Background: Widening access initiatives to medical school have had mixed success. One reason may be the competing interests of different stakeholder groups involved. The Seren (Star) Programme at Glan Clwyd Hospital is part of a Welsh Assembly Government (WAG) initiative to help support high-performing state school children (post-GCSE) intending to apply to study medicine at university.
Aim: To explore stakeholder perspectives of widening access initiatives to medical school in the UK and using the scoping review as a basis to evaluate the Seren Programme in North Wales and to assess its impact on its stakeholders.
Design: Scoping review (Paper 1) followed by Single case study (Paper 2).
Data sources: Published literature from 1998 to 2018, CINAHL, Applied Social Sciences Index and Abstracts, ProQuest Education Collection, PsychINFO, PubMed, key journals and citation tracking.
Participant surveys with 34 of the stakeholders as well as interviews with as subset of 15 of the stakeholders. Direct non-participant observation was conducted for the Seren Sessions.