Scotland Deanery

NES is a special Health Board and Medicine is one of the directorates. The Scotland Deanery was created on 1 April 2014 from the four previous Deaneries in Scotland, it is responsible for managing the training programmes across four regions. Staff in the regional teams work closely with the wider NHS through the territorial Health Boards and regional workforce planning groups.

The Scottish model allows our four regions to work together as part of the Medical Directorate of NES, ensuring equity of recruitment and trainee management approach. National policies and working committees such as Specialty Training Boards (STBs) mean that Scotland can deliver consistently high quality standards, and allows us a stronger voice on a UK basis.

Our Postgraduate Deans and GP Directors (termed Lead Dean Directors – LDDs) provide strategic leadership and direction for postgraduate medical education and training to meet the requirements of the GMC.  They take advice from Royal Colleges and Faculties to assist them.  In doing so, they ensure consistent regional delivery of national and NES policies.

In each of our regional offices there are facilities for you to use as a Programme Director – hot desks, video conferencing availability as well as meeting rooms which can be booked to hold meetings or events.

We hope that you will find this handbook useful and that it will be a valuable reference guide in your role as either Training Programme Director or Foundation Programme Director. The role of the Programme Director is critical to the ambitions of delivering excellent Postgraduate education. The Handbook provides a documentary guide to the role of the Programme Director and the mechanisms for delivery of the curriculum and training. The teams within Training Programme Management will be able to provide guidance and we would encourage you to contact Deanery staff if there are any issues that you feel require further information. Additionally, there is a network of Associate Postgraduate Deans who can be consulted, as well as the Lead Dean Directors for all specialties. Included is information from the Quality team of NES which clarifies the processes involved in ensuring the highest quality of training is available for trainees.

This page was last updated on: 23.02.2022 at 09.17