Assessor FAQs

You can express interest in becoming as assessor at any time via the form on our specialty expert roles page. Please check you meet the requirements for the job description. If your application is successful, you’ll join the bank of assessors for the STP Final Year Assessment. Before each sitting of the assessment, we’ll ask all assessors for their availability to assess. If you are available for the sitting, please respond. We use your responses to develop the schedule for the assessment to make the best use of your time as assessors.

You don’t need to be available for the next sitting of the assessment. We’ll get in touch beforehand to check your availability for each sitting. We would, however, recommend you make a note of the dates of the sittings and try to hold that time as we can’t run the assessment without assessors.

If you meet the requirements to be an assessor, you can express interest in joining the bank for the STP Final Year Assessment. You don’t need to be available for the next sitting of the assessment. We’ll get in touch beforehand to check your availability. We would, however, recommend you make a note of the dates of the sittings and try to hold that time as we can’t run the assessment without assessors.

If you are a training officer or currently involved with supporting trainees on the programme, you can still express an interest in joining the bank. We will endeavour to ensure assessors are independent and trainees are not assessed by their current or past Training Officer. It may be the case that a trainee knows their assessor. For smaller specialties this may be unavoidable.  As trainees will be assessed by multiple assessors, the impact of a pre-existing relationship with a trainee is lessened in this assessment. As an assessor, the judgements that you make must only be based on the trainees’ performance in the STP Final Year Assessment. You must not consider the trainees’ performance outside the assessment when marking their performance in the STP Final Year Assessment.

Please let us know if you no longer wish to be on the bank of assessors for the STP Final Year Assessment and we will remove you from the bank. We will no longer contact you about your availability to assess. If you wish to assess again in the future, you will need to reapply.

As outlined in the STP Final Year Assessment Regulations, we will endeavour to ensure assessors are independent and do not assess trainees who they are or have been a training officer for.  For smaller specialties in particular, it may be the case that you will assess a trainee you have already assessed in the workplace or on the MSc or know through your specialty community.

As trainees will be assessed by multiple assessors, the impact of a pre-existing relationship with a trainee is lessened in this assessment. As an assessor, the judgements that you make must only be based on the trainees’ performance in the STP Final Year Assessment. You must not consider the trainees’ performance outside the assessment when marking their performance in the STP Final Year Assessment. If you have concerns about a trainee’s performance or behaviour prior to the assessment, please raise these through the appropriate routes in the trainee’s workplace.

As an assessor, it is your responsibility to ensure you are fully prepared for the assessment. Please review the “Preparing to Assess”. You will also need to attend a standardisation meeting before the assessment to discuss and align your expectations with other assessors.

As an assessor, you will be assigned to assess a scenario and all the information required to complete the assessment, including the questions and mark scheme will be provided to you. Trainees do not submit any work in advance of the assessment, so there is nothing from the trainee that you need to review. You don’t need to prepare anything but yourself, before the assessment.

We’ve outlined the role and the responsibilities of an assessor on the final assessment specialty expert roles page, including an overview of the time commitment.

Before each sitting of the assessment, we’ll ask all assessors for their availability to assess. We use your responses to develop the schedule for the assessment to make the best use of your time as assessors. If we don’t hear from you, we will assume you are not available and will not schedule you to assess. If you are available to assess for the sitting, please let us know, as we can’t run the assessment without assessors like you.

If you have confirmed you are available to assess or have been scheduled to assess and your circumstances change, please let us know as soon as possible. Setting the schedule for the assessment is a huge undertaking. Once you have provided your availability or committed to assess, we ask you protect that time as we can’t run the assessment without assessors like you. We do appreciate however, that sometimes there can be issues which are outside your control.

We have designed the assessment to be as inclusive as possible and to minimise the need for reasonable adjustments. Applications for reasonable adjustments are considered on a case-by-case basis and in some cases may still be required. If a reasonable adjustment is in place for a trainee you are assessing, you will be informed in the assessor briefing.

The stations have been designed to include more time than we expect most people to need to provide their response We do not expect that any reasonable adjustment application for additional time will be necessary.

Trainees can apply for a reasonable adjustment. The School’s Reasonable Adjustments Policy sets out the process and full scope of reasons for requesting a reasonable adjustment. Applications for a reasonable adjustment must be made within the timelines outlined by the policy to be considered.

Sufficient time for ALL trainees to complete the pre-reading and to provide a response to the scenarios has been built into the time allowed. The stations have been designed to include more time than we expect most people to need to provide their response, based on reviewing all historic reasonable adjustments applications for previous STP assessments. We do not expect that any reasonable adjustment application for additional time will be necessary.

Prior to each assessment station, trainees will need to read the scenario, and the questions presented to them on screen during the pre-reading time.  The pre-reading will be presented following best practices for language, colour, layout and font that will seek to make the content more accessible for everyone. Trainees will have access to the pre-reading throughout the station if they want to revisit the information.

The time remaining in each part of the assessment is presented on screen at all times. Trainees will be able to see a timer which counts down to the end of each part of the station telling them how long they have left in that part of the assessment.

Minimal information will be provided to trainees verbally by the assessor. The scenarios and questions are both available to trainees in written format throughout the station.  No additional information or questions on the scenario are provided verbally by the assessor.

Trainees will need to be visible on screen using their webcam during the assessment. Trainees are expected to act professionally on screen, but their presentation style won’t be marked, just the response they provide.