCIA based on work delivered after you retired.

NCIAs are not consolidated with pensions. If you retire with an NCIA, your award will end as you are no longer eligible. If you retire in receipt of an NCIA that is not subject to any transitional NCEA arrangements and you return to work without a gap between your employment and your new contract, we may shorten the period before your NCIA expires. We will aim to allow you at least a year in your new role to retain your NCIA, but it will not be extended if it was due to expire within a year of you returning to work. If there is a gap between your retirement and returning employment contracts, your award will cease, and you will need to apply for a new award based on work delivered after you returned.

If you hold an NCIA and expect to retire up to 6 months after your award is due to expire, we will not extend your existing award.

Flexible retirement or partial drawdown of pension benefits

As of 1 April 2023 if you begin receiving pension benefits up to 100% of your allowance, but continue in eligible employment, your award will continue until its scheduled expiry date, provided you continue to meet the standard eligibility criteria. You must inform us of any changes to your contract agreed as part of any such arrangement, and as per other job plan changes there may be an impact on the duration of your award.

Holders of NCEAs, or NCIA holders subject to transition arrangements, who reduce their contracted PAs with their employer will have their award paid pro-rata in the same way as any award holder working less than full time.

For example:

• if you drawdown pension benefits and make a small reduction in your contracted PAs, we may pro-rate your award accordingly
• if you drawdown pension benefits and make a significant reduction in your contracted PAs and job plan, we may shorten the duration of your award and ask you to re-apply early
• if you drawdown pension benefits and make a significant reduction in your contracted PAs which takes you below the minimum eligibility requirements, we will cease your award

If you agree a combination of pensionable and non-pensionable PAs with your employer, the total PAs determine your eligibility for an award.

Reasons you may not be eligible for an award

You are not eligible to apply for an award if you are:  

• not on the consultant pay scale as expressed in programmed activities or an equivalent 

• a locum consultant - if you become a permanent consultant, you can potentially use evidence from your locum role in your application, if it is relevant 

• a consultant who primarily works in general management, such as a chief executive, general manager, chief operating officer, or a senior university office-holder, without a clinically relevant role 

• not fully registered with a licence to practise

Investigations into your work and disciplinary or legal action against you can affect your award or application. This includes interim, temporary, or final court orders, or penalties relating to your professional or personal conduct that may reflect badly on your judgement, or the expected standards of the profession. You must let us know about any investigations or sanctions by your employer or professional regulator (GMC or GDC) and their progression, interim and final decisions and any sanctions. We will look at each case individually, but we may remove your award if there are adverse outcomes following investigations or disciplinary measures, or if we believe you have failed to notify us appropriately, or in a timely manner. If this happens, you will need to pay back any over payments. See part 3 for more details. 

We ask about your organisation’s latest inspection outcome. If you work in a trust in special measures, we expect you to comment on any relevance of this to your role. We will also ask your employer to check that they are happy with your response when they sign off your application. If you are on the board of a trust in special measures and you are recommended for an award, we will inform our main committee. 

Part 3: how to apply

Filling in your application

You must fill in your own application form - nobody else can do it for you. 

You will need to apply online at the new ACCIA application portal.

You may find it helpful to draft and amend your application before you apply by downloading a copy of the form, this will be available shortly on the ACCIA home page.

When you apply, please select the NHS or arm’s length body that holds your substantive or honorary contract, so that the right sub-committee considers your application. If you give the wrong trust or organisation, your application may not be considered for an award. If you are employed by more than one body, please state all your employers, being clear which is your main employer based on your salary. 

Getting support for your application

We cannot accept applications without sign-off from your employers. They will need to complete the shortened part 2 of your application. This requires joint sign-off from all employers if you have more than one. 

If you work for a university, the chief executive of the trust where you hold an honorary contract, or their nominated deputy, should complete this section. It is ACCIA’s expectation that both the relevant NHS organisation and the university or medical school will be involved in the approval process, and the preparation of any supporting citation, and that an up-to-date job plan has been agreed by both parties - please see the following section for further information.

Employers are expected to have processes that ensure equality and diversity. They should have a balanced representation of applicants from their consultant staff.

Many membership and specialty organisations can provide assistance and general guidance with applications using tools made available to them by ACCIA. Organisations must not proofread, review or directly critique any part of an application. You can indicate on your form if you have sought advice from any such organisations.

From 2023 the process of some applicants receiving citations and rankings from these organisations (previously known as National Nominating Organisations) has been discontinued. This is because the favouring of some applicants by allowing the inclusion of additional information, does not align with ACCIA’s equality objectives.

How appraisals fit into the process

To qualify for an award, you must have an annual appraisal. Your employer must confirm whether you have done this in the 12 months before your application. If you have not, they should confirm that every reasonable effort was made to conduct one. We recognise that your appraisal may have been delayed by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic or another exceptional situation - if this is the case, the reason that no appraisal occurred needs to be stated. 

We do not need information about the appraisal, but your employer must confirm that you:  

• took part in the appraisal process 

• took part in job planning 

• met the terms of your contract 

• followed the ‘Private Practice Code of Conduct’ where relevant 

You may have met the standard for job planning even if you do not have an agreed job plan. For example, if mediation is taking place. Explain this to your employer if they are delaying their sign-off for this reason.

Telling us about investigations or disciplinary action

On your application form, you must tell us if: 

• you are being investigated about your work by your employer, the GMC or GDC 

• you are going through local disciplinary procedures (trust or university)

• successful legal action has been taken against you for your clinical practice, where you admitted responsibility or were found guilty in court 

• there are any civil or legal proceedings against you which reflect upon your behaviour, judgement or professional standing and may subsequently be referred to the GMC or GDC 

• you have faced any of these things in the last 5 years

The information you need to give includes: 

• any investigations by external bodies, such as GMC, GDC or the National Clinical Assessment Service (NCAS) 

• restrictions on your practice 

• complaints against your performance or behaviour that your employer is formally investigating

• the results of any finished investigations

We will record this information, but it will not be available to assessors and will not have a negative effect on your score. 

For live investigations, we adopt an ‘innocent unless proven otherwise’ approach. We may choose to wait until the investigations are over to review the outcome of your application. If we do this and then give you an award, we will backdate it to when it would have been awarded, if we did not wait until the end of the investigations.

If you start to be investigated or go through disciplinary procedures after you apply and before we announce the awards, you must tell us immediately.

If you do not tell us about any such issues, we will be concerned about your commitment to transparency and we reserve the right to cancel your application or withdraw your award.

The timetable for national awards

You must submit your online national Clinical Impact Award application to us by 5pm on 5 May 2023. You will not be able to apply after this, regardless of the reason that you missed the deadline.

The indicative timetable for the 2023 national awards round is below. This may change based on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and other operational factors. We will review it regularly:

• 10 March to 5 May 2023 - applications open
• 9 May to 29 June 2023 - first round scoring
• 3 July to 4 September 2023 - N3 scoring
• 3 July to 6 November 2023 - governance review
• 5 September to 6 November 2023 - NRES scoring
• end November 2023 - main committee finalisation of recommendations
• December 2023 - recommendations to and sign off by ministers
• mid-January 2024 - notifications sent to successful applicants and finance processes initiated to back pay awards
• mid-January to mid-February 2024 - appeals window open

Things to do when you apply

Start your application early enough to allow time to get sign off from your employer and engage with any relevant local trust, nominating organisation or university processes. Make your employer aware you are applying so they are able to sign-off your application in good time.

When you fill in your application form, follow the steps in this guide.

Give clear dates for your achievements - if the dates are not clear, it will bring your score down.

Concentrate on evidence from the last 5 years and make it clear what you have achieved since any prior award (if relevant) and how your work has progressed since then.

If your last award was less than 5 years ago, give evidence since your last award and be clear about what you have achieved since then.

If your last award was more than 5 years ago, concentrate on evidence from the last 5 years.

Do not ‘cut and paste’ information from previous applications - assessors compare new and older applications and will check for repeated information. Do not repeat the same evidence in different domains. It will only receive credit from the assessors once.

Write society and group names in full; avoid acronyms because sub-committee members (particularly lay members) reading the application may not be familiar with them. The same applies to the names of committees and other ‘medical’ abbreviations, such as those used for diseases, operative procedures, specialist services, pathological processes, or diagnostic techniques.

Do not include any website addresses or other external links to additional information. You must stay within the character limit for each domain and not seek to gain an advantage by linking to additional external evidence. Scorers will not access or score evidence that is not on the application form itself.

Give measurable and externally validated information such as outcome data or other quality metrics wherever you can and quote the dates, source and relevant benchmarks.

You must explain the impact you had. Simply holding a position such as an ‘officer’ in a college or specialist society, or serving as a member of a committee, will not in itself justify an award - the national impact needs to be clear and temporally related to the period during which you did this work.

Use a new line for each entry and consider using bullet points to make the information clearer and easier to read but avoid merely providing a series of lists of activities or roles with no reference to impact.

Check with your employer that they have a registered contact on the ACCIA portal before you submit your application, otherwise they may not be notified it is awaiting their sign off.

We may ask for more information if anything is unclear in your application.

If there are special circumstances that could affect your application, like ill health, tell us as soon as possible before the deadline, as we may consider extending your award.  

Each step of your application

Step 1 - sign in

You can register on the ACCIA portal at any time but will only be able to start your application when the application window is open. If registering for the first time, select ‘new to the system’ and complete the form as a ‘Contact of an Existing Employer’. If your employer is not listed, contact us at accia@dhsc.gov.uk. You will get an email with your login details and be asked to set up a password.

Step 2 - privacy notice

You need to agree to how we collect, process and store your information.

Step 3 - start your application

Select ‘Apply for a Clinical Impact Award’ and the ‘2023 Award Round’  or ‘In Progress’ application if you are logging in again to continue editing. 

Step 4 - complete your applicant profile

This information is for our monitoring purposes. Some information is not visible to scorers to minimise any unconscious or other bias. You need to add your: 

• personal and contact details 

• GMC and/or GDC registration 

• current employment details for your primary NHS employer and primary non-NHS employer, if you have one 

• pension scheme membership and if you are an academic/teaching consultant 

• background and diversity details 

Speciality data and details of medical qualification and registration will be collected from the GMC register for monitoring purposes but not made visible to those scoring applications at any point.

You can save your work at any time using the button in the middle of the screen.

You will need to complete and submit your profile before you are able to submit your application.

Step 5 - your application details

Complete the ‘Details’ tab with the following information:

• your consultant appointments in date order 

• any post-graduate qualifications stating the year you qualified and which institution you studied at 

• any current national award, and which level 

• if you received a new national Clinical Excellence Award at any level in 2018, 2019 or 2021

• your registration and licencing status 

• your personal statement, including details of any organisation that has advised you in developing your application, along with your permission for us to publish it, if you are successful 

• if your primary employer is in England or Wales 

• if you have taken any part of your pension or retired and returned to work, giving us the dates that you did so 

• if your most recent national award was withdrawn 

• if you are also applying for a local award in 2023

Save your work frequently using the button at the bottom of the page. You will need to have completed all the mandatory fields before you can submit your application.

Step 6 - your job plan

Use the ‘Job Plan’ tab to tell us: 

• the number of direct clinical care, academic, supporting professional activities, additional programmed activities, and total programmed activities that are specified in your agreed job plan. Round PA numbers up or down to the one decimal point and provide more specific details, if needed, in the text

• the activities you do for each of your programmed activities, including any changes in the last 5 years 

• any other sessions you are paid for

• any sessions you are not paid for 

• any additional income from any wider role outside your job plan - if you have additional income, explain how it relates to the evidence in your application (or not)

Step 7 - domains

Provide your evidence for each of the 5 domains. They are:

• domain 1: delivering and developing a high quality service
• domain 2: leadership 
• domain 3: education, training and people development 
• domain 4: innovation and research - this should include up to 10 of your most significant publications, whether web-based or multi-media outputs, and up to 5 reviews and textbooks 
• domain 5: additional national impact – here, tell us about high-quality work with nationally or internationally recognised impact that has a direct benefit to the NHS 

You can find more detail on what a good submission for each domain looks like and some helpful examples in part 5 of this guide.

Step 8 - ratings and inspections

Here we need to know if your employer has been inspected by either the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in England or Health Education and Improvement Wales (HEIW) in Wales, and if so, the date of the inspection, the rating and your role in the ratings and any improvement plans.

If they have not been inspected or have been rated differently, tell us the details.

You will need to confirm that the information you have is provided is accurate to the best of your knowledge. 

Step 9 - submit your application for review by your employer

Click ‘Submit’ in the bottom right corner to send your application to your employer. If you work for a university, this should be the nominated person at the trust where you hold an honorary contract, that you named in step 1.

Your employer will be asked to confirm: 

• if your application is supported or not supported - if it is not supported, they will be asked to explain why 

• that you are working to professional and personal conduct standards 

• that you have had a formal appraisal in the last 12 months agreed a job plan, fulfilled your contractual obligations, and complied with the Private Practice Code of Conduct 

• if they are aware of any disciplinary or professional proceedings or investigations inside or outside the trust - if so what they are 

They will also be asked to provide a citation commenting on the merits of your application and your work towards meeting the trust’s objectives.

If your employer feels there should be any changes before they complete their section, they can return your application to you. If they do this, you will receive notes explaining their reasoning. 

An automatic notification will be sent to your employer when you submit your application for them to complete their section, however we strongly advise that you inform the appropriate person or persons by other means that this has been done to ensure the form is completed in good time.

Step 10 - review your employer’s section

Once your employer has completed their section, they will send your application back to you to review. If you feel your employer’s section needs amending, discuss any proposed changes with them and contact accia@dhsc.gov.uk.

Step 11 - submit your application

When all sections, including the employer section, are complete, you are ready to submit your application. After you submit it you cannot change it so please check that you are happy with all aspects.

Your application is not submitted until this final section has been completed, even if both you and your employer have completed your sections. If you are unsure whether you have submitted your application properly please contact ACCIA.

If you find that you need to change something after it’s submitted, contact accia@dhsc.gov.uk.

Step 12 - after submission

Once your application is submitted, it will move from ‘In Progress’ to ‘Submitted’ on the landing page when you log into your account again.

Part 4: applying for a new award

Awards are granted for 5 years. You may apply at any time during the tenure of your NCIA award (if held), but you cannot resubmit anything that has already been included in a successful application. If you do not get a new award, you keep any existing NCIA and if you do get one, you are obliged to accept it. Holders of existing NCIAs must give up any unexpired NCIA, even if the new award is at a lower level.  

If you decide not to continue your application for an NCIA, you may withdraw your application at any point during the awards round until the award results are announced. Once award results are announced, the awards are granted. If you decide not to take up the award after the announcement, regardless if any of the award has been paid or not, we will consider you to have relinquished your award and your employer will still be notified that you have successfully been granted an award but have relinquished it.

You will be sent a reminder to apply for a new award in the year your NCIA ends. Your NCIA will expire in the year of the award round and payments will end on 31 March. Any payment for a subsequent award will be backdated to the expiry date of your prior award if you are successful. If you are not successful, no further NCIA payments will be made until you gain a new award, when payments will be backdated to 1 April of the year that your application is successful. 

Existing NCEA holders will be sent a reminder the year before their award expires to enable them to apply under transitional arrangements. If they apply in the year of expiry, transitional arrangements do not apply.

We rely on you to maintain an up-to-date email address in your ACCIA record. It is your responsibility to apply for your renewal at the right time. Once an award has ceased due to failure to re-apply it cannot be reinstated.

We can review the holding or duration of an awards at any time. For example, if: 

• you make significant changes to your job or job plan

• you face disciplinary action from external bodies like the GMC, GDC or NCAS

• you are taken to court and found guilty

You must inform ACCIA about any circumstances such as these.

Part 5: how your application is scored

Evidence of how your work has positively impacted the NHS in England or Wales

Clinical impact is about providing high-quality services to patients that go beyond your immediate remit, that improve clinical outcomes for as many patients as possible, use resources efficiently and make national services more productive.  

You need to show assessors evidence of how you made these services more efficient and productive, and improved quality at the same time, as well as demonstrating your role as an enabler and leader of health provision, prevention and policy development and implementation. 

Assessors need to be sure that your achievements are relevant. They need to know when they occurred, or if you are still doing these activities. It is essential that you make the dates of all your achievements clear, as without dates they will not receive any credit from assessors. 

Use the ‘domain’ section of the application form to give details of your achievements, as this is where they will be assessed. Only the domain section of the form is actually marked. All the other information provides context, triangulation and corroboration.

For the domain section: 

• you do not need to show you have achieved over-and-above expected standards in all 5 domains - a lot will depend on the type and nature of your post 

• you could get a national award based on an excellent local or regional contribution, if it has been disseminated and had an impact on the wider NHS 

• you should highlight the most important examples of your work focusing on its national and international impacts. Providing fewer examples with more detail is preferable to an extended list with limited evidence

• describe the impact you have had in any roles you list, including acknowledging the contribution of colleagues and other members of the multi-professional team 

• make it clear when your roles started and ended, or if they are ongoing

List your achievements against the original aims in your job plan or personal development plan. 

Do not include evidence you gave for an earlier award - unless it shows how you have built on or consolidated your previous achievements. 

Give quantified data, particularly outcome measures, that:  

• show what you have achieved since your last award, or over the last 5 years  

• include relevant dates, sources, and appropriate benchmarks

If your clinical work is subject to national audit processes, include this information, too.  

Committee members score the domain sections as follows: 

• 10 = your application is excellent with clear and sustained, national and or international impact 

• 6 = your work is over-and-above your contract terms and should have at least a regional impact, beyond your local area 

• 2 = you have met the terms of your contract or may have contributed more, but mainly within your locality 

• 0 = you have not met the terms of your contract, or there is not enough information to make a judgement

What to include in each domain

There are 5 domains. Group your achievements in line with each one and avoid repetition across domains, unless the evidence shows different aspects of your work that is relevant to the domain. In all cases, you must include dates. 

Do not include any website addresses or other external links to additional information. You must stay within the character limit for each domain and not seek to gain an advantage by linking to additional external evidence. Scorers will not access or score evidence that is not on the application form itself.

We recognise the extraordinary requirements of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the work that many healthcare workers have contributed. You may choose to include evidence related to this as part of your evidence over prior years. If you do, concentrate on the impact of your contributions over-and-above your expected role where it has had an impact outside of your immediate remit.

We recognise how important redeployment and extended hours and remits have been in COVID-19. These are broadly universal across the NHS. Although recognition will also be given for efforts made to maintain other key clinical services, research activities, and teaching and training during the COVID-19 pandemic period. If it is solely based on local work related to COVID-19, it is likely to be scored higher where you can demonstrate how it has had broad, and ideally, national impact. Remember to include other relevant work across the entire 5-year period in each domain.  

Domain 1: delivering and developing a high-quality service

In this section, give evidence of what you have achieved in relation to: 

• providing and developing a safe service with measurable, effective clinical outcomes, based on delivery of high technical and clinical standards of service that provide a good experience for patients, and how you have cascaded this more widely to colleagues who have implemented improvements based on your experience

• consistently looking for, and introducing, ways to improve your service; sharing the learning and seeing it embedded in wider NHS or national or international practice

Explain which activities relate to your clinical services where you are paid by the NHS, and to other aspects of your work as a consultant. 

Include quantified measures if you can - like outcome data. These need to reflect the whole service you and your multi-professional team provide and how you have collectively disseminated your experience. Use validated indicators for quality improvement or quality standards, and other reference data sources in England, or the Health and Care Standards for Wales, ideally providing performance data against benchmark or national indicators for your specialty, showing local and wider improvements as a result of your work.  

For good patient experience, show how you ensured your patients are cared for with compassion, integrity, and dignity, and how you have demonstrated commitment to their safety and wellbeing and have disseminated your approaches more widely.

Your evidence could show:

• your excellent standards for dealing with patients, relatives, and staff. Surveys or collated 360-degree feedback to validate your evidence of your patients’ quality care, and how you communicated it to colleagues 

• your excellent work in preventative medicine and public health, for example, in alcohol abuse, vaccination programmes, stopping smoking and preventing injury and where this work has been further developed beyond your immediate remit 

• how you use wider NHS resources effectively and improve their efficiencies 

Give evidence of the quality and breadth of your service from audits or assessments by patients, peers, your employer or external bodies. It will not affect your chances if there is less readily quantifiable evidence available in your particular specialty.  

Quote the source of the information you give and include all relevant dates.  

Here are 2 examples:

Example 1: ‘I have further developed efficiency and quality of the xxx heart magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) service and disseminated achievements beyond my job-planned activities.’

• since 2018 I have grown the service by 25% to 3,000 per year (largest in xxx of England)

• in 2019 I introduced patient-centred governance (including annual 360 patient feedback, audit cycles, safety and quality reviews). The service was rewarded with European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging accreditation in 2022

• through close university partnership I improve NHS service efficiency (in 2021 academics delivered NHS service with NHS staff reassigned to COVID care) and quality (rapid research-clinical translation)

• while most other NHS wait times increased, I kept heart MRI wait below national pre-COVID benchmark throughout the pandemic - 2019 to 2021

• in 2020, introduced a faster heart MRI protocol with equivalent quality to previous methods. This improved local service efficiency by 25% (more scans at same cost) and patient experience (shorter scan). Method published in a sector-leading xxx journal and disseminated in internationally in 2022

• pioneered new MRI methods for non-invasive, radiation-free diagnosis of heart disease in new-borns in 2021 and in the foetus in 2022. Published the method (reference) and first clinical experience (in press 2022) to cascade beyond local service

• in 2018, proposed an automated quantitative method in collaboration with UK and US scientists that allows more objective diagnosis of heart disease and can replace expensive radiation-based nuclear imaging. From 2019 the method was available to NHS patients in xxx and London and is now embedded in more than 10 NHS hospitals

• in 2018, set up heart screening for patients at high cardiac risk (such as, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis), implementing the national NHS strategy

Example 2: ‘I have set up a short stay programme which has the lowest length of stay for hip replacements in England - 2.7 days as against the England average of 6.1 days. 67% of patients are home after 2 nights. 98.5% patient satisfaction service. Re-admission rate of 5.1% as compared to the regional average of 7%. This has been communicated in xxx forums and adopted as best practice standards by xxx body.’ 

Give national or regional benchmark comparisons wherever you can. For example, standard mortality ratios, peri-operative complication rates, MRSA, C. difficile rates, venous thromboembolism (VTE) prevention, or length of stay data.

Show how you have significantly improved the clinical effectiveness of your local services and either improved services elsewhere, or used your experience to enable others to do so.

Similarly, this experience may be translatable to other clinical services in the wider NHS in other areas. This includes making services better, safer and more cost effective more widely, particularly in addressing differences in outcomes between different geographic regions, or diverse patient groups. 

Make your evidence as measurable as you can, giving dates for all activities. Make your personal contribution clear, not just your department’s contribution, stating what you have contributed as part of a wider team, where relevant. Give specific examples of any changes you made after the results of an audit, or changes you contributed to as part of governance reviews. Be clear about how you helped these activities contribute to wider change in the NHS. 

Your evidence could, for example, cover the impact of your work on: 

• developing and running audit cycles or plans for evidence-based practice to make the service measurably better  

• national or local clinical audits and national confidential enquiries 

• developing and using diagnostic and other tools and techniques to find barriers to clinical effectiveness, ways to overcome them and to implement new ways of working that delivered improvements you can describe

• analysing and managing risk - include details of specific improvements, or how you lowered risk and improved safety 

• providing a better service, with proof of the effect it had - for example, how your service has become more patient centred and accessible 

• improving the service after speaking to patients, or setting up and engaging with patient support groups 

• redesigning a service to be more productive and efficient, with no decrease in the quality, at a regional or national level 

• developing new health or healthcare plans, or policies 

• large reviews, inquiries or investigations 

• national policies to modernise health services, new ways of working or professional practice

Give audit or research evidence to show where you have improved your service and disseminated this more widely. Quote the sources and relevant dates and outcomes in your own areas and those of other groups that you positively influenced. You do not have to have done the audits or research yourself. Show what changes you made, alone or in a team, with evidence that they were of high quality and useful to the wider NHS. 

Domain 2: leadership

In this section, show how you made a significant personal contribution to leading and developing a service, health policy or guidelines, with national or international impact. Especially consider work that has delivered against objectives within the NHS Long Term Plan. 

Describe the impact you have had and outcomes you have generated in the specific roles you list. Your evidence can include, but is not limited to, proof of: 

• your effective leadership techniques and processes - give specific examples of how you improved the quality of care for your patients and where you have, directly or indirectly, influenced other parts of the NHS to achieve these benefits 

• change management programmes or service innovations you have led - show how they made the service more effective, productive or efficient for patients, public and staff, beyond your direct remit 

• excellent leadership in developing and providing preventative medicine, particularly working across organisational or professional boundaries with other agencies, like local councils and the voluntary sector, demonstrating the outcomes or impacts that have been delivered, for example, in delivering benefits where health inequalities exist

• how you helped staff or teams more widely improve patient care - give specific examples and their outcomes, such as mentoring or coaching. If you work in England, you could mention the guidance on talent and leadership planning  

• any ambassador or change champion roles, for example if you were involved in a public consultation, or your job involved explaining complex issues and how this translated into changes in practice 

• how you developed a clear, shared vision and desire for change in others - for example, show how you invested in new ways of working and handled resistant behaviour to deliver the wider change desired outside of your remit, particularly where you did not have direct oversight responsibility 

• how you helped staff into senior leadership roles by removing barriers, encouraging diversity and achieving equality and inclusion outcomes 

• how you contributed to developing patient-focused services in your area, and cascaded the experience and expertise to influence others to adopt new ways of working 

• national impact through personal work and influence through any committee membership. Be specific in what you personally did, with a description of the impact of any output. Membership alone is not enough 

• the effects of your team leadership where you had full or joint responsibility, or took turns with other leaders to lead specific areas of complementary work 

• where you took personal leadership for clinical governance, including developing and implementing policies, services or change programmes

Include evidence of your contribution, the source of any data you give, and relevant dates. 

Here is an example:

National and international:

• as RCP special advisor on xxx since 2019 I lead the RCP’s xxx policy, interfacing with the Department of Health and Social Care. I organised a meeting at Number 10 (2021). I respond to xxx consultations, reports and news items

• as chair of the RCP advisory group on xxx (2019), and advisory group on health inequalities member (2020), I’ve worked across professional boundaries and with patient groups

• I have developed and presented an xxx documentary xxx, England’s most pressing healthcare challenge?’, highlighting the complexities of xxx, viewed more than 13,000 times since March 2022

• I co-chair NHS England’s Clinical Advisory Group for tier 3 and 4 services (from 2021) responsible for mapping and establishing services across England

• I am a trustee and chair of the nationwide patient charity xxx Empowerment Network UK steering group from 2019 (see domains 3 and 5)

• I am a trustee for the Association for the Study of xxx (ASX) since 2016 and organise annual national clinical network meetings to share best practice

• I am a currently a member of NICE xxx Clinical Guideline Committee (since 2021) responsible for updating the guidelines. So far we have updated the following 3 guidelines

• I am a member of the working group that led to the establishment of the National xxx Audit (since 2020) which has delivered, and so on

Domain 3: education, training and people development

In this section, give evidence to show your contribution to wider education and training across the professions and to patients. Please it make clear if any training or lecturing is externally or separately remunerated. 

Give evidence of the impact of your work in supporting the NHS People Plan and if it falls into any of the following categories. We do not expect examples for all these categories, and you can include other categories. 

Teaching

This can be medical undergraduate or multidisciplinary team teaching, if it is outside your job plan. Undergraduate teaching that is part of your job plan is not considered to be over and above your role. Give evidence of student feedback or other teacher quality assessments and especially focus on how your education has improved others’ performance and had a positive impact on healthcare. Include how you directly played a role in curriculum development and/or assessment and, if relevant, provide evidence of wider adoption of novel work in these areas in UK medical schools, or internationally.  

Leadership and innovation in training

This should include evidence of the impact of these activities outside of your own remit, preferably nationally or internationally. This might include:  

• developing and introducing a new course, such as at master’s level  

• innovative assessment methods 

• introducing new learning facilities 

• writing successful textbooks or developing on-line teaching/training modules, or an app 

• contributing to postgraduate education and life-long learning 

• contributing to teaching and assessment in other UK centres or abroad (see notes above regarding the relevance of overseas work)

• developing other innovative training methods, such as simulation-based 

Supporting information could be presentations, invitations to lecture, and publications on education - you must include evidence of the national impact of these activities. 

Educating and informing patients and public

This should also include evidence of the impact of these activities, preferably nationally or internationally. This could include:

• promoting good health and disease prevention within the community, which has delivered wider impacts

• facilitating the development of patient-support groups at a regional or national level that can show improved patient engagement and outcomes, tangible improvements in preventing illness and injury, or improved patient and public involvement in research

College or university success in teaching audits

Explain if you helped a college or university succeed in regulatory body and quality assessment audits for teaching. This could include undergraduate or postgraduate exams, or supervising postgraduate students describing a demonstrable impact on healthcare as a result.

Personal commitment to developing your teaching skills

You could include evidence of higher education academy membership and any courses you have completed, and how you have used these new skills or qualifications to improve NHS and other relevant work more widely. 

Unexpected or non-mainstream contributions

This could be any other teaching or educational commitment that has had national impact and is outside your job plan or other paid work, that is not recognised in other ways. 

Here is an example:

‘My main leadership role as Royal College of xxx Medical Director for Education and Training is to ensure continued high quality workforce supply to support patient services in xxxology to meet national objectives.’

• provided Royal College data in 2020 into the xxx review to support the need for 1000 extra xxxologists

• led nationally to support training programmes and trusts accommodating 150 new xxxology training posts in England and extra senior posts in 2021 and 2022. This included support to make the local business case given the financial benefit of trainees and this has successfully unlocked previously unavailable training capacity in each region

• led the negotiation of changes to xxxology trainee recruitment with the national recruitment team. This new process successfully enabled increased numbers of candidates to be assessed in 2021 and 2022 to fill capacity from training post expansion

• led a new process of recruiting trainees nationally at a more senior ST3 level to meet workforce need and training number targets. This involved development of a detailed certificate of training equivalence to demonstrate ST2 competencies achieved elsewhere and required agreement of national heads of training. 15 candidates were offered training posts in May 2022

• leading the development of virtual and technology enhanced training material and imaging platforms with the new imagingxxx academies in England in collaboration with academy leads. This has promoted a sharing ethos, with remote teaching sessions made available across xxxology academies in 2021 to 2022 to support increasing training provision

Domain 4: innovation and research

This section looks at innovation and its impact in any relevant setting and should include more evidence than the activities that are traditionally considered as research. It can include new care pathways that have been developed and implemented, improved ways of working and process efficiencies that have been adopted widely and have demonstrably made more cost-effective use of NHS resources. It can include benefits of digital technology, or other activities from projects with external partners that have demonstrated a benefit to the wider NHS or support GMC’s objectives of promoting research. 

Be clear what evidence is over-and-above any research, academic or other expectations of your role and give evidence of the wider impact of your research and/or innovation. This includes developing the evidence base for measuring how quality has improved. 

In the section on references, give details of achievements such as published peer reviewed papers - not the names of referees, with a maximum of 10 references to be included. The majority of any publications listed should be from the last 5 years. Your evidence should include the relevance of these publications and the wider impact they have had. Providing the number of citations each paper has had or its academic ‘score’ is not sufficient without further explanation of its impact. You may abbreviate the title and author list of any publications, but you must include the name of the journal or publication it appeared in with the date, volume and page numbers as relevant. Do not include website addresses or DOI links as scorers will not access these.

On a separate line, give supporting evidence for what you have achieved to date and how your innovation or research has quantifiably improved health outcomes. For example, adoption of new evidence-based techniques, innovative systems or service models, improved delivery of clinical benefits and more effective use of resources. Describe how you have disseminated your experience and innovation so it has been adopted by others and provide specific details of the quantified benefits this has provided over the relevant dated period.

You could also explain how you have improved patient and public engagement in research and innovation or encouraged new ways of thinking when it comes to improving patient services, detailing the specific benefits this has brought. 

You should describe the effect of your research (including laboratory research) and any new techniques you have developed and the wider benefits they have delivered on: 

• health service practice 

• health service policy 

• developing health services

For this you should also be clear on how your research is relevant to the health of patients and the public. 

You could give details of the impacts you have delivered as a result of: 

• large trials or evaluations, including systematic reviews, you have led or coinvestigated and published in the last 5 years

• how you have contributed as a research leader, and how you have helped and supervised other people’s research and mentored new investigators

You could include other examples of the personal impact you have made in your chosen research fields. For example, how your work on any review boards of national funding agencies or learned societies has delivered quantifiable improvements over a defined time period. 

You could also:

• list any grants you have been awarded personally and not as part of a department, specifying your role as chief or principal investigator where relevant. Explain how this funding is above expectations and what benefits it is delivering

• describe peer-reviewed publications, chapters, or books you have written or edited - explain your activity for each one (for example, senior author or editor) and any quantitative measures on how effective they have been in changing practice 

• give details if you played a major part in multicentre research studies, for example the number of participants you personally recruited out of the total sample size for large clinical trials

• include evidence of outstanding research that has led to new ways of preventing illness and injury, or more rapid, cost-effective, and reliable diagnosis

• show how you engaged with a funding council, NIHR or a major research charity, specifying your role, such as a clinical director, senior reviewer or research and/or fellowship programme lead. Give clear dates and evidence of impact 

An excerpt from a high-scoring 2022 example:

Director Musculoskeletal Research Group (MRG):

As a clinician scientist I am a clinician first. Our 36 researchers address questions from the clinic. Current programmes include:

• understanding why rheumatoid arthritis (RA) flares

• can RA be prevented in those at risk?

• can patients in remission stop their treatment?

• can established RA be cured?

• why do RA patients lose muscle? Can it be reversed?

Success indicators:

• active funding £6.5 million as principal investigator (PI), £1 million as co-investigator from 2018 to 2022

• 72 peer-reviewed papers published since 2018

• prestigious EULAR Centre of Excellence status awarded in 2020 (for 3rd time: 2010 to 2025)

International firsts:

• designed and completed (2022) the first trial to target joint lining cells in RA, for patients refractory to standard therapy

• developed our own cell therapy to switch off RA. Phase 2 trial starts 2022

Collaboration:

• I led RA-MAP, an academic and industry consortium seeking biomarkers to inform clinical management and drug discovery. Such partnerships critically underpin the UK industrial and life sciences strategies. Our MRC-funded work, published 2022, involved over 150 researchers and 267 patients with early RA

Director of research:

• our strategy endorses a mixed portfolio of commercial research, aligned with the UK’s innovation strategy and NHS long-term plan, and investigator-led research, equally critical for innovation within the NHS

• our ‘Dragon’s Den’ in 2022 will encourage NHS staff to submit their best ideas for mentorship and seed funding

Deputy Director NIHR xxx Biomedical Research Centre (BRC):

• BRCs support research that tests treatments and assays in patients for the first time, driving NHS innovation. As deputy director of our £15 million BRC since 2019 I oversee strategy across 6 themes. PPIE plays an essential role in strategy development, plus our strong emphasis on training, education and people development. I also lead our musculoskeletal theme

Publications:

• list a maximum of 10 references from the last 5 years. Slightly older references may be included if their impact has become apparent more recently (more than 5 years).

• include the relevance of publications and their wider impact. The number of citations or an academic ‘score’ is not sufficient, though measures of ‘exposure’, for example, ‘altmetrics’, may be useful in some instances

• include the journal or publication it appeared in with the date, volume and page numbers as relevant

• abbreviate the title and author list if necessary

• follow the formatting on the online form, and ensure all boxes are populated

• an output with no indication of where it was published is unlikely to receive any credit from assessors, nor will very old papers, even those in major scientific journals

Domain 5: additional national impact

This domain gives you an opportunity to provide evidence of wider beneficial impacts that have not been captured elsewhere on your form in domains 1 to 4. You can also demonstrate the wider effect your work has had in areas that are national clinical priorities. In some cases this may relate to work within your job plan, but as is the case in other domains, you should endeavour to demonstrate impact ‘over and above’ the expectations of outcomes for which you are already paid by your employer. There is added value if appropriate metrics can be included and as usual accurate dating is critical.

This domain can include work for charitable organisations, and work with a more direct patient or public focus, for example fostering patient involvement in your research, or informing patient groups of new developments in disease management or prevention. Expanding on the national impact of research work or educational activities mentioned in (but not repeating) domain 4 or domain 3 can score well. This is particularly true if it is clear how the impact of the work has been re-enforced through social media or other channels, and how it has demonstrably influenced the quality of healthcare delivery or preventative medicine. However, you must not merely repeat or list activities that have been described elsewhere on the form, as repeated evidence will not score any points. This domain could also describe work on how you have addressed health and workplace inequalities and delivered interprofessional team building and new ways of working.

Domain 5 can also include international work in training, research or recruitment, but it is vital to clarify how this has had clear benefit to the NHS. An extensive list of overseas lectures and meetings, or accolades from foreign institutions, will not receive any credit. The same will apply to overseas work in service development or education, unless there is a clearly demonstrated beneficial impact to UK healthcare.

Particularly important areas are NHS priority disease areas, or other areas where there is outstanding need, or identified health inequalities or disparities. Unpaid innovative work with health and social care providers outside the NHS may also be cited in this domain, but clear evidence of positive impact must be provided.

You could include your work on delivering wider health policies, or work related to the NHS long term plan or the NHS people plan, particularly in reference to delivering collaborative working, demonstrating an inclusive culture and the health and wellbeing of NHS staff and their retention in the face of increasing pressures. Give details of the wider change you delivered and the magnitude of your impacts over a defined time period. Tell us if you are actively involved in a leadership capacity at a regional or national level in the delivery of the 2022 COVID backlog plan, defining clearly the impact of your personal contribution if not mentioned elsewhere.

Consider providing evidence of the impact you have made on delivering improved ‘joined up care’ in line with the recommendations of the integration white paper in optimal settings by implementing new service models, or specifically digital innovations or efficiencies, across the wider health environments - particularly if you have expanded these beyond your immediate area or remit. Also consider activities and innovations you have developed in partnership with external partners which provided positive impacts to the NHS in line with the government’s life sciences strategy. Other unremunerated work with HEE, NHS Employers, or the Department of Health may also be relevant, but definable and current impact must be cited. A list of committee positions or chair roles will not accrue any credit in itself. Be very careful not to use undefined abbreviations and technical jargon. This is particularly, but by no means exclusively, an issue in the health informatics space.

Examples of high-scoring domain 5 evidence from the 2022 round:

• as a member of the NHS England xxx Clinical Reference Group (2016 to 2022) I develop innovative policies and service specifications to improve current and future care and efficiency in all NHS tertiary services. This includes my detailed work on the NICE COVID-19 rapid guideline for the immunocompromised (May 2020) and the NHS England Multidrug Resistance Policy (2019)

• I have jointly overseen xxx regional clinical management for COVID-19 complications. Since April 2020 the team conducted around 170 emergency consultations across the region

• I have led joint work between UK clinical research facility directors, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency and the Health Research Authority to develop a national framework for the governance and safe conduct of highest risk phase 1 trials in clinical research facilities and the NHS. This was rolled-out during the pandemic for experienced sites to support those without existing phase 1 expertise, expanding NHS and national capability to support public and industry funded new drug and vaccine development

• I ensure participant safety and effective trial delivery via my roles as:

  • independent chair of the Data Monitoring and Safety Committee (DMSC) for a UK healthy human immune challenge trial

  • independent chair of the COVID-19 vaccine trial steering committee

  • member of the South African COVID-19 booster trial DSMC

• I developed high quality national guidelines via my membership of the NICE guideline committee for xxx (2020) and of the international xxx campaign working party (2018 to 2019). I was one of 3 Royal College representatives to the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges’ xxx Position Statement Working Party (2020 to 2022)

Part 6: how to appeal

Appeals for national awards

All appeals for NCIAs are handled by ACCIA.  

To appeal, log into your account where you will find the steps you need to take.

You need to tell us why you believe the assessment process was unfair and give evidence.  

Submit your appeal for a national award within 4 weeks of when we inform you of the award results. If our dates change, this will be updated in the portal.

Reasons you can request an appeal

You can request an appeal if you think we did not follow the right processes when we assessed your application. You cannot appeal because you disagree with our judgement.

You can appeal if:

• the committee did not consider all the supporting information or documents you sent with your application  

• irrelevant information was taken into account 

• you were discriminated against due to characteristics such as your gender, ethnicity or age 

• the usual evaluation processes were not followed 

• the committee, or any of its members, showed bias or had a conflict of interest, such as where someone involved in a decision could be affected by the result

How we handle appeals

Our chair and medical director will look at your evidence and the processes that were followed to decide if your appeal is justified. They will then ask a panel of two sub-committee members - one medical and one non-medical - who were not involved in your application to review their proposed decision to ensure it is robust. If it is decided that there are no grounds for appeal, we will write to tell you why.  

If there are grounds for appeal and we cannot resolve the problem informally, we will set up a formal appeal. 

A separate panel of people who did not assess your application or the decision to progress the appeal will consider this. The panel will include:  

• a medical or dental professional  

• an employer 

• a non-professional member as chairperson

They will look at:  

• your appeal 

• the documents that set out our agreed assessment process 

• a written statement of what the committee did when they considered your application 

You can see all the documents the panel considers. You can also send more written statements about your appeal and what you believe happened. 

The panel does not usually hear oral evidence. However, you can apply in writing to have an oral hearing. The panel chair will decide whether you can have one. 

The timeline for appeals

We try to resolve appeals in line with the process set out below - if there are delays, we will let you know. 

If your appeal is successful

If your appeal is successful, our chair and medical director will consider the best way to put things right. Their decision will be consistent with other similar appeals.  

Even if your appeal against the process is successful, you may not get your renewal or a new award. If this happens, we will write to you to tell you why. 

The national appeals process

Here is an outline of the process with indicative timelines:

1. When we get your request to appeal, we will contact you within 5 working days to acknowledge its receipt. 

2. Our chair and medical director will review your case and decide whether you have grounds for a formal appeal.  

3. Within approximately 20 working days of the date we got in touch, our chair and medical director will let you know if there will be a formal appeal.  

4. If there is a formal appeal, we will set up a panel and agree a date for them to meet, usually within 20 working days. 

5. When our chair and medical director hear what the panel has decided, they will let you know the final decision, usually within 20 working days. 

6. In all cases, the panel’s decision is final. 

Part 7: how to complain

We can only handle complaints about the work, staff and levels of service provided by ACCIA. You can email us at accia@dhsc.gov.uk.

We will not accept complaints relating to awards decisions. For how to appeal, please see part 6.

If you want to make a formal complaint about ACCIA, we will need: 

• a clear, detailed description of what your complaint is about 

• copies of any letters or emails related to the complaint 

• your email address -so we can respond to you

When you have made your complaint, we will:

• send an email to let you know that we have received it

Our complaints process has 3 stages: 

Stage 1 - complaints go to the team leader of the ACCIA Secretariat, who will liaise with the relevant sub-committee chair, if necessary. The team leader will investigate, with a target of responding to your complaint within 20 working days.

Stage 2 - complaints are investigated by the senior civil servant responsible for ACCIA. They will investigate with a target of responding to your complaint within 20 working days.

Stage 3 - complaints are investigated by a senior civil servant who is independent of the individual or team that your complaint references. They will investigate with a target of responding to your complaint within 20 working days. 

What to do if you are not satisfied

At each stage of our complaints process, you will be provided with the information to escalate your complaint if you are unhappy with the response that you receive. 

If, after following the 3 stages of our complaints process, you are not satisfied with the outcome of your formal complaint, you can ask your local MP to refer it to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman. 

You have to go through your MP - you cannot approach the ombudsman directly.  

The ombudsman investigates complaints where government departments or other public bodies have not acted properly or fairly, or have provided a poor service. Government departments have to co-operate with the ombudsman by law. 

Appealing against a decision by the ombudsman

If you are unhappy with the ombudsman’s decision, you can appeal directly to the ombudsman.

Part 8: if your circumstances change when you have an award

You must tell us if your circumstances change after you have gained an award. 

You must tell us if there are any changes to your employment, as they may affect your award. Please fill in our change in employment circumstances form.

If you do not tell us when your circumstances change, it could affect whether you can keep your award, or what you and your employer are paid. Any payments made since the change in circumstances may need to be paid back. 

Below are some of the main changes you need to tell us about. This is not a full list, and you should tell us if anything significant changes. 

Tell us if your specialty, job, or job plan changes. 

Let us know if: 

• you stop practising in the field in which you obtained your award 

• you change your job or employer 

• there is a significant change to your job plan - including a reduction in the number of programmed activities or sessions

Tell us as soon as the change has been agreed locally. We will consider how it affects your award. We will also review your award earlier if you change your job, or your job plan changes significantly.  

If you agree a new job plan, please send us a copy to consider and approve. If you do not tell us your job plan has changed, it could put your award at risk.  

If you start working less than full time, we will review your eligibility to retain your award. NCEAs will be paid pro rata whereas national CIAs are paid at the full rate should the minimum number of 3 PAs be contractually agreed.  

If you stop practising in the field you got your award and start a full or part-time general management post, it could affect your award. Speak to your employer and contact us to see if you can keep getting the full financial value. If you no longer meet the criteria in part 2 of this guide, your payments normally stop. 

Leave or secondments

Unpaid leave

We do not pay any awards during unpaid leave. If you take unpaid leave for more than a year, our medical director will decide whether your award can be reinstated.

Maternity leave, parental leave and adoption leave 

If you have an award and go on maternity, parental or adoption leave, you will receive your award payments during any period of paid leave from your employer. 

Secondments 

If you are on full-time secondment to a post with an employer that does not qualify under the NCIA scheme, we will suspend your award.  

Speak to your employer before you start your secondment to make arrangements for protecting your award and whether you can start collecting it again after your secondment has finished.  

If you are seconded part time and continue some work from your original contract part time, you may be eligible for a pro rata award NCEA payment if you hold a CEA. If you hold an NCIA, you may be eligible to continue your award payments. In both cases, tell us your plans before you start your secondment, so we can agree the arrangements. 

If you are on secondment for less than a year, you will resume receipt of your award once the secondment has ended.  

If the secondment is longer than a year, we will consider whether to re-instate your award if you go back to the NHS and your role remains eligible. 

If you are away between 1 and 5 years, you can apply to have your award reinstated. Generally, if you are away for 5 years or more, you must reapply.  

If you are seconded to the Independent Sector Treatment programme, or similar, while you still have your NHS consultant contract, you may be able to retain your award based on our assessment of your role. Should you remain eligible you will be able to apply for a new award during this time if your award is expiring.  

Sabbaticals 

If you are planning a sabbatical, you must speak to your employer and contact us to agree what happens with your award. To retain the award, you must prove your sabbatical will be of benefit to the NHS. Otherwise, we will consider suspending your award until you return, or it expires. 

Prolonged absence from the NHS 

If, for any reason, you have been on a prolonged absence and not practised your specialty in the NHS for more than a year, we will review whether your award can be re-instated. 

Leaving the NHS during an award round 

To qualify for an award, you must be employed as a consultant in the NHS on 1 April in the award year.  

If you are made redundant or you retire during an award round and before we announce the award results, we will withdraw your application. 

Tell us if you retire or claim your pension 

If you are in receipt of any pension payments, you may no longer qualify for an NCEA. This includes payments from the NHS Pension Scheme, University Superannuation Scheme or transferred-out benefits. See part 2 for full details.  

You must tell us the date you retire or claim your pension (see part 2).  

Tell us if you start being investigated

As set out in part 2 and part 3, you must tell us, as soon as you know, of any investigations, disciplinary procedures or legal action against you. 

You must keep us up to date about any developments and the outcomes of any investigations. We will decide if they affect your application or award. We always use an ‘innocent unless proven otherwise’ approach. 

Part 9: false statements or possible fraud

If we find any evidence of a false statement or fraud, we will take suitable action.  

This may include passing the details to: 

• your employers

• the GMC or GDC 

• the NHS Counter Fraud Authority

Part 10: how we use your data

The Advisory Committee on Clinical Impact Awards (ACCIA) collects data for the specific purpose of running the national Clinical Impact Awards scheme and has its own ACCIA privacy notice.

Information about how the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), the data controller for ACCIA, handles your information is also available on their website under the DHSC privacy notice.

Annex: transition and reversion arrangements for NCEA holders

Transition arrangements for NCEA holders in England

Schedule 30 of the consultant contract sets out the transition arrangements for holders of NCEAs moving to any reformed national scheme. There are 2 key provisions set out in the schedule:

• a consultant who successfully receives an NCIA for an equivalent or higher level of performance but attracting a lower value of award than paid under the NCEA scheme will receive an additional payment so that they are paid no less overall than the cash value of their NCEA

• a consultant who receives an NCIA for a lower level of performance will receive an additional payment so that they are paid no less overall than the cash value of the equivalent lower award in the NCEA scheme

The NCIA scheme has 3 award levels, and for the purposes of managing transition arrangements their equivalent to the former award levels is as follows:

• National 1 (N1) - equivalent to silver

• National 2 (N2) - equivalent to gold

• National 3 (N3) - equivalent to platinum

This results in NCEA holders who hold a full award (that is, not pro rated) having the level of protected pensionable pay shown below, for up to the first 5-year period in the NCIA scheme.

NCEA held	NCIA granted	Total pay	Pensionable pay
Bronze	N1	£36,192	£36,192
Bronze	N2	£36,192	£36,192
Bronze	N3	£40,000	£36,192
Silver	N1	£47,582	£47,582
Silver	N2	£47,582	£47,582
Silver	N3	£47,582	£47,582
Gold	N1	£47,582	£47,582
Gold	N2	£59,477	£59,477
Gold	N3	£59,477	£59,477
Platinum	N1	£47,582	£47,582
Platinum	N2	£59,477	£59,477
Platinum	N3	£77,320	£77,320

In order to be eligible for transition arrangements, NCEA holders must successfully apply for an NCIA no later than the application round before their NCEA expires. For example, for an NCEA expiring in 2024 an application must be submitted in the 2023 award round. If no successful application is made, the NCEA will expire and any subsequent NCIA granted will not be eligible for transition arrangements. Should an NCEA holder apply earlier than the year before their current award expires, their NCIA and the 5-year transition period will commence on 1 April following the granting of their NCIA.

All payments, including any ‘top-up’ payments and employer pension contributions for those in transition, will be paid by NHS England through the same route as NCEAs and NCIAs. It remains the responsibility of employers to ensure the correct payments are made, and to advise ACCIA if there are any changes in circumstances of award holders, including if they join or leave a pension scheme.

Although NCIAs are paid at full value for award holders working less than full time, payments to award holders in transition arrangements will continue to be paid pro rata where appropriate as per the NCEA scheme rules. If an award holder in transition reduces their contract so that the pro rata transition payment is less than their NCIA, the NCIA value will be paid in full, but pension contributions will only be paid up to the pro rata value.

Schedule 30 does not apply to consultants in Wales, so there are no transition arrangements for NCEA holders in Wales.

Academic GPs in England are employed on different terms and conditions to consultant doctors and dentists. Schedule 30 does not apply so there are no transition arrangements for academic GPs.

Changes in circumstances of NCIA holders in transition arrangements

If an NCIA holder in transition arrangements changes their employer, makes a significant change to their job plan, begins to receive pension benefits, or makes any other change to their employment circumstances they should inform ACCIA in the usual way.

In these circumstances we may review awards earlier, and any second or subsequent NCIA granted will not be subject to transition arrangements. For full details on the rules concerning changes of employment, unpaid leave or secondments, maternity leave, and retirement see part 8 of this guide ‘If your circumstances change when you have an award’.

Reversion arrangements for NCEA holders in England

If an NCEA or NCIA holder applies in the award round before their current award expires, but their application is unsuccessful, the reversion arrangements set out in schedule 30 apply. These specify that in these circumstances the holder will be granted a pre-2018 local Clinical Excellence Award (a legacy LCEA) according to the following conditions:

• re-application score equal to or greater than 27 - legacy LCEA level 8
• re-application score between 14 and 26.99 - legacy LCEA level 7
• re-application score equal to or less than 13.9 - no award

Any legacy LCEA will commence on 1 April, immediately after the expiry of the prior NCEA or NCIA. Where no legacy LCEA is granted, the NCEA will continue until its expiry date after which there will be no award payments.

If an NCEA holder fails to apply at the latest by the award round before their NCEA or NCIA expires, their award will continue until its expiry date after which there will be no award payments. Any subsequent NCIA will be granted as a new award and backdated appropriately.

Academic GPs in England are employed on different terms and conditions to consultant doctors and dentists, so there are no reversion arrangements for academic GPs.