Acting Up as a Consultant

Under supervision ‘acting up’ provides final year trainees the transitional experience from trainee to consultant. A period of ‘acting up’ offers trainees an opportunity to get a feel for the role while still being under a level of supervision.

The post must be defined as 'acting up' for an absent consultant, and cannot be used to fill a new locum consultant post or to fill service needs.

You may act up as a consultant if:

• You are in the final year of training
• Have passed the Intercollegiate Specialty Exam
• The post does not exceed a total of three months

Applying for SAC provisional support

You will need to send the JCST:

• Written confirmation of support from your Training Programme Director confirming the exact dates of the period and that the post is an existing, substantive consultant post
• Confirmation that your Deanery/LETB is aware of the Acting up period
• The name of your consultant supervisor, who will be working in the same hospital
• Name of the absent consultant
• Up to date CV

Please note that this application should be submitted before starting the acting up post.

The 'Acting Up' post should be assessed by your RITA panel.