Submit a job description for review

Before you submit a job description for review

Make sure you complete these steps to avoid delays to the review process:

• Is the job description finalised, with no track-changes, draft watermark or comments?
• Does it include information about existing consultant staff, such as names, qualifications, PAs or FT/PT status?
• Are office accommodation and secretarial support confirmed?
• Is the job plan in line with the 8.5 DCC/1.5 SPA minimum split?
• Has the maths in the job plan been double-checked?
• Is a person specification included?
• For clinical oncology, is the estimated number of new patient referrals for the post included?

Send your job description documents to aac@rcr.ac.uk to begin the job description review process.

Job description approval 

Approval is valid for a 12-month period. You can advertise (and re-advertise) the role for 12 months following receipt of the approval email from the RCR. 

If the approval expires, the job description will need to be re-approved. 

• Resubmit the job description and include the previous RCR JD reference number 
• If there have been no changes to the job description, please confirm this in your email
• If the job description has changed, indicate what the changes are and on which pages.

Following these steps will make the re-approval process as efficient as possible. 

Changes to job descriptions

If there are major changes to a job description or if it is rewritten after approval, it will need to be reviewed again. This includes changes to the PAs/job plan, or if the FT/LTFT status changes. You will need to resumbit the job description to aac@rcr.ac.uk with the previous RCR JD reference number.

The job decription does not need to be reviewed again if there are only minor updates, such as changes of current staff and equipment. Please send an updated copy of the JD to the AAC team for our records, indicating the JD reference number. 

If you are not sure whether the changes are minor, the AAC team can help. Email questions to aac@rcr.ac.uk 

The job description review process 

1. The recruiting organisation sends a finalised job description (JD) to the AAC team at the RCR.
2. The AAC team assigns the job description a unique reference number and performs an initial review to make sure all required information is included and that there are no errors. If there are any issues, the AAC team will detail these in an email and send the JD back to the recruiting organisation for amending.
3. Once the job description passes the initial review, the team send it to the reviewer along with the review form to be completed. The recruiting organisation is copied into this email as both confirmation that it has been sent. The reviewer may be in touch directly if they have queries or require clarification.
4. The agreed turnaround time with reviewers is two weeks, so we would expect to hear back within that timeframe. If we don’t, we will send a follow-up email to the reviewer, copying the recruiting organisation in.
5. If the reviewer has queries or concerns, the AAC team will advise the recruiting organisation of this. They may ask that the job description be revised and sent for a second review. 
6. If the reviewer is happy with the job description, they will advise the AAC team. Job description approval lasts for 12 months.
7. The team will confirm the approval with the recruiting organisation by email, including an AAC application form so that the recruiting organisation may request an RCR AAC representative when an interview panel date has been confirmed.