SAS (speciality and specialist) doctors' week was launched in October 2022 to promote SAS as a positive career choice, help employers understand the benefits of the SAS grades and those associated with the 2021 contracts and encourage leaders and managers from across the NHS to support their SAS doctors with recognition and development.
Approximately a quarter of the UK psychiatric workforce are SAS doctors – substantive doctors recruited on national contracts to specialty and specialist doctor roles. This group is diverse, ranging from the most junior – with four years of postgraduate medical experience, at least two of which are in psychiatry – to the most senior, experienced, highly skilled and independent practitioners of over 30 years.
The composition of the medical workforce, including that of the psychiatric workforce, is changing. GMC data shows that the number of doctors choosing to spend time outside training programmes grew significantly from 16.9% in 2010 to 62.5% in 2018, with significant growth in the SAS group further predicted. Over the past five years, there has been a large increase (47%) in the numbers of doctors who are neither on the specialist register nor in a training programme.
Within SHSC SAS doctors work in a wide variety of services including older adult community teams, older adult inpatient wards, liaison services, general adult inpatient wards, general adult community teams, perinatal services, gender identity services, specialist psychotherapy services and research teams.
During SAS week 2023, we will share with you some of the stories of the SHSC SAS doctors, their roles and achievements, as well as looking at how SHSC is supporting SAS doctors’ development across a variety of settings.
