ADMINISTRATOR: General information on ASPAT

What is ASPAT?
Accessing and Managing ASPAT Questionnaires
Creating a New ASPAT Questionnaire
Assignment and Editing
Reporting and Analytics
Customisation
Roles and Permissions
Appraisal Lead Configuration
Advanced Features

What is ASPAT?

The Appraisal Summary and Personal Development Plan Audit Tool (ASPAT) is a generic tool developed by NHS England (NHSE) to audit Appraisal Summaries and Personal Development Plans (PDP). It serves as a reference for appraisers and an auditing mechanism for organisations to ensure quality and consistency in medical Appraisals. For more details, please refer to the official NHSE documentation.

Accessing and Managing ASPAT Questionnaires

After logging in to SARD, go to ADMIN > Medical Revalidation > ASPAT > ASPAT Questionnaires to manage ASPAT forms.

Creating a New ASPAT Questionnaire

You can initiate a questionnaire by either appraiser or appraisee:

• + New ASPAT Questionnaire by Appraiser – select an appraiser to see their list of completed Appraisals.
• + New ASPAT Questionnaire by Appraisee – select a specific appraisee to audit their latest Appraisal.

Upon selection of appraiser/appraisee, the Appraisal drop-down list will populate with completed Appraisals:

Select the desired record and click Save.

Assignment and Editing

Once an ASPAT questionnaire is created, you have two options:

• Self-Complete – click on the pencil icon to edit. The interface displays the ASPAT form on the left, and the Appraisal content on the right for simultaneous review.
• Delegate – click on Assign and Send Out to invite a SARD user or a guest respondent to complete the questionnaire.

Administrators maintain editing rights even after a form has been sent out. The form remains open for revision until the 'Mark as complete' checkbox is ticked, which triggers the final score calculation:

SARD maintains a full audit log of all actions, including creation, assignment, and completion details:

Reporting and Analytics

ASPAT scores are visualised through a RAG (Red/Amber/Green) system using pie charts and searchable tables. Reports are categorised into three types:

• Overall Reports – a bird’s-eye view of organisational compliance:

• Section Reports – breakdown of scores by questionnaire criteria:

• Individual Appraiser Reports – performance metrics for specific appraisers:

Overall and Section Reports can be exported using Generate Report CSV or Download Report PDF buttons; Individual Appraiser Reports can be exported by clicking on the Download Appraiser Report to CSV button.

Customisation

While questionnaires default to NHSE standards, SARD can customise question wording, additions, or removals upon request. Please note that the scoring scale (0-2) and Section Titles are fixed system parameters and cannot be changed.

Roles and Permissions

Access to ASPAT is governed by specific user roles:

• Administrators – full access, including batch creation and reminder configuration.
• Responsible Officers (ROs) – can create, assign, and fill ASPAT forms, and view all reports. They cannot manage reminders or use batch creation.
• Custom Appraisal Leads – medics with the Appraisal Lead (Custom) role. Their access is restricted to their allocated group and is highly configurable by the organisation.

An Appraisal Lead is a medic with the Appraisal Lead (Custom) role who has access to Appraisal Lead Report. This is different to a Directorate or Speciality Appraisal Lead. Appraisal Leads are used by many trusts and organisations to look after their allocated medics and appraisers. The list of Appraisal Leads at your organisation can be found by going to ADMIN > Medical Revalidation > Appraisals > Custom Appraisal Leads.

Appraisal Lead Configuration

SARD can toggle four specific settings for your organisation. By default, these are disabled, meaning this feature is inactive for Appraisal Leads.

• Custom Appraisal Leads can view all ASPAT questionnaires – if selected, the Appraisal Lead can view all organisational ASPAT forms and report pages, but cannot create, distribute, or complete them.
• Custom Appraisal Leads can create, send out and edit all ASPAT questionnaires – if selected, the Appraisal Lead has full access to view, create, distribute, and complete all ASPAT forms, as well as view report pages.
• Custom Appraisal Leads can view the ASPAT questionnaires of their allocated appraisers – if selected, the Appraisal Lead can view the ASPAT questionnaires and basic reports for their allocated appraisers only, without the ability to create, distribute, or complete forms.
• Custom Appraisal Leads can create, send out and edit the ASPAT questionnaires of their allocated appraisers – if selected, the Appraisal Lead can view, create, distribute, and complete ASPAT forms for their allocated appraisers and access basic reports.

You may configure whether Appraisal Leads have read-only, create, or edit permissions, applying these either organisation-wide or limited to their allocated appraisers.

Advanced Features

• Unassigned Questionnaire is a tab under which you can see ASPAT forms which have been created but not assigned to anyone.
• Batch Creation allows creation of multiple forms for one appraiser’s appraised Appraisals. For this, click on + New ASPAT Batch, set out the parameters in the New ASPAT Batch form, then click Save.
• Completion Reminders can be set up to notify users at certain intervals after a questionnaire has been assigned to them.

Updated on: 18/08/2026