The Role of the Specialty School

Specialty Training: The Role of the Specialty School

The Medical Royal Colleges have jurisdiction over specialty curricula across the country in accordance with certain principles of training and curriculum development formerly published by The Postgraduate Medical Education and Training board (PMETB – now GMC). The GMC consider them for approval. Only approved curricula can be used for delivering specialty training programmes. The Medical Royal Colleges’ websites contact details are in the final section of this guide. 

 The specialty schools within KSS Deanery are virtual organisations, operating across the region. They are the Royal Colleges’ delegated local representatives and work closely with KSS Deanery to ensure that specialty curricula are delivered across the region and to support the quality management of training delivered within LEPs.

Each specialty school in KSS Deanery has a specific organisational chart. Across the specialties this shows how the specialty school operates across the region showing the name of the Head of School, training programme directors across all parts of the region and college tutors in each LEP. The chart also shows how the specialty school is supported by staff in the Specialty Workforce Team. 

A typical STC organisational chart is included below, although most specialties have variations on this structure.

Each specialty school in KSS Deanery must produce an annual business plan. A plan template is available from KSS Deanery. The business plan provides a framework - with objectives and milestones - for the school to plan recruitment numbers, induction, regional training days, ARCPs, programme management, budgets and a range of other activities. It also links planning to resourcing and budgets.