SAS posts are accessible to you throughout your clinical career. If you opt to depart from your training route to move into a SAS post, do consider the stage of training you are at beforehand. For specialty posts you need a full General Medical Council registration and a minimum of four years’ postgraduate training (two years of which must be in the relevant specialty).

One of the distinctions to reflect on is how your role will differ if you stay on the pathway to CCT as opposed to pursuing a specialty doctor career route. As you are no longer in a training role you may find that your focus is on meeting NHS service requirements, compared to your consultant colleagues. To learn more about the similarities and differences in specialty, specialist and consultant roles, the BMA have produced a comparison table  bma-specialty-doctor-specialist-and-consultant-roles-and-responsibilities-comparison-table-jul-2021.pdf (if this pdf can’t be linked then this takes you to the web page) ​​The 2021 specialist grade explained (bma.org.uk)

Dr Janine Griffiths is a Specialty Doctor in Perinatal Mental Health for Mersey Care NHS Trust. Dr Griffiths qualified in 1997 and started her training in Psychiatry and combined this with family life. Dr Griffiths had a period of ill health and reduced to LTFT. She continued to progress through her placements, on calls and passing the required exams but a turning point came after her third child was born. After much deliberation, Dr Griffiths realised that having an active part and being present in their lives meant that she needed to think differently about her clinical career and carved out a career route for herself that enabled her to fit in her love of clinical practice with raising a family. Dr Griffiths spoke with supervisors, management and other doctors and realised there was the option of becoming an SAS doctor, applied for a job in the Early Intervention team in a part-time capacity and this was the best career decision she has ever made. Dr Griffiths now has 4 children, loves her job and gets personal satisfaction from her work and parent life.  

Career opportunities  

1. SAS rep on the LNC. The BMA provided training and this was a role that Dr Griffiths was involved in for over 10 years. 
2. An Appraiser, the Trust was encouraging and supportive and training was provided the biggest challenge was managing time as many appraisals fall at the same time. 
3. In 2019, Dr Griffiths became the SAS Lead which coincided with Covid. The role altered significantly from education and career development to wellbeing and creating a supportive online SAS community.  
4. Perinatal SAS rep for the Royal College of Psychiatrists, this takes a management role, and this experience is thoroughly enjoyable as she has two branches of knowledge the perinatal and the SAS experience to share.  
5. SAS Advocate - this is the next area of interest for Dr Griffiths. These are still very new roles and what is interesting about this opportunity is that it combines wellbeing and leadership together which is a natural for her skills, interest, and experience. 

Tips 

1. It is vital to find your SAS Peer Group in your Trust. From a career development perspective, you learn about the ever-changing career opportunities open to you and you have an opportunity to share best practice with each other. 
2. It is so important to work in an area that brings you joy so do take time to think about this in your career decision making.
3. Make sure you use your SAS study leave and develop your non-clinical skills whether that be leadership, education, or service improvement.  
4. The SAS Charter has created management roles and it is important to think through your job plan and be clear with your supervisor how much time is needed within your job plan.  
5. There are Trust meetings that you can attend. Remember that you are invited to these and do make time to go. Often it is where you hear about other career opportunities that you otherwise wouldn't do. 

Dr. Kshitij Srivastave started his career in India and became a consultant in 2015. From a career enhancement perspective Kshitij wanted to gain further sub-specialty experience in the UK and applied for the Master of Surgery (MCh). This  is an International Training Fellowship Scheme designed to offer an opportunity for international clinicians, who have already achieved higher postgraduate qualifications to come to the UK and study for the Master whilst working in a NHS Trust. After completing the programme and working as a Specialty Registrar in Bolton NHS Foundation Trust he applied for a post in Orthopaedics in London and successfully secured this position.

Benefits and Challenges 

From a career perspective, Kshitij highlighted areas to think about and consider. Think about the role you are in as often within your job plan the focus will be on service provision and as such you need to be flexible and responsive to the needs of the team and department. Kshitij is working towards his CESR and this takes time, not only to achieve the number of procedures needed but as a non-trainee you have to be very proactive to secure the clinical and non-clinical requirements.