This is the medium through which the surgical faculty will keep you up to date about training days, courses, recruitment, ARCP and RITA schedules as well as other useful and important information.

The South West Peninsula Deanery was established on 1 April 2005 and is responsible for the commissioning and quality assurance of postgraduate medical and dental education and training across Devon and Cornwall.

The Deanery is part of the South West Strategic Health Authority (NHS South West) and is under the direction of the Postgraduate Dean, Professor Martin Beaman.

The vision of the Deanery is to promote the delivery of high quality patient care through the provision of a highly skilled medical workforce.

The website will introduce you to the Training Schemes and allow you the opportunity to explore the types of training that are available.

School Purpose

The aim of the School of Post Graduate Surgery, within the Peninsula Deanery, is to deliver excellent education and training in surgery in general and its specialities.

The school will deliver the requirements of GMC for core surgical training and speciality education programmes within the South West Peninsula, embracing the needs and interests of all parties involved – to include the Deanery, the Royal College of Surgeons, GMC, the employing Trusts and the Peninsula Medical School.

The Postgraduate School of Surgery Board carries responsibility for managing the education of surgical trainees from the beginning of core training after the Foundation years until specialist training is completed. Training in surgery has changed radically over the last few years. Most established consultant surgeons were trained under an apprenticeship scheme, without a formal recognised curriculum. As such, the system was somewhat haphazard, with the result that standards were seen to be very variable. Many years were spent in a collaborative project between the surgical Royal Colleges in the United Kingdom developing a new curriculum. This new curriculum has now been adopted for all surgical training. Further details can be found on www.iscp.ac.uk (the Inter-Collegiate Surgical Curriculum Project)- all trainees will need to become familiar with this website as they navigate through their training.

In particular the school aims to achieve the following functions:

• To ensure that the provision of education in the Surgical Specialties is of a consistent high quality across the Deanery.
• To manage the process of selection into CST level and into the higher speciality levels.
• To recommend placements of trainees into appropriate training locations.
• To ensure adequate delivery of the processes of induction and appraisal.
• To oversee the implementation of competency based assessment in surgical specialties, including Core Surgical Training and Fixed Term Specialty Training Appointments.
• To introduce and manage effective reviews of trainee progress, by a system of annual review (ARCP), including recommendations for awards of CCT.
• To oversee and manage the development and delivery of training courses to support the surgical curricula for all levels of trainee.
• To contribute to the development of the Deanery strategy for training surgeons as the MMC reforms for post-foundation training evolve and to develop the strategy in conjunction with key stakeholders.
• To ensure that the School delivers a strategy for training in research and teaching skills.
• To assist the Deanery Quality Assurance Coordinator on the quality control of training as laid out by GMC, and to ensure that necessary reports are produced by training supervisors in the medical specialties and by heads of specialty programmes and schools.
• To ensure that Deanery policies for dealing with trainees in difficulty are followed in all surgical specialities, and that the Educational Supervisors have appropriate training for this role.
• To ensure that Deanery policies for selection skills training are applied within the School.
• To review the results of feedback surveys, including the GMC Trainees’ survey, and ensuring that appropriate responses and actions are made.
• To appoint (in conjunction with other interested parties, (e.g. Royal College of Surgeons, Trusts) the key educational posts (CST and STC chairs, College Tutors and Educational Supervisors), in an open and transparent fashion.
• To prepare written reports (probably annually) for submission to the Deanery and Colleges.

Head of the School