Offer exchanges and enhanced preferences

You can use offer exchanges or enhanced preferences if you need to change your preferences on your application

You would use offer exchanges or enhanced preferences whenever there is a need to change the programme/geographical preferences that you stated on your application. This could be for any number of reasons, but could include the following:

• A change in personal circumstances that could not have been foreseen at the time of application.
• Your partner has been offered a post in another region, with no possibility of getting an upgrade to the same region.

Offer exchanges

Offer exchanges allow you to amend the order of your programme preferences, even when the first choice programme has been offered.

You would use offer exchanges if you have received an offer for a specialty that you have held or accepted, where you would prefer to receive an offer elsewhere.

If you decline a post, you will not receive any further offers for the specialty and will not be eligible for offer exchanges. However, you should not accept a post that you are not prepared to undertake.

How to use offer exchanges

You must respond to your offer and opt into upgrades, where available. 

Offer exchanges allow you to re-order the programmes available as an upgrade, by clicking on Update Preferences.

This will allow you to see the post that you have been offered and the other option that you have to choose from. If a lower ranked post is preferred, preference ranks should be changed to reflect this.

Once preferences have been re-ordered, it is important to Save the changes.

Enhanced preferences

If offers have yet to be released, or you personally have not received an offer, then you can amend your preferences in your application form at any time. Enhanced preferences allow you to amend your preferences at any time during the recruitment process, up until the upgrade deadline for the recruitment round.

Preference options may be briefly unavailable when recruiters are matching and preparing offers. Preferencing must be closed to allow the matching to run.

Amending your preferences for a specialty when you have not been made an offer is completed in the same way as making your initial preferences.

How to guide

If you would like a how to guide which includes visual help to complete these processes, please email the Medical and Dental Recruitment and Selection (MDRS) team via [email protected].