Obtaining a Consultant Post
Once you have been offered a consultant post, you will need to examine the contract details and negotiate your job plan. While the RCS cannot get involved with employment terms and conditions, we can offer the following advice.
Your contract of employment
Consultants are employed under national terms and conditions of service, which have been agreed between the British Medical Association and the Department of Health. Your contract of employment, however, will be between you and the employing trust. The BMA website offers advice for members on such matters.Job planning
Your contract will be based on an agreed job plan which should be reviewed annually. We provide guidance on consultant job planning, while the NHS Employers website provides a toolkit to assist consultants with job planning. It contains:
- job planning handbook: tools and discussion points aimed at provoking thought in the development of effective job planning
- training package: to help clinical managers and others to develop effective job planning
- evaluation framework: to help organisations and clinicians to assess the impact of implementing the contract and an improved job planning process
- reference manual: containing all published contractual and guidance documentation relating to the 2003 contract and the new standards of best practice in job planning