Recruitment to two senior JCST posts

On behalf of the 4 surgical colleges of the UK and Ireland, we are seeking to appoint two exceptional individuals to lead key areas of the JCST’s work under the overall direction of the JCST Chairman:

ISCP Surgical Director

Developed and overseen by the Joint Committee on Surgical Training, its Specialty Advisory Committees (SACs), Training Interface Groups (TIGs) and Core Surgical Training Advisory Committee (CSTAC), the ISCP has been fully operational since 2007. It is a living curriculum, the content of which must keep pace with changes in practice in individual specialties and in surgical training as a whole. We also strive constantly to respond to feedback and to improve its user-friendliness for both trainees and trainers. In 2016 we launched a significantly updated version of the online training management system and are now working on a rolling programme of further development.

All of this takes place within the framework established by the regulator, the GMC, which approves all postgraduate training curricula and monitors changes on a regular basis. A further challenge in the near future will be meeting the GMC’s new standards for postgraduate curricula and incorporating and implementing its new Generic Professional Capabilities (GPC) Framework.

The Surgical Director will provide clinical leadership for the ISCP, act as a champion in increasing familiarity among both trainees and trainers, and work to foster and promote excellence in surgical education and training.

Applicants should be practising consultant surgeons with recent experience of managing and delivering surgical training, extensive familiarity with the ISCP and experience of chairing or leading a relevant regional or national training committee. Excellent leadership, management and interpersonal skills will be essential.

The JCST will reimburse the successful applicant’s Trust/Health Board for 2 PAs per week. The official term of office will begin on 1 January 2018. 

JCST QA Lead

The JCST is committed to developing, promoting and ensuring the highest possible standards of surgical training for the benefit of patients. Quality improvement, management and assurance are at the heart of all that we do. The QA Lead will provide clinical leadership for this activity, chairing our QA Group and overseeing initiatives such as our trainee and trainer surveys, our quality indicators (QIs) for training posts and our certification and benchmarking guidelines, as well as ensuring that we provide high quality support for local quality management activity.

Applicants should be practising consultant surgeons with recent experience of managing and delivering surgical training, experience of chairing or leading a relevant regional or national training committee and a demonstrable understanding of and commitment to quality improvement in training. Excellent leadership, management and interpersonal skills are also essential.

The official term of office will begin during the spring of 2018.

How to apply

Job descriptions, person specifications and application forms for both posts are available from Maria Bussey, Head of ISCP (mbussey@jcst.org; tel: 020
7869 6263) or Sarah Lay, JCST Quality Manager (slay@jcst.org; 020 7869 6228).

Mr Gareth Griffiths, the current ISCP Surgical Director and JCST Chairman-designate, and Mr Joe O’Beirne, the current QA Lead, are also available to discuss the respective posts and can be contacted via the JCST secretariat.

The closing date for applications is Friday 1 September. Interviews will beheld at the Royal College of Surgeons of England on Tuesday 19 September 2017.