School of Surgery
NHS England south west Workforce Training and Education
In April 2024 the Peninsula and Severn Schools of Surgery merged into one single School for postgraduate surgical training in the south west of England.
The aim of the School of Surgery, within NHSE south west Workforce Training and Education, is to deliver excellent education and training in surgery in general and its specialties.
Surgery and surgical training are all about patients and their well-being. Trainees are responsible for the delivery of a significant proportion of the patient care of the local population, so the Postgraduate School of Surgery is particularly concerned with safety; ensuring that high quality surgical training takes place safely and producing surgeons who practice safely for the rest of their professional lives.
The School will deliver the requirements of General Medical Council (GMC) for core surgical training and specialty surgical training programmes within the South West embracing the needs and interests of all parties involved – to include the NHSE south west WTE, the Royal Colleges of Surgeons, the GMC, and the employing Trusts. The School works closely with the other thirteen Postgraduate Medical Schools, in the south west, that collectively manage all the medical and surgical postgraduate training programmes that currently have formal curricula.
The School of Surgery Board carries responsibility for managing the education of surgical trainees from the beginning of core surgical training until specialist training is completed. Training in surgery has changed radically over the last few years and the ISCP (the Inter-Collegiate Surgical Curriculum Programme) has now been adopted for all surgical training programmes. Further details can be found on the ISCP website. All trainees will need to register with this website as they navigate through their training and understand their curriculum.
The core values of the Postgraduate School of Surgery are:
- Patient Safety
- Excellence
- Collegiality
- Subsidiarity
- Professionalism
Patient Safety
We must make the care of our patients our first concern and must take prompt action if we think patient safety is being compromised. These are the primary principles of any surgeon of any grade. The School of Surgery strongly supports these principles.
Excellence
We wish to support and develop not only the trainee in difficulty but also the exceptional and gifted trainee. The programme also encourages trainees to seek out fellowships, present at meetings and obtain higher degrees. We would encourage you to let us know about any awards, successful visits, fellowships, and higher degrees with which you’ve been involved so your fellow trainees can benefit from your experiences.
Collegiality
The School Board regards it as very important in the era of reduced working hours to maximise the opportunities for learning between faculty and trainees in the theatre, clinics, wards and other learning environments.
Subsidiarity
The term ‘subsidiarity’ means the process to devolve effective decision making to the lowest appropriate administrative level so that sensible training decisions can be made as often as possible between trainer and trainee. This also implies that we encourage trainees to take charge of their own training by taking the initiative to seek out training opportunities wherever they can.
Professionalism
As a group, surgeons are trusted and looked up to by their patients and colleagues, co-workers and support staff. We garner a great deal of respect, and at the School we believe it is essential to acknowledge that, as well as earning and maintaining said trust. Professionalism is at the very core of what we practice and stand for. It includes the way we approach patients, our maintenance of confidentiality, the way we dress and conduct ourselves, not only in work, but at conferences, assessments and educational events. We represent not only ourselves, but the NHS, and above all, our profession. Please let none of us forget that fact.
In particular the school aims to achieve the following functions:
• To ensure that the provision of education in the Surgical Specialties is of the highest quality across the south west.
• To assist with the process of selection into CST level and into the higher specialty levels.
• To recommend placements of trainees into appropriate training locations.
• To ensure adequate delivery of the processes of induction and appraisal.
• To oversee the application of competency-based assessment in surgical specialties.
• 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 NHSE south west WTE strategy for training surgeons.
• To ensure that the School delivers a strategy for training in research and teaching skills.
• To assist the Quality Assurance Team 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 the Schools 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 NHSE south west WTE 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, Training Programme Directors), in an open and transparent fashion.
Rob Longman
Head of School of Surgery
Richard Bamford and Wes Lai
Deputy Heads of School of Surgery