DRUGS AND ALCOHOL CORE COMPETENCIES (DACC) PROJECT
Equipping all doctors to care for people who use drugs or alcohol
Aim: To develop consensus across the medical Colleges and Faculties on
the core competencies that all doctors require to adequately identify and
manage patients who use drugs or alcohol.
Objectives
 Consolidate a network of participants, across all Colleges, who are
well placed to contribute to discussion and to embed the emerging
consensus in their respective Colleges’ curricula.
 To engage a wider stakeholder group in the development and
dissemination of the project.
 Produce a document identifying existing relevant competencies in
the Colleges’ curricula and training programmes, and summarising
recent reports on drugs and alcohol as they pertain to medical
competencies.
 Identify similar work already done on core competencies across
medical specialties relating to other conditions (eg diabetes,
depression).
 Develop a consensus document on the core competencies that all
doctors require to adequately identify and manage patients who use
drugs or alcohol, using a modified Delphi process.
 Communicate the consensus on core competencies effectively to all
Colleges and stakeholders, and monitor whether they are embedded
in individual College curricula and the work of the GMC post
graduate training board.
 Use the launch of the core competencies document as an
opportunity for publicising key messages from the Colleges on
alcohol and drugs health harm.
 Consider scope for development of cross College training material
based on core competencies, building on networks established
during the project and any other further steps.
Funding: Provided by Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, matched by
Royal College of Psychiatrists.
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Project Participation and Management
Full list of stakeholders attached
Steering Group
 Oversees project
 Responsible to Academy of Medical Royal Colleges for delivery.
Dr Owen Bowden Jones, Chair, Faculty of Addictions, Royal College of
Psychiatrists
Dr Julia Sinclair, Senior Lecturer in Psychiatry, - Project Lead
Dr Nick Sheron, Clinical Senior Lecturer in Hepatology
Alex Crowe, Royal College of Psychiatrists – Project Management
Working Group
 Comprises Medical Colleges/Faculties, GMC, Patient and Carer
Representatives and a few others.
 Participate in a “Delphi process” to develop a consensus on core
competencies.
 Collective ownership and endorsement of the final report
Wider Stakeholders
 Invited to provide views to feed into Delphi process and on draft
report.
 Invited to Launch of the final document
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Timescale
23 March 2011
end April
2 June
15 June
24 June
30 June
31 July
9 Sept
28 September
(tbc)
30 September
Oct/Nov
November
early Dec
16 December
early Feb 2012
end March
June 2012
end 2012
First Steering Group Meeting
Steering Group agree working group and wider
stakeholder list
Presidential letter to all Colleges
Skeleton draft of Background paper to Steering
Group.
Invitation letters to Working Group members
confirming Delphi meeting dates & remit.
Steering Group meeting
Background paper to working group and wider
stakeholders
First quarterly progress report to AMRC
Deadline for comments/input on background
paper
Updated background paper to Working Group
First Working Group meeting
Second quarterly progress report to AMRC
Delphi iterations
Second Working Group meeting
(Final Delphi meeting if necessary)
Draft final report to Delphi participants
Third quarterly progress report to AMRC
Colleges sign off final report
Launch.
Final quarterly progress report to AMRC
Check implementation
Report to AMRC on implementation.
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Stakeholders
Working Group (draft list)
Wider Stakholders (draft list)
Royal College of Anaesthetists
Faculty of Dental Surgery
Royal College of Obstetricians and
Gynaecologists
Faculty of Occupational Medicine
Royal College of Paediatrics & Child
Health
Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine
Faculty of Public Health
College of Emergency Medicine
Royal College of General
Practitioners
Royal College of Ophthalmologists
Royal College of Pathologists
Royal College of Psychiatrists
Royal College of Physicians of
Edinburgh
Royal College of Physicians of
London
Royal College of Physicians &
Surgeons of Glasgow
Royal College Physicians of Ireland
Royal College of Surgeons of England
Royal College of Surgeons of
Edinburgh
Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland
Royal College of Radiologists
General Medical Council
British Medical Association
Project on Substance Misuse in the
Undergraduate Medical Curriculum
Academy of Medical Royal Colleges
Trainee Doctors’ Group
Patient & Carer reps
Representatives of the Deaneries
Department of Health
Academy of Medical Sciences
Action on Addiction
Alcohol and Health Research Trust
Alcohol Concern
Alcohol Education and Research
Council
Alcohol Health Alliance
Association for the Study of Medical
Education
Association of Higher Education in
Alcohol and Drugs (AHEAD)
British Liver Trust
Drugscope
DVLA
European Association for the
Treatment of Addiction (eATA)
Home Office
Independent Scientific Committee on
Drugs
Institute of Alcohol Studies
Medical Council on Alcohol
NAT (HIV lobby group)
National Clinical Assessment Service
National Organisation on Fetal
Alcohol Syndrome - UK
National Skills Consortium
NHS Confederation
Scottish Intercollegiate Group on
Alcohol/SHAAP
Scottish Training on Drugs and
Alcohol (STRADA)
Sick Doctors Trust
Skills for Health
Society for the Study of Addiction
The Hepatitis C Trust
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