Clinical Excellence Awards in England and Wales

Clinical Excellence Awards for consultants in England and Wales are open to applications via a number of routes including the Trusts, medical Royal Colleges, Specialist Societies and self-nomination.

ACCEA requires specialist societies that wish to make nominations for Clinical Excellence Awards to apply for registration as recognised nominating organisations; the British Pain Society will once again apply for registration. Once registered, we will be invited to make a specific number of nominations determined by total membership. The Society will convene a panel to consider applications for nominations. The panel will comprise a mixture of national award and non-national award holders along with at least one lay member who has informed lay involvement in health care and knowledge of the NHS; the Society's CEA Committee for the last round (2007) was constituted in this way and worked very satisfactorily.

Assessment process
ACCEA insists that the assessment process should be fair and equitable. This year the Society's CEA Committee will be using the newly introduced, standard ACCEA scoring system which gives equal weighting to each of the five domains. The maths of this is self-evident and obviously it is important to score well in all 5 domains. The British Pain Societywill inform applicants whether they are to be supported or not but ACCEA does not expect individual candidates' results or scores to be published. Please note that should a member of the assessment panel seek nomination from the society, that panel member must leave the room during discussion of their application.

The British Pain Society is expected to submit a citation to ACCEA, using the online system, for each candidate nominated and failure to submit a citation for any candidate will render all the nominations from the Society invalid. So, if you are asked to write a citation please take the task seriously and deliver on time. Additionally the British Pain Society has to provide a ranked list, on the official ACCEA ranking template, setting out nominated candidates in priority order. This is all the Society has to do.

It is the candidate's own, total, sole, individual responsibility to ensure that the final CVQ forms are submitted directly to ACCEA before the advertised deadline.

Details of the Awards system for England, together with forms, can be found on the ACCEA website at www.advisorybodies.doh.gov.uk/accea/. It is very important for potential applicants to look closely at the criteria for these awards to ensure that they realistically fit the profile that ACCEA has described. The British Pain Society is very keen to encourage consultants to apply if they think that they might be eligible. The Society is only able to assess excellence in work carried out in the area of pain medicine. Excellence achieved locally or in other spheres should be rewarded through alternative routes. If you feel that you make a significant contribution to pain medicine in the wider NHS you should apply through the BPS but you must also submit an application through your local Trust, as it is very much more likely to succeed with the support of your employer.

Applications for the 2008 round
The closing date for submission of CVQ forms to the British Pain Society was 18 October 2007.

The sieving committee met on the 15th November 2007, and those who applied should have now received formal notification from the British Pain Society of the outcome of their application.

Membership of the British Pain Society's sieving committee was as follows:

Dr Douglas Justins, Consultant in Pain Management & Anaesthesia, London (nominating officer)
Dr Nick Allcock, Associate Professor - Nursing, Nottingham
Dr Beverly Collett, Consultant in Pain Management & Anaesthesia, Leicester
Dr Joan Hester, Consultant in Pain Medicine, London
Professor Richard Langford, Consultant/Reader in Anaesthesia & Pain, London
Mr Adam Martin, Project Manager, Chronic Pain Policy Coalition
Dr Catherine Price, Consultant in Pain Medicine, Hampshire
Dr Jonathan Richardson, Consultant in Pain Medicine, Bradford
Dr William Campbell, Consultant in Pain Management & Anaesthesia, Belfast

Further information regarding these awards and application forms are available from: www.advisorybodies.doh.gov.uk/accea

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