What are Accountability Reports?

All Health Boards in receipt of Medical ACT funding are required to submit an accountability report annually to NES. 

The accountability report template is in an agreed format and includes information already known by NES which is prepopulated for Boards to review and amend. Templates are issued to Boards shortly after the annual Medical ACT allocation letter is circulated, usually in May.

Completed accountability reports should be signed off by a Board’s Director of Finance and Director of Medical Education and discussed at the associated Regional ACT Working Group before submission to NES by the deadline, usually in late September.

The annual accountability report requires the following disclosures: 

• Actual Medical ACT expenditure for the previous financial year e.g. reports submitted in September 2023 contained information on funding allocated during FY 2022/23.
• Up-to-date baseline budgets for Medical ACT showing the allocations made to each specialty/department. 
• Measurement of Teaching compliance. 

All accountability reports are reviewed by the NES Medical ACT team following which the main highlights are collated for sharing with Boards; the purpose of this feedback is to share practice, highlight challenges and seek solutions. The Individual feedback can also be provided on request by a Board.

Improvements to the information required from Boards have been designed to reduce the burden of accountability reporting for Boards, whilst still fulfilling the need for them to provide disclosures on Medical ACT funding received. This approach has allowed NES Finance to account for at least 98% of Medical ACT funding over the past two allocation years.

All Accountability Reports are published on the Medical ACT website following completion of the NES review process. 

Please note all signatures have been redacted.