Surgeon Peer-led Post-incident Response Teams Improvement Collaborative (SUPPORT), is a unique initiative aimed at improving the support systems provided to surgeons after adverse events across the UK.

Recruitment is now open for SUPPORT2 - Join for £2,000 + VAT. 

This unique improvement collaborative aims to strengthen peer-led support systems for surgeons following adverse events and improve wellbeing across surgical teams. We are recruiting 25 trusts and health boards across the UK to join this second phase.

Register your Trust or Health Board by 28 February 2026.

Read the SUPPORT1 Report

Watch our recent recruitment webinar.

This session will provided a behind-the-scenes look at how the collaborative works, the support and guidance your team will receive and the potential benefits for your trust or board.

Read The RCS England SUPPORT collaborative: where are we and what next? in the June 2025 edition of the Bulletin.

Background

Listen to Mr Kevin Turner, Clinical Lead for SUPPORT  introduce the SUPPORT project and its purpose.

Adverse events are a part of surgery, and we know that they impact the wellbeing of surgeons both personally and professionally. Despite this, the profession has been slow to recognise the breadth and depth of the impact on surgeons in the UK and slower still in considering how it should respond. 

RCS England’s Supporting surgeons after adverse events good practice guidance provides information on mitigating the impact of such events on surgeons, enabling better patient care and enhancing professional satisfaction.

To help implement this guidance into mainstream surgical practice, RCS England set up SUPPORT in 2024.

SUPPORT aims to work with sites introduce, develop, and maintain the practical approaches described by the RCS England’s Supporting surgeons after adverse events good practice guidance.

SUPPORT1 ran from December 2023 to March 2025. A detailed summary of the outcomes and lessons from SUPPORT1 is now available in our newly published report: Read the SUPPORT1 Report.

To build on the success of SUPPORT1 we are now recruiting to SUPPORT2.

SUPPORT2 project outline

We are recruiting 25 sites from the UK who will design, deliver, sustain and evaluate a peer to peer support system to support surgeons after an adverse event.

The project team delivering SUPPORT is a multi-professional team with expertise in surgery, psychology, Quality Improvement and QI project support.

Project team

• Mr Kevin Turner - Consultant Urological Surgeon and Visiting Professor
• Mr Arjun Nambiar - Consultant Urological Surgeon
• Dr Maddy Greville-Harris - Clinical Psychologist, Senior Lecturer
• Dr Olivia Donnelly - Consultant Clinical Psychologist
• Sheena MacSween - Programme Manager

Join SUPPORT2

Recruitment for SUPPORT2 is now live.

Thanks to the generous sponsorship from the MPS Foundation, the fee to participate is £2,000 + VAT (previously £7,500 + VAT) as the MPS Foundation will cover the remainder of the cost. 

Additional details:

• Trusts and health boards cover their own travel and expenses for any in-person meetings.
• The named project lead should be allocated 0.25 PA per week in their job plan to lead the project locally.

Register your Trust or Health Board’s place on the project.

SUPPORT2 planned timeline

• Recruitment, payment and pre-launch
  January 2025–June 2025

• Set-up and planning
  July 2025–December 2025

• Improvement Collaborative - live phase
  January 2026–March 2027
• Evaluation and reporting
  April 2027–September 2027

Find more information about SUPPORT.