About the Scotland Deanery

The Scotland Deanery’s primary responsibility is the education and training of doctors in Scotland.

We are also responsible for the appraisal and re-validation of all doctors in Scotland as well as a number of cross cutting and multi-professional programmes, including patient safety, quality improvement of patient care and the development of Scotland’s remote and rural workforce.

Most of our focus is on the training of Scotland’s 6000 postgraduate trainee doctors who deliver care every day while in hospitals and general practices within NHS Scotland. We oversee this training, making sure it meets the regulatory standards of the GMC and that trainees make the right progress.

Through distribution of Additional Cost of Teaching (ACT) funding, we support the undergraduate medical education and training delivered by Scotland’s 5 medical schools: making sure significant resources are used properly to underpin the clinical teaching of medical students in hospitals and general practices.

The continuing development of doctors is another key task and we support many educational and training initiatives for fully trained Consultants, General Practitioners and Associate Specialists.

Alongside this we lead on multiprofessional training schemes for pharmacists, general practice nurses and general practice managers, whilst having a pivotal role in relevant research through our involvement in the Scottish Medical Education Research Consortium.

Our overarching aim is to deliver first-class medical education and training for Scotland to ensure safe, effective care for patients, both now and in the future.