When the JAG was first formed, its remit was entirely concerned with standards of teaching, training, and curricula for trainees in endoscopy in the UK. With the advent of the NHS Bowel Cancer Screening Programme (BCSP) www.cancerscreening.nhs.uk, the NHS felt it important to ensure that any colonoscopy undertaken on a screened population was performed to the highest standards possible. The BCSP sought the collaboration of the JAG, interested endoscopists, and the National Endoscopy Training Programme with its Training Centres, to help devise a high level assessment of colonoscopy skills and performance. All screening colonoscopists must meet the agreed criteria and be accredited as such, the accreditation being endorsed by and issued from the JAG.

There was significant concern about the form of the first version of the assessment, and this has undergone thorough and significant revision. In conjunction with international experts in clinical assessment from the USA and the Netherlands, the assessment has been shown to be reliable and valid. The BCSP and the JAG are confident that the process is rigorous and fair, and are continuing to refine it.

The DOPS form used in the assessment for accreditation has been slightly adapted for use in assessing competence in trainees, both for formative and summative purposes.

The JAG feel that the DOPS tool can be used formatively for independent practitioners, including consultants, and that the voluntary intermittent use of DOPS is a good way to maintain and improve endoscopic skills. The JAG also believes that eventually professional bodies will not simply applaud but request evaluation of quality of practice by these or similar means. Evidence of satisfactory performance data and endoscopic continuing professional development may support individual endoscopists and units in the case of the event of unavoidable complications or other need for performance review.