All Health Boards in receipt of Medical ACT funding are required to submit an accountability report annually.
The annual accountability report template is in an agreed format with known information by NES being prepopulated. It is issued shortly after the annual Medical ACT allocation letter, usually in May and is required to be submitted by mid September.
The annual accountability report requires the following:
- Actual Medical ACT expenditure for the previous financial year.
- Reasons for any differences in funding bid for and final spend.
- Up-to-date baseline budgets for Medical ACT showing the allocation to each specialty/department.
- Measurement of Teaching.
- Organisational Chart and Medical ACT Governance Process.
- Examples of innovative practices worth sharing.
- Upcoming challenges and curriculum changes.
- All Accountability reports must be signed off by the Board’s Director of Finance and Director of Medical Education before they are submitted to the appropriate RAWG for discussion.
- Completed accountability reports should then be submitted to NES using the Medical ACT mailbox medicalact@nhs.scot; a final deadline is usually set during September of the allocation year; the date is notified by NES when templates are issued.
- All accountability reports are reviewed by the NES Medical ACT team following which general feedback is collated for sharing with Boards; the purpose of this is to share practice, highlight challenges and seek solutions. Individual feedback can also be provided on request.
- A summary of the main highlights from the accountability reporting process is presented to the Medical ACT Governance Group (MAGG) and to the Medical ACT Working Group (MAWG) meetings. This information is also included within the Medical ACT Annual Report.
- It is intended that Accountability Reports will be published on the Deanery website following completion of the review process.
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.
