The Medical Schools Council is closely associated with a number of organisations in the fields of medical education, research and patient care. The Medical Schools Council also works in partnership with other sector bodies on specific initiatives.
Academy of Medical Educators
The Academy of Medical Educators is the professional organisation for all involved in the education and training of medical students and doctors. Established in 2006, the Academy exists to provide leadership, promote standards and support all those involved in the academic discipline of medical education. The Academy provide a recognised framework so you can demonstrate your expertise and achievements in medical education through accreditation as a medical teacher to an agreed national standard. The Academy is also helping to develop a transparent career structure for specialist medical educators (both clinical and non-clinical).
Academy of Medical Royal Colleges
The Academy of Medical Royal Colleges has a leading role in the areas of Doctors’ revalidation, training and education and aims to speak with a clear and sure voice on generic health care issues for the benefit of patients and healthcare professionals. It has eight full-time members of staff who coordinate the work of the twenty one permanent members drawn from the Medical Royal Colleges though various committees. It has dual status as an independent corporate body and a charity.
Academy of Medical Sciences
The Academy of Medical Sciences promotes advances in medical science and campaigns to ensure these are converted into healthcare benefits for society. They campaign for the development, protection and promotion of careers for academics in biomedical sciences and encourage good practice in training and development. Their Fellows are the UK’s leading medical scientists from hospitals and general practice, academia, industry and the public service. The Academy seeks to play a pivotal role in determining the future of medical science in the UK, and the benefits that society will enjoy in years to come. They also champion the UK’s strengths in medical science, encourage the implementation of new ideas and solutions – often through novel partnerships – and help to remove barriers to progress.
Association of UK University Hospitals
The Association of UK University Hospitals is the key leadership body across the UK promoting the unique interests of University hospitals. Its role is to represent the unique tripartite - service, teaching and research - interests of UK University Hospital Trusts in partnership with other national bodies. The high quality teaching and research conducted within these institutions allows the quality of care provided to the patients they treat to be at the forefront of best practice throughout the UK.
British Medical Association
The BMA is the independent trade union and professional association for all doctors working in the UK, and provides members with full representation, employment support, advice and other valuable benefits. The BMA’s primary purpose is to support doctors and medical students in all aspects of their professional life and many areas of their personal life. They promote the medical and allied sciences, seek to maintain the honour and interests of the profession and promote the achievement of high-quality healthcare. As well as being an independent trade union, recognised by government as the voice of all doctors in the UK, the BMA is also a scientific and educational body, a publisher and the voice for doctors at home and abroad.
British Medical Association Medical Students Committee
The BMA Medical Student Committee is compiled of BMA student members from all UK medical schools who are elected to deal with issues affecting medical students. Members of the committee also sit on policy subcommittees that deal with issues relating to the finance, education and welfare of medical students across the UK. The national medical students committee (MSC) meets three or four times a year to discuss issues of national importance.
Conference of Postgraduate Medical Deans of the United Kingdom (COPMeD)
COPMeD acts as a focal point for contact between the Postgraduate Medical Deans and other organisations including the Medical Royal Colleges, GMC, BMA, Medical Schools Council and PMETB for postgraduate medical and dental education matters. They provide a forum in which members can meet to discuss current issues, share best practice and agree a consistent and equitable approach to training in all deaneries. COPMeD supports the development of excellence in postgraduate medical education through relationships with universities, promotion of quality research and development of a seamless continuum from undergraduate, through postgraduate to continuing education.
Council of Deans of Health
The Council of Deans of Health has 86 member universities throughout the United Kingdom. It is the principal source in higher education of collective views on education and research for nursing, midwifery and the allied healthcare professions. It aims to respond dynamically to the changes in the professions, and wider developments in health services and higher education. The Council works to maintain and enhance the quality of nursing and health profession education, and acts as a forum for the exchange of information and good practice.
Dental Schools Council
The Dental Schools Council, formerly the Council of Heads and Deans of Dental Schools (CHDDS), represents the interests and ambitions of UK Dental Schools as they relate to the generation of national health, wealth and knowledge acquisition through research and the profession of dentistry.
The Department of Health
The Department provides strategic leadership to the NHS and social care organisations in England. Their overall purpose is to ensure better health and well-being, better care and better value for all. Its work includes setting national standards, shaping the direction of health and social care services and promoting healthier living. They are committed to improving the quality and convenience of care provided by the NHS and social services.
The Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety
The Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety is one of 11 Northern Ireland Departments created in 1999 as part of the Northern Ireland Executive by the Northern Ireland Act 1998 and the Departments (Northern Ireland) Order 1999. The Department’s mission is to improve the health and social well-being of the people of Northern Ireland. It endeavours to do so by ensuring the provision of appropriate health and social care services, both in clinical settings such as hospitals and GPs’ surgeries, and in the community through nursing, social work and other professional services.
General Medical Council
The GMC’s statutory purpose is to protect, promote and maintain the health and safety of the public by ensuring proper standards in the practice of medicine. The law gives the GMC four main functions. These are: controlling entry to the medical register and keeping up-to-date registers of qualified doctors; establishing standards of good medical practice which reflect what society, and the profession, expects of doctors; setting the standards and outcomes for basic medical education in the United Kingdom covering undergraduate education and the first year of training after graduation (from April 2010, the GMC will be responsible for regulating all stages of medical education and training); and dealing firmly and fairly with doctors whose fitness to practise is in doubt. The GMC has a web page which contains information specifically for medical students at: www.gmc-uk.org/students
Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE)
HEFCE distributes public money for teaching and research to universities and colleges. In doing so, it aims to promote high quality education and research, within a financially healthy sector. The Council also plays a key role in ensuring accountability and promoting good practice. HEFCE was set up by the Government in 1992 as a 'non-departmental public body'. This means that they work within a policy framework set by the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, but are not part of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS). HEFCE have distinct statutory duties that are free from direct political control.
Medical Education England
NHS Medical Education England (MEE) represents the greatest opportunity since the establishment of the NHS in 1948 to align professional training, education and workforce needs with the needs of the service and patients. The concept for MEE was first put forward by Professor Sir John Tooke in his report ‘Aspiring to Excellence’ and it was established following a recommendation in the ‘NHS Next Stage Review: A High Quality Workforce’. MEE provides independent expert advice on education and training and workforce planning for doctors, dentists, healthcare scientists and pharmacists.
Medical Research Council
For almost 100 years the Medical Research Council (MRC) has improved the health of people in the UK and around the world by supporting the highest quality science. The MRC invests in world-class scientists. It has produced 28 Nobel Prize winners and sustains a flourishing environment for internationally recognised research. It focuses on making an impact and provides the financial muscle and scientific expertise behind medical breakthroughs, including the first antibiotic penicillin, the structure of DNA and the lethal link between smoking and cancer. Today MRC funded scientists tackle research into the major health challenges of the 21st century.
National Institute for Health Research (NIHR)
The NIHR's mission is to create a health research system in which the NHS supports outstanding individuals working in world class facilities, conducting leading edge research focused on the needs of patients and the public.
NHS Confederation
The NHS Confederation is the only independent membership body for the full range of organisations that make up today’s NHS. They represent 99% of NHS organisations and a growing number of independent healthcare providers. Their ambition is a health system that delivers first-class services and improved health for all.
NHS Education for Scotland (NES)
NES helps to provide better patient care by designing, commissioning, quality assuring and, where appropriate, providing education, training and lifelong learning for the NHS workforce in Scotland. Everything they do and plan is based on eight fundamental principles: Patient-centred outcomes for all our work streams; equity of access to educational support for all NHS Scotland staff; appropriate balance between uni-/multi-disciplinary approaches to education; responses to service needs that are speedy and effective; working in partnership; evidence-based and quality assured frameworks for all developments; a value-added dimension to all our initiatives; and valuing diversity and striving for a culturally competent workforce.
NHS Employers
NHS Employers represents trusts in England on workforce issues and helps employers to ensure the NHS is a place where people want to work. The largest employer in Europe, NHS Employers keep employers up to date on the latest workforce thinking, provide practical advice and information as well as helping them to network and share knowledge. They work with employers to reflect their views and act on their behalf in four main priority areas: pay and negotiation, recruitment and planning the workforce, healthy and productive workplaces and employment policy and practice.
NIMDTA
The Northern Ireland Medical and Dental Training Agency (NIMDTA) is responsible for funding, managing and supporting postgraduate medical and dental education within the Northern Ireland Deanery. It provides a range of services for those engaged in the delivery of postgraduate Medical and Dental education and training. Overall management responsibility rests with the Chief Executive/Postgraduate Dean. There are currently 163 staff, including a large number of Medical and Dental professionals, on the payroll of the Agency. Seventy-eight members of staff are based at Agency Headquarters.
Royal Medical Benevolent Fund
The Fund is the leading charity for the medical profession. It helps GMC registered doctors and their dependants, resident in any part the UK – if they are unable to work due to accident, illness, disability or crisis and where they have little in the way of income and savings. They also arrange specialist Money Advice to ensure beneficiaries receive the full State Benefits for which they are eligible, renegotiate debts (where appropriate) and gain fuller control of their financial situation. Two interesting complementary Fund initiatives are www.support4doctors.org and www.money4medstudents.org.
Scottish Board for Academic Medicine
The Scottish Board for Academic Medicine was established in October 2005 following the Scottish Executive response to the Review of Basic Medical Education in Scotland that was chaired by Sir Kenneth Calman in 2004. Following an invitation extended by the Vice Chancellors of the five Scottish Universities with Medical Schools, Sir David Carter, former Chief Medical Officer in Scotland and former Regius Professor of Clinical Surgery in the University of Edinburgh, was appointed Chairman.
Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA)
UCEA provides UK Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) with a framework for discussion, advice and guidance on a range of pay and employment matters. UCEA advises HEIs specifically on appropriate salary arrangements for clinical academic doctors and dentists; advises on good employment practice in employment of these staff; and represents the interests of HEI employers in discussions with the BMA/BDA and other stakeholders such as NHS Employers, DH and DIUS. UCEA aims to provide HEI employers with the information and advice needed to underpin competitive recruitment and retention policies for clinical academics and to ensure that any changes to the pay or employment framework of doctors in the NHS are taken into account with respect to their academic counterparts.
UK Clinical Aptitude Test (UKCAT) Consortium
The UKCAT is an entrance test for applicants to medical and dental schools, derived from existing selection tests that are already used in job applications and other arenas. The test is an appraisal of aptitude, not knowledge. The UKCAT was developed and is delivered by Pearson Vue and its associates in collaboration with representatives of the participating medical and dental schools. UKCAT is committed to achieving greater fairness in selection to medicine and dentistry and to the widening participation in medical and dental training of under-represented social groups.
UK Foundation Programme Office
The UK Foundation Programme Office (UKFPO) administers the Foundation Programme. This provides two years of structured, workplace-based learning for junior doctors in safe and supervised environments and forms a bridge between medical school and Specialty/GP training. All medical graduates must undertake, and complete the Foundation Programme in order to work as a doctor in the UK.
UK Healthcare Education Advisory Committee (UKHEAC)
The Joint Medical Advisory Committee (JMAC) was established in 1992 jointly by the UK higher education funding bodies (HEFCE, SFC, HEFCW and DENI) to advise them on medical and dental education matters. In November 2006 the name was changed to the UK Healthcare Education Advisory Committee to reflect the committee's broader healthcare remit. UKHEAC recently commissioned a report into good practice in NHS/university relations across the UK. The study was undertaken by Andrew Snowden, an independent consultant with experience at senior levels within both universities and the NHS.
UK Research Integrity Office (UK RIO)
The UK Research Integrity Office (UK RIO) is an independent body which offers advice and guidance to universities, NHS Trusts and other research organisations, and to individual researchers, about the conduct of research. Hosted by Universities UK, its aims are to: promote the good governance, management and conduct of research, share good practice on how to address misconduct in research and give advice and guidance on specific cases. The advice and guidance provided by UKRIO is applicable to all subject areas.
Universities UK
UniversitiesUK is the major representative body and membership organisation for the higher education sector. Their members are the executive heads of UK universities. Together with Higher Education Wales and Universities Scotland, they work to advance the interests of universities and to spread good practice throughout the higher education sector.
Welsh Assembly Government - The Department for Health and Social Services
The Welsh Assembly Government is committed to supporting the people of Wales to live healthy and independent lives and to ensure that when they need health and social care services, they get the right care, in the right place, at the right time. The Department for Health and Social Services is responsible for: advising the Welsh Assembly Government in setting policies and strategies for health and social care in Wales; contributing to making legislation in the field of health and social care; providing funding for the NHS and other health and social care bodies; managing and supporting the delivery of health and social care services; and monitoring and promoting improvements in service delivery.