Page 40 - IDF Journal 2023

IDF – Webinar Series IDF News – Spring 2023
How to Prepare for your IDF Appraisal?
Dr Alexandra Harkins
A webinar was held in November 2022 with the aim of helping IDF appraisees with their appraisal preparation and included guidance on how to approach the IDF appraisal form. A subsequent question and answer webinar on how to prepare for your IDF appraisal was held to allow a further opportunity for members to ask questions about the appraisal process.
IDF Medical Appraisal builds on the positives of IDF Medical Appraisal 2020 with a flexible supportive approach
while recognising the need for the IDF Responsible Officer (RO) to have sufficient assurance of connected members when making revalidation recommendations. The IDF encourages appraisees to be proportionate in their preparation with the emphasis on quality rather than quantity of supporting information. The IDF recognises the importance of appraisees maintaining their health and well-being in order to be able to offer high quality and safe care. The webinar did not cover the specific technical aspects of the appraisal form but the revalidation team are always happy to assist appraisees if required.
The GMC guidance on supporting information for appraisal and revalidation (Nov 2020) provides the mandatory requirements for appraisals and revalidation.
The IDF is a Designated body (DB)
for GMC Revalidation. Unlike most other designated bodies, the IDF does not employ its doctors and so holds less governance information about its connected doctors than employing organisations. All connected members of the IDF (those with IDF as their DB) are required to have their appraisal
through the IDF appraisal system. Non connected members (those who are connected to a different DB) may choose to have their appraisal through the IDF appraisal system provided their own
RO is in agreement. Appraisal provides vital clinical governance oversight of this particular group of doctors and without this, as a non-employing designated body, the doctors would have very little centralised clinical governance in place.
The IDF has an online appraisal form (based on the latest Medical Appraisal Guide 2022) and its own bespoke revalidation platform which enables the IDF Revalidation team to perform a wide range of searches making it possible to track each doctor’s progress towards revalidation. The IDF revalidation platform has some additional requirements to meet the needs of the IDF as a non-employing designated body e.g. a section in the appraisal form for the indemnity certificate to be uploaded. The uploaded indemnity certificate should be current at the date
of the appraisal meeting and cover the full scope of work. The IDF medical appraisal form can be opened following payment of the appraisal administration fee. Appraisees may choose when to open their form but many choose to
do so well in advance of their appraisal meeting in order to use the appraisal form as a working document throughout the appraisal year to aid preparation.
The IDF website has a variety of
guidance documents and templates to assist appraisees with their appraisal preparation and these are in the ‘Appraisal Guidance’ subsection of the ‘Appraisal’ section. Useful guidance documents include doctors approaching retirement, formal patient and colleague feedback, and returning to work post
an absence. The IDF website also has useful structured reflective templates to help prompt reflection and these cover the following areas: audit, continuing professional development (CPD), case reviews, health, probity, significant events, formal patient and colleague feedback, and complaints.
Following the updated Medical Appraisal Guide, the IDF has updated its bespoke
The GMC guidance on supporting information for appraisal and revalidation (Nov
2020) provides the mandatory requirements for appraisals and revalidation.
appraisal form to be more streamlined, avoid unnecessary duplication, and improve appraisee and appraiser user experience. The IDF launched version
5 of the appraisal form in September 2022. The form now includes an optional wellbeing section for appraisees as
we recognise the importance of health and wellbeing for doctors providing
high quality and safe care. The PDF component of the form has been upgraded to make this more user friendly.
Appraisees should include their full scope of work and complete the relevant information for each scope: job title or role, detail of work, year commenced, organisation, and contact details.
Appraisees should review their progress against their last personal development plan. The IDF appreciates that plans sometimes change during the year and it may not be possible for goals to be achieved. Appraisees should make clear the reasons for this.
The GMC guidance makes clear that,
for continuing professional development, doctors must carry out CPD activities every year which cover the whole of their practice and are tailored to their scope of practice and needs. Learning needs and plans for CPD should be reflected
in the personal development plan for
the coming year. CPD should focus on outcomes i.e. include reflection on what has been learned from the activity and
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