The government will make an announcement on the continuance or otherwise of the national Clinical Excellence Awards scheme “as early as possible” in 2012.

The body which administers the scheme - the ACCEA - has been informed by ministers that there will definitely be a renewals round, but uncertainty still shrouds the local and national schemes.

If the announcement is positive in the New Year, the ACCEA will open the round soon afterwards and will ensure that the application process remains open for eight working weeks.

CEAs, which are awarded to doctors who work above and beyond their contractual commitments, have been under review since August 2010 and have been subject to a series of un-negotiated cuts.

The pay review body reported on the future of the scheme to ministers some time ago, but the government has yet to announce what will happen to the doctors’ reward scheme.

In 2011, the number of national awards was limited to 300 for the second year running in an attempt to cut costs. In 2009, 601 national awards were made to doctors in England and Wales.

Furthermore, the ratio used to calculate the minimum level of investment for employer-based awards was reduced in 2011 from 0.35 to 0.2 per eligible consultant, making it much harder to secure a local CEA.

Mark Porter, chair of the BMA’s consultants committee, said: “The government has seriously delayed confirmation on the 2012 round of CEAs. However, we have pressed strongly for the round to go ahead in order to recognise appropriately the contribution of consultants to excellence in care and expect the round to be delayed rather than cancelled.

“We have also worked with employers both locally and nationally and in most trusts the Local Negotiating Committees have secured agreement to mount the 2012 employer-based awards round.”

The ACCEA is urging doctors to continue accessing their website to keep up-to-date.

The BMA Northern Ireland consultants committee recently informed health, social services and public safety minister Edwin Poots that it will seek leave for a judicial review into suspension of CEAs in Northern Ireland.

The BMA’s Dr Steven Austin said the decision to suspend CEAs in Northern Ireland while they continued in England and Wales would have an adverse impact on service delivery and deter people from working there.

However, the BMA confirmed that there would be no legal action in England and Wales “at present”.

Read more on the value of CEAs.

The body which administers clinical excellence awards - the ACCEA - has finally published the list of those doctors who were successful in applying for new national awards in the 2011 round.

However, the number of awards has been limited to 300 for the second year running in an attempt to cut costs. In 2009, 601 national awards were made to doctors in England and Wales. This was slashed to 317 in 2010.

The ACCEA received 996 applications for bronze, 789 applications for silver, 206 applications for gold and 100 applications for platinum awards in the 2011 round.

It awarded 154 bronze awards, 87 silver awards, 33 gold awards and 25 platinum awards in England. The results for Wales are yet to be announced.

In a letter to the Chair and Medical Director of ACCEA, health minister Simon Burns said: “My judgement is that the best course is to limit the volume of the new awards to 300 as last year. This number of awards would be a significant recognition of the work which has been done by the most excellent consultants in pursuit of NHS objectives.

“It would also allow us to retain scarce resources and enable us to be on a good footing when we launch a new scheme in due course. In the current climate, we are having to take a number of difficult decisions across the public sector. A limit on new awards for consultants this year is just one of these.”

The announcement of successful applicants was delayed by the uncertainty surrounding the scheme following the Pay Review Body’s (DDRB) inquiry into its future. The government asked the DDRB to review the awards scheme back in mid-2010, but the profession is still awaiting the report findings and the government’s response.

It has disrupted the CEA application process, and there is no confirmation as yet on whether the 2012 round for national awards will go ahead.

The ACCEA said the government is currently considering the recommendations made by the DDRB and the duration of the new awards and renewals will be dependent on the transitional arrangements into any new scheme.

ACCEA will communicate with all new award holders and renewals once the details of any new scheme and the implications for the current award holders have been finalised. It said this is likely to be in 2012.

The 2012 round of national awards has not yet opened. Part of the remit for the DDRB review was to give advice to the Department of Health on whether there should be a new awards round in 2012.

An ACCEA spokesman said: “We are still awaiting a decision on this. We are anticipating that there will be a renewals round and although we are working on the assumption that there will also be a new awards round, until we know this for certain, we cannot open the online submission process.

“Therefore, the 2012 round for national awards will have to open later than usual. We are currently preparing on the basis that we would open the round in October and will issue new guidance at this stage. We will aim to maintain the closing date of 9 December 2011 for national awards.”

Bronze awards are worth £35,484 per annum; Silver awards £46,644; Gold £58,305, and platinum £75,796.

Dr Mark Porter, chairman of the BMA’s consultants committee, commented: “We’re extremely disappointed that this is yet another area of stealth cuts being imposed by the government. Consultants deliver high quality, innovative services that save the NHS money. Failing to reward those who go the extra mile is to fail to support excellence and quality

“Many organisations, not least the government, are realising that clinical leadership is the key to both clinical and financial success. Consultants have a proven track record of being these clinical leaders whether in formal management positions or not, and imaginatively producing innovations - exactly what the clinical excellence award scheme has been designed to encourage. It’s quite astounding that at the very moment the government wants to encourage and reward excellent performance on one’s job, the system that does so is being criticised as a ‘bonus scheme’ - which it is not and never has been.”

Read the full list of national CEA recipients.

The body which administers Clinical Excellence Awards is to delay announcing which doctors have received a national award in 2011 until later in the year.

The 2011 round of national CEAs closed in December 2010, with the results expected in the summer of 2011. However, ministers wanted to delay their decision on new awards and renewal applications while they considered the report from the pay review body - the DDRB - on the future of both local and national Clinical Excellence Awards.

The administering body - the ACCEA - has thus decided to announce the results of the 2011 round at the same time as the government’s response to the DDRB review is made available.

Part of the remit for the DDRB was to give advice on new awards in 2012. The ACCEA anticipates a decision on this in September, and is therefore going to open the 2012 round - should it go ahead - later than usual in October.

It aims to maintain the closing date of 9 December 2011 for national awards. The ACCEA is providing Word versions of the application form can be downloaded here to allow consultants to begin work, should they wish, on their applications before the launch of the online system.

The ACCEA is not anticipating any changes to processes or procedures in the employer-based awards guide, assuming of course that CEAs are continued following the government’s review.

The BMA recently urged consultants to apply for the 2012 national award round, despite the uncertainties. Dr Mark Porter, chair of the consultants committee, said: “We need to build momentum, demonstrate that there is support for the 2012 round, that we expect it to go ahead and that we value these awards. And, I believe that there is every possibility that following the report of the review the 2012 round will go ahead. And if it does, you should start preparing your application now.”

Early in the summer the government asked the DDRB to consider closing the scheme for new national awards in England as part of its ongoing review. This followed the Department of Health’s submission to the review in which it proposed a ‘slimmer’ system of national awards with trusts being given control of local awards from 2012.

Age - rather than performance - is the determining factor in the level of clinical excellence award given to consultants, research suggests.

The study based on data from consultant psychiatrists found that the number of years on the medical register and number years in their specialty showed the strongest correlation with award level.

This was particularly the case for psychiatrists in receipt of lower, local awards. For university employees age was strongly influential but academic success had a smaller additional contribution. NHS consultants were underrepresented in high level national awards and their success alone was more strongly influenced by scientific achievement albeit using measures that accrue slowly with time.

The study, led by researchers from the University of Leicester, is calling for a re-evaluation of the criteria underlying clinical excellence awards.

The Doctors and Dentists Review Body is currently reviewing the CEA scheme across the whole of the UK and expects to report in July 2011. However, in England the investment in new awards has been cut, meaning new applicants must fulfil a higher standard in order to be successful.

Dr Alex Mitchell, consultant psychiatrist with the Leicester Partnership Trust and an honorary member at the University, said: “In the first study examining the basis for awards, we collected data on 494 psychiatrists who had received an award prior to 2010. We looked at demographic factors and scientific productivity. In general it was age not performance that determined award level.”

“CEAs are intended for consultants who are making exceptional contributions to quality of care in the NHS - but our study reveals other factors are influencing the awards.”

Additional payments have been provided by the CEA scheme since 2004 and, in England, the annual spend on awards is about £400m (or 8% of the consultant pay bill).

Mitchell added: “We wanted to look at markers of clinical performance as well as academic success but this data is not meaningfully collected centrally, and only a small amount of information that is collected is openly published. Therefore it is difficult to fully analyse who will and will not be successful in achieving awards although it is clear that younger NHS consultants are under-represented.

“Further, we found poor transparency regarding renewals of existing awards. In addition, we found that local employers and Royal Colleges operated many different systems of evaluation with variations in scoring criteria meaning that excellence is loosely defined and not necessarily relevant to the NHS. For example some bodies would not allow applications from colleagues in the early phase of a career or those without managerial support”.

The study authors recommend that a uniform scoring system is developed involving readily available research metrics focusing on NHS-relevant research as well as separate markers of clinical ability. These could then be applied equally to new applicants and consultants opting to renew of their awards.

Read the full study.

See the CEA payment levels.