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Surgical Tutor Recruitment

This information is provided as an overview to staff in NHS Trusts involved in recruiting Surgical Tutors. Once a tutor vacancy has become available; the trust should inform the regional school of surgery and the College. In the first instance, please contact the Outreach team at the College and will provide support and facilitate contact with the head of the school of surgery. 

The information below provides a detailed overview of the recruitment process while the Surgical Tutors Handbook provides in-depth information about the role. If you can’t find the information you need in the guide below, please get in touch.

Contact Us

Please notify us when a vacancy becomes available at your Trust. You can email us at OutreachNorth@rcseng.ac.uk for all recruitment in the North and Midlands or OutreachSouth@rcseng.ac.uk for London, the South, and Wales.

Surgical Tutor Appointments

Surgical Tutors, sometimes referred to as College Tutors, are responsible for providing leadership to surgical trainees in a trust or hospital, where they undertake a key role in supporting and demonstrating good governance of surgical training matters. Their appointment is tripartite, between the Royal College of Surgeons of England, the trust where they are based, and the school of surgery. The RCS England Outreach team manage the governance of the role and we support hospital trusts nationwide to coordinate recruitment.  

The recruitment process 

Upon receiving notification of a vacancy, the College will provide you with the recruitment documentation listed below. Please do not use older documents you may have on file. This ensures that the most up-to-date job description and eligibility criteria are used in your promotion and ensures consistency between Trusts. You will receive:

  1. RCS England Surgical Tutor application form template, please email Outreach North or Outreach South to receive this. 
  2. Role description
  3. Cover email template for advertising purposes
  4. Suggested interview questions

If there are any particulars that reflect local differences or you would like to include them in the role description, please let us know at this stage.

Recruitment timelines and interview dates

As per the tri-partite structure, the panel should comprise representatives from the:

  1. NHS trust: usually the director of medical education (DME)
  2. Royal College of Surgeons of England: usually the regional director or Outreach manager
  3. School of Surgery: usually the head of the school or a training programme director (TPD)

The NHS trust should provide availability for the DME to attend virtual interviews on Microsoft Teams with the College and the school of surgery to identify mutually convenient dates.  Once agreed, the NHS trust should put a hold on the diaries of panel members at this stage. The College recommends interview dates being set for 12 weeks from the advert going live, but will work with trusts as required. Often recruitment timeframes can be shorter if candidates are available.

PA allocation: Funding for the role

It is expected that a minimum of 1 PA be allocated in job plans in order to fulfil the requirements of the role. 

Trusts receive funding from the relevant statutory education body (SEB) to support educational activity, of which the Surgical Tutor role is an important part. Trusts may allocate funding to secure additional roles based on their local requirements as long as sufficient time is allocated within a job plan.

Additional tutors or job share arrangements may be considered in trusts where there are large numbers of trainees. Please get in touch with the Outreach team if you would like to seek advice.

Advertising the vacancy

The NHS trust is responsible for advertising the vacancy using the latest RCS England role description and application form with an initial closing date of four weeks. Where possible, the interview date should be stated in the advertisement to ensure candidates have enough time to make themselves available. It should be advertised to all consultants and surgeons who meet the person specification within the trust.

Arranging the interviews

After the deadline, the NHS trust should send invitations to applicants. We recommend the following structure for interviews:

  1. Pre-interview panel discussion: allow 15 minutes for the panel to convene
  2. First interview: 30 minutes per interview
  3. Allow at least 10 minutes between candidates
  4. Second interview: 30 minutes  Any further interviews can be included as required.
  5. Post-interview panel discussion time for the panel: approximately 15 minutes

The NHS trust should then circulate copies of the candidate applications to all panel members along with the suggested interview questions.

After the interview

The DME should telephone candidates with the result of their interview. Once the successful candidates have confirmed their acceptance of the post, the DME should email the panel to confirm the successful appointment.

The College will send a formal welcome message to every new Surgical Tutor and their post will be submitted for ratification to the College Council. The College will invite tutors to attend a virtual half-day induction session. These sessions are usually held three or four times per year. Tutors will also be invited to any upcoming regional board meetings organised by the College.

If the appointed candidate is not an existing member of RCS England, they will be asked for additional information in order for them to be ratified in their role.

The school of surgery will also arrange for tutors to be invited to core surgical training committees and other relevant activities once the appointment has been confirmed.

Appointing specialty tutors

Speciality Tutors have a valuable role in trusts but are not governed by the College or appointed on a tri-partite basis like Surgical Tutors or College Tutors. It is not necessary for the College to be represented in the interview panel and these tutors are not routinely invited to attend RCS England regional board meetings or the induction sessions.

If you need any further advice about appointing a specialty tutor in addition to a Surgical Tutor, please do get in touch.

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