Accreditation

Protocol for Accreditation of external meetings

Summary

Somerset GP Education Trust (SGPET) includes amongst its objectives the accreditation of educational meetings arranged in Somerset for General Practitioners and practice staff by organisations other than SGPET itself.

Such accreditation is intended to assure GPs and other potential attendees that the meeting is appropriately organised and resourced, and that the content is relevant to general practice and likely to be of interest and value to a significant number of General Practitioners or practice employees in the County.

Accreditation Application Form.  Please complete and return to SGPET together with a copy of the Programme.

Process

SGPET will accept applications for accreditation from a range of organisations; these may include individual general practices, hospital trusts, pharmaceutical companies and commercial providers.

When to hold your meeting

SGPET organises approximately 80 events per year, to ensure your meeting does not clash with other dates and to maximise the attendance you may wish to check the SGPET  website  or email us lmc.sgpet@nhs.net

Application Procedure

Applicants for accreditation should contact the SGPET office with a completed accreditation form and Programme.

Applications will be assessed against the following criteria:

• Relevance of meeting content to general practice at that time
• Satisfactory explanation of the aims and of objectives of the meeting
• Satisfactory explanation of the learning styles and methods used in the meeting
• Commitment to return a delegate list and an evaluation form to SGPET within two weeks of the meeting taking place.

Bookings

You will need to provide details for bookings as SGPET cannot undertake this for you.

Assessment of Applications

Each application will be considered by one of the GP Education leads.  If an application is declined the applicants may request that a group of three members of the SGPET Committee (but excluding the initial assessor) reconsiders the application.  Under normal circumstances an application will be assessed within one week of receipt, in the event of an appeal a further seven days from the receipt of the appeal in the SGPET office must be allowed.

Disallowal of applicants

Where a previous applicant has either persistently failed to return evaluation information or the evaluation information suggests that the courses are substandard then SGPET reserves the right not to accept any applications for accreditation from such a provider.

Charging

SGPET will levy an administration charge to cover the cost of accreditation.  This charge to be decided from time to time by the Committee.  The charge is £50.  Where accreditation is refused normally no charge will be levied, though the Trust reserves the right to do so.  The Committee may choose to waive the charge in a particular case.

Evaluation and reflective practice

As an educational organisation SGPET understands the importance of evaluating education events, providing feedback to speakers and helping form the future programme.  SGPET require copies of the evaluation forms or a summary of the feedback after the event, within 2 weeks where possible.

Reflective practice is also important for the learner and we encourage this by providing each delegate with a suitable document to summarise the main learning points.

Benefits of Accreditation

Accredited meetings will be notified to members via regular fortnightly email bulletins and being advertised on the SGPET website and meeting diary.  Accredited meetings are included in the annual attendance certificates provided to all members

We regret that we cannot help with the promotion of non-accredited GP education events; although on a case by case basis SGPET may be able to advertise on the website.

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