Changes in UK Training - Archive
Added 04 July 2008
2008 edition of the "Gold Guide" for specialty training now available
The 2008 edition of A Reference Guide for Postgraduate Specialty Training in the UK (the "Gold Guide") and its Core Training Supplement are now available. These set out the arrangements applicable to trainees taking up appointments which commence on or after 6 August 2008. A new edition was required to cover the introduction of core training programmes in specialties that "uncoupled" with effect from 6 August 2008.
Please note that trainees taking up appointments in specialty training between 1 August 2007 and 5 August 2008 will continue to be covered by the 2007 edition.
Added 05 March 2008
Inadequate number of training posts
A number of Royal College Presidents, including Professor Neil Douglas, President of RCPE, have written to The Times expressing their concern that many highly qualified medical graduates continue to be disadvantaged under the MMC changes because of an inadequate number of training posts.
Added 28 February 2008
DoH Response to Tooke Review
The Department of Health has, this morning, published its response to the Tooke Review.
Added 31 January 2008
3 year clinical research fellowship in Endocrinology
The closing date is the 18th of February.
Added 09 January 2008
Tooke Report (MMC Inquiry)
The final report of the MMC Inquiry has now been published and can be accessed here. Commenting on the publication of the report, Prof Neil Douglas, President of the RCPE, said, "The College strongly welcomes the Tooke report which offers a real chance to improve medical training in the UK".
Added 21 December 2007
Latest updates on recruitment to specialty training in 2008
Further to their letter of 7 December, the MMC England Programme board have written again to doctors in England with further details, including the latest forecast numbers of training places. The letter should be available on the MMC England website shortly at http://www.mmc.nhs.uk/pages/home
For the latest information on recruitment in other parts of the UK, please go to the relevant websites as follows:
Added 13 December 2007
Update on recruitment to specialty training in 2008
The MMC England Programme Board, and the CMO in Scotland, have each written to all doctors in England and Scotland respectively, outlining the processes for specialty training recruitment in 2008. As there are some differences in approach, doctors planning to apply for posts in different parts of the UK will find it helpful to read both letters and they can be accessed here:
Added 24 October 2007
Latest MMC England Updates
Added 08 October 2007
Draft Report of MMC Inquiry (Tooke Review)
The Draft recommendations of the Tooke Review have been published today (8 October 2007) and are now available on the MMC Inquiry website.
The College will prepare an initial response to these findings within the next few days
Added 02 October 2007
Web-streamed lectures on MMC
- Implementation of Core Medical Training: Presentation
Dr Mike Jones, College Dean, Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh
Dr Hazel Scott, Director of Medical Education & CPD, Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow
- CMT curriculum
- Demonstration of the e-Portfolio for CMT
- Assessment methods and evidence for ARCP
Added 13 September 2007
Recruitment to specialty training - Proposals for improvements in 2008
The MMC England Programme Board has published a consultation document on proposed improvements in 2008 covering : "A fair and reliable selection process" and "The offer to applicants". The deadline for comments is Tuesday 25 September.
Added 31 August 2007
MMC England - latest e-update including:
- update on Round 2
- details of the Employment Commitment
- further training opportunities and career support
- initial information about 2008 recruitment
MMC Scotland - Update on Support Arrangements for Trainee Doctors based in NHSScotland
Added 03 August 2007
MTAS Review Group Report Published
Added 30 July 2007
Training in the medical specialties – update from JRCPTB for educational supervisors and others involved in the training of physicians
The Joint Royal Colleges’ Physicians Training Board (JRCPTB) now has approval from PMETB for all of our specialty and sub-specialty curricula. These are published on the JRCPTB website (www.jrcptb.org.uk).
The curriculum for Core Medical Training (CMT) is made up of the Level 1 competencies from the General Internal Medicine (Acute Medicine) Curriculum and the Generic Curriculum. This curriculum will also be used by trainees pursuing a medical route on Acute Care Common Stem (ACCS) training.
Assessment strategies for all specialities have been submitted to PMETB and we have received conditional approval for the CMT element of assessment. In future RITA will be replaced by a similar process known as “Annual Review of Competence Progression” (ARCP). A “CMT ARCP Decision Aid” is available on the JRCPTB website giving a summary of what is required of CMT trainees at their 8, 16 and 23 month ARCPs.
All trainees will be expected to use the JRCPTB e-portfolio. This web-based portfolio will provide a record of progress through training and the acquisition of competencies, based on the relevant curricula. The e-portfolio includes facilities for direct recording of workplace based assessments, records of appraisal and ARCP outcomes.
It is primarily the trainee’s responsibility to enter information into the e-portfolio but supervisors also have access to shared parts of the portfolio and have a responsibility to record appraisal outcomes and sign off the record of competence.
Access to the e-portfolio will be provided via deaneries, and JRCPTB is supporting deaneries to prepare for its implementation. RCPE and RCPSG are jointly organising a briefing session on implementation of CMT, and the e-portfolio, for the evening of 29 August 2007 which it is hoped will be video-linked live between the two Colleges and to other sites across Scotland. For further details go to www.rcpe.ac.uk. The RCPL Education Department is also providing training courses, centrally and locally, for supervisors, to help with the implementation of CMT and the e-portfolio. For information on dates and locations see www.rcplondon.ac.uk/event.
July 2007
Added 23 July 2007
LATEST GUIDANCE FOR APPLICANTS, BY COUNTRY
UK wide
England
Northern Ireland
Scotland
Wales
Added 22 June 2007
RCPE response to MMC (Tooke) Inquiry
This report summarises views, concerns and recommendations from the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The report is divided into 3 sections to correspond to the questions posed by Professor Sir John Tooke and is prefaced by an Executive Summary.
Added 01-June-2007
Notice to applicants to specialty training in England - issued 1 June
Offers are now going out to applicants to specialty training in England and MMC have published the deadline dates by which applicants must respond.
Added 28-May-2007
Open Letter to Mr Bernard Ribeiro
In an open letter dated 25 May 2007, Mr Bernard Ribeiro resigned from membership of the MTAS Review Group which is chaired by our President. Professor Douglas' reply can be found here.
Added 28-May-2007
LATEST GUIDANCE FOR APPLICANTS, BY COUNTRY
England
Northern Ireland
Scotland
Wales
Added 15-May-2007
WRITTEN MINISTERIAL STATEMENT
Recruitment to Medical Training
In my oral statement on 1 May 2007 (Column 1367) I notified the House that there had been two security breaches of the medical training application service (MTAS) that arose on 25th and 26th April.
MWR Infosecurity has now completed a full security review of the MTAS system. Action has been taken by the contractor (Methods) to address the weaknesses identified. Both MWR and CESG (Communications Electronic Security Group), the national technical authority for information assurance, have confirmed that appropriate and sufficiently comprehensive action has been taken. The site was therefore re-opened last week, restricted to postgraduate deaneries only, to support the next steps in the recruitment process.
Because the investigation has made it clear that criminal offences may have been committed, the MWR analysis and report have been given to the police.
Ongoing Recruitment process
Following the recommendations of the review group chaired by Professor Neil Douglas, every eligible applicant for postgraduate medical training has now been guaranteed at least one interview for their first preference post. An additional 15,500 interviews have therefore been arranged as part of Round 1 and are now taking place. I am extremely grateful to the consultants who have made themselves available for these additional interviews.
The review group met again on 9 May to consider the process of offering posts to candidates who are successful in their Round 1 applications. The group agreed that offers for the current round will be managed locally by individual deaneries, on the basis of published MMC guidance.
Offers will be made to successful candidates on a phased basis as interviews for each specialty are completed. Subject to the outcome of the current Judicial Review, the first offers for hospital specialities in England will be made on or after 21 May 2007, with all initial offers made by early June. This process of making offers will continue until late June 2007, at which time Round 1 will close, ensuring that candidates and employers have time to prepare for appointments commencing on 1 August 2007. Given the continuing concerns of junior doctors about MTAS, the system will not be used for matching candidates to training posts, but will continue to be used for national monitoring.
As we have stressed before, not all training posts will be filled in the current round and there will therefore be further substantial opportunities for those who are not successful initially. The review group has agreed that this further recruitment will be locally planned and managed by the deaneries. An announcement of the process will be made shortly. Deaneries are continuing to work with the NHS and the Postgraduate Medical Education and Training Board to establish what additional training posts will be made available beyond the 23,000 training posts already available across the UK.
Added 11-May-2007
MTAS Interviews - Joint Statement from Academy of Medical Royal Colleges and BMA
Added 02-May-2007
Further update on MTAS
The MTAS site remains off-line temporarily. The initial security testing is now complete but some further recommendations are being implemented. In the meantime, arrangements are being made for secure offline transfer of information to Deaneries so that they can continue with the interview process.
Added 01-May-2007
Update on MTAS
MTAS continues to be offline whilst more security checks are run. This may potentially cause delay to the interview schedule.
Added 23-Apr-2007
SUMMARY OF THE LATEST SOURCES OF INFORMATION FOR APPLICANTS, BY COUNTRY
England
Northern Ireland
Scotland
Wales
Added 10-Apr-2007
MTAS Update: Northern Ireland - 10th April
For the most recent information regarding Scotland, England and Wales please see below.
Added 10-Apr-2007
Factsheet for applicants to specialty training in England
Following the statement from the MTAS Review Group on 4 April, MMC England have produced a factsheet explaining the process, including an indicative timetable and some new FAQs.
Added 5-Apr-2007
Letter to all English Consultant fellows and members
Dear colleague
As you will understand, my position as Chairman of the Review Group has hindered my ability to communicate with you about the selection process for Specialty Training. I am grateful to all of you who have written with evidence of problems and possible solutions. The views are divergent but the anger and frustration universal. In trying to reach a way forward the Review Group has concentrated on trying to be fair to all candidates and maximising their choice within the real constraints of the system. I attach the letter from the Review Group to all consultants in England outlining our proposals which have been accepted by Ministers, the Colleges and the BMA. I would like to thank all of you who have worked so hard in short-listing, interviewing and counselling understandably distressed applicants in this process thus far and ask for your continuing support for the extended round 1.
The Review Group has also followed exactly the two principles as stated in Morris Brown and colleagues’ letter in the Times yesterday. The first was that selection is based on the use of objective criteria which recognise scholarly and clinical achievement – the Academy representative got a decision from Patricia Hewitt on March 5th that all appointments and interviews would henceforth be based on CVs and probing questions and the Review Group has now agreed that selection in Round 2 will be based on CVs. Their other principle was flexibility in training programmes – and again the Review Group has agreed that increased flexibility in MMC is mandatory. The original ideals of Unfinished Business with broadly based early years narrowing towards specialty later have been abandoned in the implementation of MMC, with the clear exception of Medicine where Core Medical Training leading to 28 specialties offers precisely this. However the flexibility needs to be much greater and more transparent so that those who find themselves in the wrong specialty can readily transfer into another training pathway taking with them the relevant competencies that they have acquired.
Having rejected the option of abandoning the whole appointments process (as I have previously reported), the Review Group seriously considered giving all applicant 4 interviews in England but the numbers and time involved were so large that this was deemed totally impractical. We believe that the way forward agreed yesterday is the best answer to a very difficult situation and one which allows this generation of trainees to have the best chance of getting onto their chosen career ladder expeditiously. The Review Group is still working on the details of Round 2, on how to increase flexibility in MMC and on the support needed for all applicants, both successful and unsuccessful. We are also keen to initiate a more realistic process to plan how many trained doctors the UK will need in the future, a key factor in determining the number of training posts available. On a personal level I am far from convinced that so called “manpower planning” in the NHS is at all fit for purpose and the profession must unite to make a robust case for the employment of a greater number of trained doctors – in this context consultants – in the future. I also remain concerned that the balance of posts in medicine between ST1+2 in comparison to ST3 has not created enough training opportunities for those applying to ST3. Many of these are excellent committed specialist trainees and we need careful exploration of whether manpower needs mean there should be more training posts for them. Specialty specific issues will be addressed by the review group in the next 2 weeks.
I urge you to support these proposals and to participate in the remaining interviews. I believe this offers the only realistic hope of getting the best trainees into appropriate training posts, only then will their understandable anxieties be allayed.
With kind regards and Happy Easter
Neil Douglas
Added 4-Apr-2007
MMC/MTAS Update - 4th April
The Review Group met on the 4th April and has issued a further update in the form of the following statement and letters to key stakeholders in relation to selection for training in England.
The statement includes quotes from Lord Hunt and the Chairman of the Review Group.
For the most recent information regarding Wales and Scotland please see below.
Added 3-Apr-2007
Wales agrees the way forward for recruitment to Modernising Medical Careers
The Welsh Assembly Government, the Wales Deanery and the BMA Wales have issued a statement on the agreed way forward for the appointments process in Wales.
Added 3-Apr-2007
Revised arrangements for specialty training recruitment in Scotland
Further to the recent statements from the Health Minister and CMO in Scotland (see 30 March update below), MMC Scotland have created a new FAQ section on their website covering the revised arrangements for specialty training recruitment in Scotland.
Added 30-Mar-2007
Statements by Andy Kerr, Health Minister, Scottish Executive and Dr Harry Burns, Chief Medical Officer, NHSScotland
The Minister has announced that eligible junior doctors applying for specialty training jobs will be offered interviews for all posts applied to in Scotland. The full press release can be read here. The CMO has also issued a related statement which can be read here.
Added 29-Mar-2007
RCPE Council Statement on MTAS
The RCPE has issued a statement on MTAS following the meeting of Council on 28 March 2007.
Added 28-Mar-2007
Statement by Dr Harry Burns, Chief Medical Officer, NHSScotland
The CMO in Scotland has issued a statement in response to the recommendations made by the MMC/MTAS Review Group
Added 23-Mar-2007
Statement by the Review of Recruitment and Selection for Specialty and GP Training – Thursday 22 March 2007
Building on last week’s announcement, at a minimum, every long listable applicant who applied through MTAS and meets the eligibility criteria for their relevant specialty will be invited for an interview.
Added 16-Mar-2007
MTAS Update - 16th March
The review group met again Friday 16th March 2007 by teleconference. The conclusions of this meeting will appear this evening on the MMC website along with some statistical analysis. We will keep this site updated.
last updated 04-Jul-2008
Information and advice for Specialty Training applicants published by MMC Scotland
NOTE: applicants for training in the medical specialties can access advice on evidence to provide proof of competences here
Added 12-Mar-2007
MTAS
The review group led by Professor Neil Douglas has reached agreement on a way forward and a statement is now on the Department of Health website.
Added 06-Mar-2007
Launch of Joint Royal Colleges of Physicians Training Board (JRCPTB)
The Federation of Royal Colleges of Physicians of the UK has established a new body to manage the Colleges' responsibilities in relation to training of physicians in the UK. The JRCPTB is designed to meet the demands of the new training environment created under the Modernising Medical Careers (MMC) changes. It replaces the Joint Committee on Higher Medical Training (JCHMT) and the Joint Committee on Basic Medical Training (JCBMT). Full information on the work of the new board, including curricula for all the medical specialties, is available on the JCRPTB website.
Review of MMC applications announced by the Department of Health
Following discussion with the medical Royal Colleges and the BMA, the Department of Health have announced a review into Round One of MMC applications for recruitment and selection into specialty training, made through MTAS. The review will be led by RCPE President, Professor Neil Douglas.
Added 06-Mar-2007
MTAS
The Academy of Medical Royal Colleges met on 5th March and all Colleges were dismayed at the early indications of problems with the short-listing process for Specialty Training posts.
The Academy unanimously approved this press release and wrote the enclosed letter to Patricia Hewitt including this action plan.
This resulted in five members of the Academy including myself meeting with Patricia Hewitt and Lord Hunt that evening. The action points are being pursued urgently and I will update this as soon as possible.
Neil Douglas,
President
Added 02-Mar-2007
MTAS Difficulties
RCPE is concerned about MTAS shortlisting. Collegiate Members, Affiliates and Associates who feel they have been adversely affected are invited to provide us with evidence to support current discussions and an active review of the system - email to trainingenquiries@rcpe.ac.uk.
We would advise those who have not been shortlisted in round 1 to discuss the text of their application with a mentor or local senior College Fellow to see if this can be improved before round 2. It would also be helpful to hear from Fellows who have experienced problems with the MTAS process, again to trainingenquiries@rcpe.ac.uk.
Neil Douglas,
President.
Added 11-Jan-2007
Applicant's Guide to Specialty Training for 2007 for Scotland now available
Numbers of posts split by specialty, deanery and entry level now available for England
Interview schedule for specialty training now available for England, Wales and Northern Ireland
Added 18-Dec-2006
Specialty/GP recruitment timetable updated
Applicant's Guide to Specialty Training for 2007 for England and Wales now available
New PMETB guidance on run-through training and the award of a CCT
PMETB has issued guidance on a number of aspects of run-through training including:
Useful websites include
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