Useful information and regional updates

Additional information which may help you with your application

Criterion prioritisation

Listed below is the priority order for each criterion, prioritisation is factored into vacant post allocation.

Priority level	Criterion
Priority level Priority 1	Criterion Criterion 1A and 1B
Priority level Priority 2	Criterion Criterion 2 and 3
Priority level Priority 3	Criterion Criterion 4
Priority level Priority 4	Criterion Criterion 5

Regional updates

NHS England North West – North Western and NHS England North West Mersey

Effective from August 2025 the region choices of  ‘NHS England North West – North Western’ and ‘NHS England North West – Mersey’ will be merged to form one region choice of ‘NHS England North Western’.

Should you prefer a specific location or locations within the ‘NHS England North West’ region, this may be indicated via progressive disclosure.

Scotland General Practice

For GP registers requesting a transfer to Scotland, please be aware that the 3 year training programme in Scotland consists of 18 months in hospital placements and 18 months in General Practice placements.

If you are successful in a transfer to Scotland, you will be required to fulfil these rotational programme requirements.

Please note, further information may be added to this section prior to applications opening.

Vacancy Declaration

The process for highlighting and declaring vacancies for the national IDT process is carried out locally by regional administrative teams. This ensures that individual regions retain central control of workforce planning and how vacancies are filled on their training programmes. The National IDT team will then carry out criterion evidence checks for the selected applicants, chase for evidence if needed and send offers.

The national IDT process is unable to create new placements for transfers. Instead local regions will inform the National IDT team of any vacant placements on their training programmes which they wish to be filled through the national IDT process.

Only applicants that are officially declared for an IDT will be sent an offer. Regions are not required to declare vacant posts for the national IDT process, and some regions may choose to declare their vacant posts for national recruitment. Applicants are discouraged to contact Training Programme Directors directly as the process needs to remain fair and consistent for all.

Swaps

From February 2023, the National Inter Deanery Transfer team introduced a new step in the allocation and offer stage where potential swaps based on training programme and training grade were highlighted to the regions to allow greater opportunities for you to move across regions in your specialty training programme.

This is a process run by the National Inter Deanery Team and so there is no additional information required from you at the point of application. 

Although swaps may appear straightforward, many factors are taken into consideration, including outstanding training elements. Applicants should not assume that being at the same training level as another applicant means their region will view this as a direct swap.

The decision to approve swaps rests solely with the regional teams.

When reviewing the applications to see if a swap can take place, it is important to note that we will take into consideration all of your regional choices and so please be reminded to only apply to transfer to a region in which you would wish to train, as there is a possibility that you could receive an offer from any of the regions you have preferenced in your application.

Also, in order for the swap to take place, both IDT applicants must accept the offers that have been made to them. As with other IDT applications, if you decline your conditional offer your application will be withdrawn and you will not be made any further offers during the window of IDT that you have applied in, nor will you be added to the waiting list of that IDT window. Your withdrawal of the conditional IDT offer will not affect any future applications you may make to IDT.

If however, you accept your offer and the other trainee declines, you will then be placed on a waiting list. The priority order to each criterion will still apply as with the main round.

Transfers outside of the process

The national process has been established by the Conference of Postgraduate Medical Deans (COPMeD), NHS England (NHSE), Northern Ireland Medical and Dental Training Agency, NHS Education for Scotland, Health Education and Improvement Wales and the British Medical Association (BMA) in order to provide a consistent, robust and transparent process for allowing postgraduate doctors in training to transfer around the UK. This centralised transfer process aims to provide doctors in training and regional colleagues with a consistent, transparent and robust service. For this reason, it will not be possible to depart from or be flexible with the published processes, timelines and criteria.

The National lnter Deanery Transfer (IDT) team cannot accept any applications or facilitate any transfers outside of the process or nationally agreed timelines. There are no exceptional circumstances where the National IDT team will accept any late applications or facilitate a transfer outside of the nationally agreed process.

You are advised to discuss your circumstances with your local training providers so that support can be provided. 

Deferrals

Deferrals cannot be accommodated in the national IDT process under any circumstances.

Long-term sick leave

You are unable to transfer via IDT if you are on long-term sick leave. Transfers will only be facilitated if / when you are physically well enough to return to work. As such, if you are on long-term sick leave at the time of application or go on long-term sick leave once having applied, this could affect an offer being made for IDT or result in an offer being withdrawn.

Fitness to Practise (FTP) process

The national fitness to practise notification process was agreed in 2013 by all the National Recruitment Leads. The National Recruitment Leads agreed to notify each region regarding any applicant with a positive fitness to practise declaration appointed to that region. The process was developed to ensure regions:

• are informed and aware of any applicant with a past and/or current FTP issue and therefore may require more support during their training programme
• have the opportunity to withdraw any conditional offer based on a positive fitness to practice declaration

At the point of vacancy declarations your outgoing region will inform the National IDT Team if you are the subject of a grievance, GMC, criminal or any other investigation, and will disclose if you have a criminal record in the UK or in any other country Please be aware that any convictions that are classed as ‘spent’ under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 will need to be disclosed..  

Any information provided in relation to FTP is kept strictly confidential.

During the FTP notification process aside from the National IDT team, we only share the applicant FTP status and details with the region where the applicant has accepted a conditional transfer to.

As part of the Transfer of Information process between current and transfer region, the current region will facilitate a Responsible Officer to Responsible Officer discussion as a support measure to ensure that any and all listed requirements or support can definitely be provided by the incoming region.

Targeted Enhanced Recruitment Scheme (TERS)

TERS does not impact on IDT eligibility. The TERS agreement is region specific so if an individual decides to change region, they need to be aware of the potential financial implications regarding their TERS agreement.

It is recommended that applicants should discuss potential implications for any transfer to a different region with their local deanery team in the first instance.

Complaints process

If you feel that your application has not been managed in accordance with the published guidance, you may submit supporting evidence of this in a formal complaint. You should ensure that you have read the National IDT Complaint Policy before you submit a complaint.