Specialty recruitment webinar

0:01
Good afternoon and welcome to this afternoon's webinar on the specialty recruitment process for posts commencing from August 2026.

0:12
I am Professor Lindsay Donaldson and I am the Deputy Medical Director for NHS Education for Scotland and Co Chair of the Medical Specialty Recruitment Delivery Group, together with my colleague Professor Jo Szram, Regional Postgraduate Dean for the Southeast, and you will hear from Jo later on in this webinar.

0:31
The webinar is going to last for an hour.

0:33
Clare Wright, Head of National Speciality Recruitment, will take you through the recruitment process, including timelines and process changes.

0:43
After this, there'll be an opportunity for you to ask questions on the process.

0:47
Questions can be submitted via the Q&A tab. Where time is limited,

0:52
questions will be chosen based on their popularity.

0:55
If someone asks a question that you would like to pose to the panel, please upvote and Please ensure that you'll like the question.

1:03
We obviously aren't able to answer questions on the individual specialities or personal circumstances, so please ensure that your questions cover the process as a whole.

1:15
We will endeavour to answer as many of your questions as possible at the end.

1:19
However, if we do run out of time, we will ensure that we publish answers to these on our website in due course.

1:26
I will now hand you over to Clare, who will take us through the presentation.

1:30
Thank you all very much.

1:36
Thanks, Lindsay.

1:37
So as Lindsay said, I'm going to take you through the recruitment process for 2026.

1:43
So we'll have a look at the recruitment key dates, key changes for 2026 specialty recruitment.

1:49
We'll talk about how you make your application and selection processes, the offers process.

1:54
And then at the end there'll be a Q and A session.

1:56
So you'll have the opportunity to ask us any questions that you have.

2:07
Mouse problems.

2:07
I apologise.

2:09
Yeah.

2:10
So lead recruiters. Each specialty has a lead recruiter who is responsible for recruitment to the specialty.

2:17
Devolved nations may or may not be part of national recruitment.

2:20
So if you're looking to apply to either Wales, Northern Ireland or Scotland, it's really important that you find out whether they are part of the national process or whether you need to apply locally for those.

2:30
All lead recruiters are an NHS England office and they will recruit to all posts in each of the participating nations.

2:37
So regardless of which devolved nation you're applying for, if they're part of the national process,

2:41
it will be through the NHS England recruitment team.

2:45
Applications should be made through the Lead Recruiter advertisement, regardless of where you want to work in the country, and lead recruiters can answer specific questions about the specialty selection process.

2:55
Contact details for all of the lead recruiters are available on the Oriel recruitment website and so if you go on there, you'll be able to see how to contact them and also what specialities they're responsible for.

3:07
So round one, this is for posts that commence from August 2026.

3:13
So round one is for CT1 ST1 recruitment in the main.

3:16
There are a few ST3 run through specialties in there, but largely it's ST1 and CT1 level.

3:22
So it opens tomorrow at 10:00 and the application closing deadline is the 20th of November at 4:00.

3:30
So you can see there, we're currently on British Summertime, but obviously the clocks go back at the weekend.

3:35
So it's 4:00.

3:36
UK times will be on GMT by November.

3:39
It's really important that you get your application in on time because no late applications will be accepted.

3:44
We then have an interview window from the 5th of January through to the 20th of March and each lead recruiter will advertise when they plan to interview within that window.

3:54
All specialties will release their first offers by no later than 5:00 on the 24th of March.

4:02
Now it may be that specialties are ready to offer before that date and they may do so if they are ready.

4:08
So it's really important that you check your Oriel account throughout the recruitment process to make sure that you don't miss out on any offers that are sent to you because they are timely and have to be responded to within 48 hours.

4:19
We have a hold deadline until the 2nd of April, which allows you to hold an offer while you're waiting to hear from something else.

4:26
And an upgrade deadline allows you to be upgraded as it suggests into a higher preference programme.

4:32
If the offer that you receive initially isn't the one that you would really like.

4:38
Round 2 commences 3 weeks later, so on the 20th of November.

4:42
And this is for all of your uncoupled higher specialties.

4:45
So ST3 and ST4. The application window is open from the 20th of November to the 11th of December.

4:51
And again, it's really important that you don't miss the application window if you're looking to apply.

4:56
Interviews will start from the 5th of January all the way through to the 10th of April.

5:01
And offers for round two specialties will be made by no later than the 14th of April.

5:06
Again, as with round one, especially if they're ready to offer before that date, they may do so make sure that you keep a check on your account.

5:15
The hold deadline for Round 2 is the 22nd of April and the upgrade deadline for being upgraded into preferred posts is the 23rd of April. Just to give you an idea of some of the competition,

5:27
so this is the number of applications that have been submitted per applicant between 2014 and 2025 in round one and round two.

5:37
So as you can see for round two, which are the orange blocks on the graph, the the number of applications that people have been submitting, it's been pretty static throughout the last of 10 or 11 years between 1 and 1 1/2. In round one, the number of applications that everybody's submitting has been increasing.

5:54
So some of you will have seen competition ratios that we've published on our website, which show that application numbers have been increasing.

6:00
And you can see a vast increase from sort of 2021 to 2025 where the average in Round 1 is now 2.37 applications submitted per applicant.

6:11
So while some people or the vast majority probably only submit one or two, there are people that that submit way, way more than that, I think up to sort of 18 to 20.

6:19
And so that brings the average up.

6:22
So in light of that, we've taken the decision to make some changes to the recruitment process for 2026.

6:29
So from now on, applicants in all specialties and all recruitment rounds will need to have full registration with the General Medical Council at the time of application.

6:39
Previously this was the time of appointment but we were finding that people were being offered posts and having to withdraw late in the day because they didn't have time to get their GMC registration.

6:50
So from now on it has to be when you apply, you have to have GMC registration at that date and you'll need your licence to practise by the time you take up the post.

6:57
So it's not necessary to have a licence to practise at the time of application for round one.

7:03
So CT1ST1 specialities, we are limiting the number of applications that an individual can make to to five maximum for this year.

7:13
So for 2026 recruitment onwards.

7:15
So you'll see, you know the graph that I showed you previously that showed that the average number has gone up to 2.37 per applicant.

7:21
It's to limit some of that to make people make an application choices and sort of hopefully reduce the competition in some specialties.

7:30
So that's coming into force from the recruitment round that opens tomorrow.

7:38
In terms of planning and making your application, it's really important that you decide which specialities you wish to apply for.

7:44
Competition ratios for previous recruitment rounds are available on our website.

7:48
So you've got the address there and we also have other information there around fill rates and other data that will probably help you in in making some of your decisions.

8:00
Really important that you review the person specifications to ensure that you're eligible.

8:03
So again, they are on our website.

8:06
You will need to meet all of the essential criteria within a person specification to be eligible to apply.

8:11
The desirable stuff is not essential, but it'll be the stuff that you get scored on in shortlisting and things like that.

8:17
If you do make an application, one of the really important things is that you read all the supporting information before commencing your application, including any guidance that's available now.

8:28
There will be speciality specific guidance.

8:30
There will also be generic guidance.

8:31
It's really important that you read both of those or everything that's available to you because if you don't submit everything at the time application or you're not aware of something, and miss a deadline,

8:41
there is no opportunity to correct it at a later date.

8:45
And all applications are made through Oriel, which is our recruitment system.

8:49
So applications advertised in any other way are not the specialty training programmes. You need to apply through Oriel and the web address is there.

8:57
So if you don't have an account with Oriel, you can register now for an account ready to apply when the adverts go live.

9:07
It's really important you pay particular attention to demonstrating the requirements of the person specs.

9:11
So I said make sure you're eligible and it's important to have evidence to show how you meet those requirements on there.

9:18
Make sure that you allow plenty of time to complete your application.

9:22
I've already said that you need to familiarise yourself with the deadlines because we won't allow late applications.

9:27
It's worth mentioning that every year, despite saying allow plenty of time, 60% of people submit their application in the last three days of the application window.

9:37
Now if you consider last year in round one, we had 80,000 applications, that's a lot of people applying in the last 72 hours.

9:45
And while the system is at the highest capacity that it can be, performance will be affected if that many people are trying to submit their applications at the same time.

9:53
So please, if you take one thing away from tonight, it's that you don't leave everything to the last minute.

9:59
Allow plenty of time to do your application and do it justice and get it in ahead of the deadline or as far ahead of there as you can.

10:06
If you're applying to a specialty that needs self-assessment, make sure that you choose the right option on your application form.

10:14
So any specialties that use self-assessment will ask you a number of questions when you're applying and there'll be options for what you've achieved.

10:23
So make sure you choose the correct one and also that you have suitable documentary evidence to justify that score.

10:28
Because at a later date you will need to submit that.

10:32
Ensure that you submit everything that you need to submit at the time of application.

10:35
So if you've completed Foundation previously, you'll need to upload a copy of your FPCC.

10:43
If you're applying through an alternative certificate route, you'll need to make sure that you upload that to your application form.

10:49
If you select the wrong competency route on your application, you won't be able to change that at a later date and you will be rejected.

10:56
So it's really important that you make sure you complete it properly and submit the evidence that you need to as part of that before you press the submit button.

11:05
Make sure you double check it because as I said you can't change anything at a later date and ensure that you access your Oriel account regularly throughout the selection process.

11:14
Although recruiters will tend to send you an email as well as a message through the Oriel system, we can't guarantee that those emails will get to you because they're going external to the system and there are other obstacles in place like firewalls.

11:28
We can't guarantee that those emails will get to you.

11:30
What we can guarantee is that any messages sent through Oriel will be in your Oriel account.

11:35
So if you are applying, please make sure that you access your account regularly.

11:39
Maybe set yourself reminders to go in every few days.

11:42
All of our timelines are really time sensitive and you often have only have 48 hours to respond to things.

11:49
So it's really important that you make sure that you get in the habit of going into your Oriel account so that you don't miss any deadlines or any messages that are sent to you.

12:00
If you're applying for one of the specialties that uses the multi specialty recruitment assessment it is worth you knowing a little bit more about what that is.

12:08
So it's a computer based test, has two components, professional dilemma test and clinical problem solving test.

12:15
It's been shown to be a reliable and valid way of assessing a large number of candidates in a standardised way with limited clinical and administrative resource.

12:25
If you are applying to an MSRA specialty, you'll be sent details about how to book a sitting of the MSRA after the application window has closed.

12:33
For some specialties it will be after the long listing process has taken place, but for others they will do that before and then they'll do the long listing at a later date.

12:42
You only need to sit the MSRA once, so even if you're applying to multiple specialties that use it as part of their selection process, you won't need to sit it multiple times.

12:51
The one score will carry across all of the specialties that that use the MSRA that you're applying to.

13:00
It's a flexible test and different specialties use it in different ways.

13:04
So to give you an idea of some of the ways General Practise and Core Psychiatry will recruit solely on the MSRA score, there's no interview process, there's no other selection process at all.

13:15
It's solely on your performance in the MSRA.

13:18
Some specialties will use it for shortlisting only, so it will rank you to get you to the interview process, but it won't be part of your final selection score.

13:27
And then other specialties will use it in the same way.

13:29
So they'll use it for short listing to rank you, but they will also use it as a contributing percentage to your final selection score.

13:37
So normally no more than sort of 15 or 20%, I don't think of your final score, but it will contribute if you're applying to one of those specialties.

13:47
And just to give you an idea, the specialties that use it, ACCS Emergency Medicine, Anaesthetics CT1, Clinical Radiology, Community Sexual and Reproductive Health, Core Psychiatry, Core Surgery, General practice, General Practice and Public Health.

14:04
And just to confuse things, if you're applying to the dual programme, you will have to sit the MSRA and the public health assessment tests. Neurosurgery, Nuclear Medicine, Obs and Gynae and Ophthalmology, but all of these are on our website.

14:19
So if you're unsure whether the specialty you're applying to uses the MSRA, you can check on our website to see whether or not it does.

14:30
Another big selection tool, is self-assessment verification.

14:33
So I mentioned earlier that you will be asked questions within your application around a number of things that could be QI projects, management experience, all kind of training courses, research. Whatever answers you put in there, you will need to provide evidence at a later date for a panel to assess.

14:54
So you will upload this to a portal.

14:59
We will send you details of where and how you upload your evidence documents.

15:03
After the application window is closed, there'll be a deadline for submission and it's really important that you engage with that and upload your evidence by the deadline because if you don't upload any evidence, you'll get a 0 score.

15:15
There isn't any opportunity to correct that at a later date.

15:18
Each specialty determines the domains for their evidence and you should upload your evidence to the appropriate domain that it relates to.

15:27
Because the assessors will not go through and look and think, oh, this should be on this domain instead of this one.

15:32
It's down to you to make sure that you upload it in the correct place.

15:36
After the deadline for upload has passed, assessors will go into the evidence.

15:41
They'll have access to it and they will score it against the same questions that you have answered in your application form.

15:47
Any scores that they give could be the same as the ones you award yourself, or they could be increased or decreased.

15:54
You do have an opportunity to appeal if you don't agree with the scores that you are given by the assessors, but you cannot upload additional evidence for the appeal.

16:06
So it would be based on the evidence that you submitted originally.

16:09
So if you've forgotten to upload something that can't be provided at a later date.

16:16
And then finally to talk about offers.

16:18
So if you get through the interview process and are due an offer, these will be made through Oriel and they'll be based on both your rank and also your stated geographical preferences.

16:28
So all offers are made meritocratically in rank order.

16:33
And when your rank is reached, it will see which is the highest geographical preference that you've ranked,

16:38
and is available, that can be offered to you.

16:40
You will not be offered a post that you haven't ranked.

16:43
So if you say that you don't want a particular geographical preference, you will never receive an offer for that, regardless of whether or not you receive anything else or whether it then means that offers go to someone ranked lower than you.

16:56
So when you're doing your preferences, make sure that you only rank places where you actually want to work and could accept a post if offered, and that you don't rank anywhere you don't want to work.

17:06
Because if you decline a post, you won't get any more offers and you won't be reinstated.

17:11
You're given 48 hours to respond and you can accept that post.

17:15
You can decline it, or up until the hold deadline you can choose to hold it.

17:19
The 48 hours does not include weekends, but does include bank holidays.

17:23
So if you get an offer released on a Friday afternoon, you'll have until Tuesday afternoon to respond to it.

17:29
If you do choose to hold an offer, you can only hold the one at any one time.

17:33
So if you're holding an offer and you get another offer and want to hold that, the previously held one will decline.

17:38
So you can't be holding multiple offers at once, only the one.

17:41
So it's really important that if you decide to hold that you hold the one that you really want to hold and let the other one decline.

17:48
Once you accept a post, you'll receive no further offers in the recruitment round at all from any specialty.

17:54
So regardless of how many other programmes you've applied to, once you accept, you'll be automatically declined from everything else in that recruitment round.

18:02
If you decline a post, you won't receive any more offers from that specialty.

18:06
But if you've applied for other programmes, you can still continue to receive offers from those.

18:11
And then finally, you can upgrade offers if you opt in.

18:15
So I mentioned earlier this is about getting your preferred programme.

18:18
So for example, you're offered your third choice, geographical preference in IMT, but actually you would like to be considered for your second or first choice should they become available because people decline their offers.

18:31
So if you're opting to upgrades, you can say exactly which programmes you would like to be upgraded into and which ones you wouldn't.

18:37
And then if you if you're eligible for an upgrade, it will happen automatically.

18:41
You won't have another 48 hours to decide one way or the other.

18:44
It will just happen and your previous offer will go to somebody else.

18:50
There's an upgrade deadline in the recruitment round and no upgrades will happen after that.

18:54
So you just need to make sure that whatever you've accepted before, that is the one you really want because if you're looking to upgrade later, it's not going to happen.

19:04
And then just finally, I just thought I'd put this slide up just for to show you where you can find additional information.

19:09
So we have our specialty recruitment website, which has all of the applicant guidance on there.

19:15
So everything that I've gone through today, we have fill rates, we have competition ratios, we have all of the contacts for the lead recruiters on there.

19:22
So all the information that you need is there.

19:25
Each specialty, will probably have specialty specific websites or somewhere where they put that information.

19:30
Some will use our website, some will have a separate website.

19:34
And the Royal Colleges are always a good source of information as well for the specialty that you're applying to.

19:40
And that's all I want to say.

19:42
Thank you.

19:48
Thanks very much, Clare.

19:50
Lovely whizz through and lots of clear slides.

19:52
So I'm sure anyone looking back on this webinar will be able to find what they need.

19:57
And thank you so much for those of you who've put questions into the chat, you'll see for some of them, we've put some comments in with responses.

20:05
So hopefully that will help you understand that this is really a webinar about process for you to be able to make your applications.

20:15
So some of these questions are not ones that we can answer for you today.

20:22
And yes, Alana, let's take the slides down.

20:24
Thank you.

20:26
So.

20:28
Having said that, if I'm going to go on most upvoted, the most important thing that matters to you all, or at least five of you, is about prioritisation.

20:39
And so I think it's important that you understand that is something that matters to us all as well.

20:46
So as Lindsay mentioned, I'm Jo Szram.

20:48
I'm the Postgraduate Dean in the Southeast.

20:51
So I look after many people who are trying to get through training from foundation to core, through higher specialty to become consultants and our colleagues of the future as consultants.

21:03
So it's really important to us that we make sure that we support you in your careers.

21:08
So we are working really hard across the four nations to make sure that we understand how to do that in the most effective way.

21:16
In terms of the questions you've specifically asked about those things, one would be about prioritising different people such as UK medical graduates.

21:23
We can't give you an answer to that.

21:25
It is something that is being worked through, but there is no, there's nothing that we can say to you today that's going to answer that question for you.

21:33
So I'm sorry that we can't answer it, but we can't.

21:38
There's a related question about how many training posts are being funded for each specialty.

21:43
That's a little bit easier to sort of give you a general answer, which is that every specialty programme has a number of training posts within it and obviously lots of them are occupied by doctors at any given time.

21:55
So there is a certain element of people finishing training and then some of those posts become available again.

22:01
But each year we commission more posts in different areas, geographies and different specialties and at different levels, whether that's foundation core or higher.

22:10
So there is an increase.

22:12
But you've seen the competition ratios that Clare showed you in the slide.

22:15
So we know that there are a lot of people applying for a lot of posts.

22:20
And we absolutely recognise why you would be asking that question because what you're interested in is understanding whether the thing that you've set your heart on as a career is the thing that you can apply to and also an area or geography that you might want to live in.

22:32
So the competition ratios that have been published, as Clare mentioned, will give you some information about that as well.

22:40
And then finally, everyone's very keen on talking about AI at the moment.

22:44
Obviously it's something that is within the world.

22:47
And again, we've had to give a lot of thought to this.

22:50
And we have published a position statement that wasn't just developed by us.

22:54
We had a wide stakeholder board meeting about this and that's been published on our website and you can have a read of that there.

23:02
So rest assured, we know that AI exists and we're very aware of the concerns and we are working towards making sure that the process is fair within the time scale that we've got.

23:15
Because I think it's really important that you understand that recruitment carries on.

23:20
So we have to keep going and making sure that we do our absolute best for you all to make sure that the right people make the best possible application and have the best possible chance to get the job that you really want.

23:32
So there are a few more technical questions.

23:36
So I'm going to go to those and hopefully Clare can help me with them some.

23:39
We've answered already.

23:40
So you did answer already, Clare, about if there's an, I mean, the specific question, in the chat is about IMT.

23:47
And so IMT training in Scotland is a separate application process this year and that's new.

23:54
So the question was, can you apply to that

23:55
and England and one of our kind colleagues has written this down so you can all read it.

24:00
You can only apply to 1 and actually we've agreed a system, haven't we?

24:05
If someone accidentally applies for two, Clare, remind me what happens so I don't get it wrong please?

24:11
So there's nothing in the in the recruitment system that will stop you applying to both.

24:16
The guidance is that you can only apply to 1.

24:18
You can only be considered for one, after the application window is closed, if you're found to have applied to both, the application that you submitted first will be rejected.

24:29
So be withdrawn , you'll be advised, but you won't have any opportunity to say that's not the one you want.

24:35
And the thinking behind that is that after you've made that first one, you've gone on to make the second one.

24:39
So that should therefore be your preferred choice because you wouldn't have done that otherwise.

24:44
So yes, if you do apply for both, your first one will be withdrawn by the recruitment team.

24:49
Thank you.

24:51
So there's some very specific questions.

24:55
Here's a good one.

24:56
Do academic clinical fellowship applications count as one of your 5?

25:02
They do not.

25:03
It's a separate recruitment round.

25:04
There you go.

25:05
So if you're applying for academic, you get 6, lucky you.

25:10
However, if you have applied for academic and you're having to apply for clinical benchmarking, the associated clinical application that you make will count as one of your five.

25:20
Yeah.

25:22
Thank you.

25:24
OK.

25:26
So right, differential attainment in MSRA, Clare, how are you feeling about that one?

25:33
So the question, specific question is, are there any data available around fairness of using MSRA?

25:42
I think we do have some information on our website.

25:44
If not, we're in the process of putting something together.

25:49
But yeah, if we can answer that offline and publish the answer on the website, then I'll be able to point in the exact direction of where you can find that information.

25:58
And we've definitely looked at it.

26:01
So we will definitely make sure we send you, you know, put something on the website there that will answer that question.

26:06
OK.

26:07
And then next one is, oh, lots of questions about when MSRA opens for booking, I do not know the answer to.

26:17
So it will be around the week before Christmas or thereabouts.

26:21
I think perhaps slightly before that. We close in November and then there has to be a process of long listing before that.

26:32
So 15th of December is when I think you can expect it.

26:35
But you will get information from those specialties that you're applying for because you need to log, you need to register for an account with Pearson Vue, which is the, the company that administers the test for us.

26:47
And then obviously look through that.

26:48
So you'll, you'll get all the information by email.

26:50
So just check your Oriel account.

26:52
But it will be in December.

26:54
Brilliant, thank you.

26:58
And we will make sure you've got links and stuff around MSRA if you need them.

27:03
There's a lovely question about whether CST is counted as a medical specialty.

27:08
I'm assuming medical means being a doctor.

27:11
Thank you.

27:13
I mean, these questions are great because I'm like, that's a really good question.

27:16
But yes, we're all in the medical profession.

27:19
That's the way to look at it.

27:21
OK, really interesting one, which I have to say, until I started thinking about recruitment, I didn't really think about this.

27:26
But what happens when new posts are added to recruitment rounds and what happens with ranking and so on?

27:32
And perhaps Clare, you could kind of explain how the bit after people have been given their offers, what happens with posts and so on, that'd be really helpful.

27:42
OK.

27:43
So in terms of if extra posts are added in, is that?

27:46
Yeah. So the question is, is there a deadline, which there is a deadline by the way, that new posts can be added to recruitment rounds and what's the mitigation?

27:54
Because technically if you've already so, I suppose it's the whole thing about holding offers and accepting offers and then something comes up that you would have preferred.

28:06
What's the system for that?

28:08
So that I think being transparent about that is helpful because obviously we can't just wait just in case everybody wants to change their minds because there'll be chaos.

28:15
So there are some timelines on around that.

28:17
Definitely.

28:19
Yeah.

28:19
So we're, we're obviously we, we try to get, as many posts as possible into the recruitment process at the beginning, but there are things that happen that mean that we can't possibly have everything in at once, stuff that we just can't foresee.

28:31
So I think for ST3/ST4 recruitment, if people get their CCT and leave earlier than expected, that post might suddenly come in.

28:39
If somebody has applied to change specialities and they're already in training, then the specialty that the post that they had previously that could come into recruitment.

28:50
So ideally all of that will happen before the upgrade deadline.

28:54
But the reality is that doesn't happen.

28:58
And if that's the case, you need to be mindful of that.

29:02
So after the upgrade deadline, there can be no upgrades into preferred post, even if one becomes available at a later date.

29:08
So the post that you have at the upgrade deadline will be the post that that you basically take up when you start training.

29:15
Even if something that you like becomes available at a later date, you won't get offered it and it will get offered to somebody who hasn't already had an offer.

29:20
And the same applies.

29:22
So for devolved nations where there are local appointments for training and NTNs, if you have a local appointment for training offer that you accept and an NTN becomes available after the upgrade deadline, you wouldn't be eligible for that offer.

29:35
So there is a section on our website.

29:37
So I'd really recommend that you go to the website that we mentioned earlier.

29:41
All of that is on there and it details that quite clearly.

29:44
But if you have any questions, you can contact us and we can explain it in a bit more detail for you.

29:50
Thanks, Clare.

29:52
Some quite niche questions now, but very important; IMT applications.

29:58
There was a question about when you do your evidence portfolio, is it only some of them that get looked at or does everything get looked at?

30:09
So IMT is unverified.

30:12
So it isn't reviewed for IMT.

30:14
It's the only self-assessment process that doesn't have any verified evidence and therefore it doesn't count towards a final score.

30:21
It's just a short listing process to get you through to interview.

30:25
Thank you.

30:27
And then would prior undergraduate degrees undertaken for a full three years eg a BSc but that isn't intercalated.

30:36
Would that count towards applications in the current system?

30:40
It depends on the specialty.

30:41
So different specialties have different guidance or different scoring criteria.

30:46
So it's important that you get the criteria for the specialty that you're applying for and have a look at that.

30:54
Well, thank you.

30:56
Lindsay, was there anything that you wanted to pick out?

30:59
I'm just, I'm scrolling as quickly as I can, but have a look if there's anything you want to take out of there.

31:03
Thanks very much.

31:05
And we've got a couple.

31:06
Thank you very much around Oriel.

31:09
So there's a question in the chat around, we have an Oriel account from Foundation application.

31:15
Do we need a new one for specialty?

31:18
So it depends.

31:19
I think, if you still have the same email address that you had when you applied for Foundation, then absolutely you can use the same account.

31:28
But normally what happens is that people apply for foundation from their medical school email address, which I don't have access to two years later.

31:36
So if that's the case and you don't have access to the e-mail that you previously used, I'd suggest that you create a new account.

31:44
And the reason for that isn't around getting the emails.

31:47
It's around getting the emails if you need to reset your password because you won't get them.

31:51
So yeah, if you if you're using a university email address for university, you're no longer at do a new account.

31:59
Thank you very much.

32:00
Clare, another Oriel question, somebody's kindly asking if they've been locked out of their Oriel account, who do they email?

32:10
So there is two options.

32:12
My team have an email address that they can email.

32:15
But also we'd recommend that you email the lead recruiter.

32:18
So every lead recruiter, whichever specialty you're applying for will have a contact email address for them.

32:24
So if you email that say you've been locked out of your account, they will prioritise that to reinstate it as quickly as possible.

32:32
Do it now, then you're ready and a change that's been picked up by someone on the call is active GMC registration is mandatory at application time.

32:46
Now that is a change, isn't it?

32:49
Yes

32:49
So previously prior to this year the GMC registration was time of appointment.

32:56
Obviously you now need to be registered at time of application, but you don't have to have your licence to practise in place until you start in training.

33:05
So if for example, you've, I don't know, done foundation, gone off to Australia for 12 months and you've let your licence to practise lapse, you will still be registered with the GMC likely, so that's fine.

33:18
You just won't have a licence to practise.

33:19
You need to make sure you get that in place before you start.

33:24
So Jo, I'll hand back.

33:25
Yeah, thank you.

33:26
I'll have a go now.

33:27
So can you just explain about applying for LTFT?

33:33
Yeah, so there's two options.

33:36
Some specialities are running a less than full time recruitment pilot.

33:41
I think we only had five posts last year, but we're running that pilot again.

33:45
So it's worth having a look at the posts that are available for a speciality because it may be that you can apply directly to a less than full time rotation, which means that when you get your offer, you know you're going to be training LTFT, what percentage and where you're going to be based.

33:59
The more traditional way of applying to LTFT and therefore the more common way is that you apply to a full time post, you accept the full time post and then you make an application for less than full time after that.

34:11
So once you know where you've been appointed and the region that you're going to be training in, you make an application directly to them to apply less than full time.

34:21
Thanks so much, a few more about evidence submission.

34:25
So there's a specific, very specific question.

34:27
Do evidence submission deadlines also include the date up to when the evidence is counted?

34:33
So this you might submit in March.

34:35
But you should you only include evidence up until November.

34:40
So the scoring criteria that you're submitting evidence against will be very clear on that.

34:45
So it will be what evidence do you have either at time of application or could be time of appointment or time of submission of evidence.

34:54
Normally it's time of application because that's the only thing that you know definitely.

34:58
So you might have a course or something booked in the future, which may for whatever reason not go ahead.

35:03
So I think generally it's likely to be time application, but the criteria will be very clear on that and you need to follow what's in that.

35:12
OK, another technical.

35:13
Oh, go on Lindsay.

35:14
Oh, I'll have one more, then you.

35:15
Do you have one more?

35:16
I've got one.

35:17
OK, There's a very specific one that will come in after you, Jo, thank you.

35:21
OK, brilliant.

35:21
Thank you.

35:23
Opting into upgrade, when does that happen?

35:26
So you can do it anytime once you've received an offer.

35:29
So you can't opt in to upgrades until after you've received an offer, but once you have, you can decide that you're going to opt in or not.

35:39
You can opt in for some of the programmes and even if you, I don't know, you get offered your 10th post, your 10th preference, but you don't really want all of 1 to 9.

35:50
You could choose which ones of those you want to opt in for upgrades or you could choose not to opt in at all.

35:56
You're happy with #10 go away with that or you might decide a week later that actually I would like to be considered for something else and then you can opt in at that date.

36:04
So you can opt in and opt out at any time for when you receive an offer up to the upgrade deadline.

36:11
Over to you, Lindsay, have a go.

36:13
Thank you very much.

36:14
And this is a very specific question, but generic at the same time, does a LAT1 post count as one of the five applications?

36:24
Yes, if it's a training vacancy within the round one recruitment and it'll be one of your five applications.

36:34
So anything that's in that gets advertised tomorrow, even the devolved nation vacancy.

36:39
So my presentation only focused on the the national vacancies, but for example Broad Based Training in Scotland would count as one.

36:49
If you apply to Core Surgery in England, Wales, Scotland and the Northern Ireland vacancy that counts as 2.

36:55
So anything within that round one window that opens tomorrow counts as one of your five, whether it's a full ST training programme, full core programme or a one year LAT.

37:07
Thank you very much for that.

37:08
And there are a couple of asks around just wondering if this session will be available to watch later.

37:14
A recap that were not able to attend and whether the slides are available.

37:17
This will be hosted on the MDRS website won't it, from tomorrow?

37:22
Maybe?

37:23
Yeah, probably.

37:24
I would imagine the next week or so.

37:26
I think we just need to obviously get the transcripts and tidy up a little bit and then we can publish it.

37:31
Thank you very much indeed.

37:34
Thank you.

37:35
Back to you, Jo.

37:36
OK, so application dates, are they the same for the the ST4 medical specialties like Respiratory and Cardiology?

37:45
Yeah, so the round two dates that I showed are the ST4 or the physician specialities, but everything within that recruitment round is the same.

37:54
OK, brilliant.

37:55
Thank you.

37:56
There's a really interesting one.

37:58
This is the kind of thing I would want to know.

38:00
Is it possible to see what was around last year for a programme like IMT so that people can start thinking about their preferencing or is it impossible to know actually

38:08
this is what was on offer last year and therefore will be likely on offer this year.

38:15
There's nowhere that it's published.

38:17
I mean, it still exists in the vacancy in Oriel, but I don't think applicants could have access to that.

38:24
So no, I think it's just a case of waiting, but you'll get a preference way in advance of any offers going out.

38:31
Yeah, posts are normally confirmed by early New Year so that as soon as recruiters can get those out to you, you you'll get the opportunity to preference them.

38:40
Cool.

38:41
Thank you for that suggestion because we'll think about that.

38:43
If it's doable then it's nice, isn't it, to be able to get ahead of things.

38:49
The link to the website someone's asked for is in the chat, but we will obviously send that all back out again.

38:57
What else have we got?

38:59
Can you hold more than one offer at once?

39:02
No, so you can only hold one and only up to the hold deadline.

39:08
So if you're holding an offer for one specialty, you receive an offer from another specialty.

39:13
You need to decide whether you want to continue to hold the one that you're already holding or whether you want to hold the new one.

39:20
If you hold the new one, Oriel will say to you the previous hold is going to get rejected.

39:24
Are you OK with that?

39:26
You will get warnings in the system, but you can only hold one at any one time.

39:32
Brilliant.

39:32
Thank you.

39:35
Lindsay, any more that you've seen? One, just can you highlight the key changes in the application in comparison to last year?

39:45
I think we've probably covered those with the generic ones around 5 applications and GMC.

39:54
The only generic changes across the board are the five applications in round one and the GMC at time application. Just to flag a couple of changes to individual specialties, particularly around IMT.

40:08
So IMT this year we've already mentioned has been advertised as one vacancy for England, Wales and Northern Ireland and Scotland are doing a separate vacancy.

40:18
IMT are also doing something which we're referring to as a booster score.

40:21
So if you've applied to IMT only and no other specialty, you will gain an extra 5 points in your shortlisted score.

40:30
So in addition to your unverified self-assessment mark, you'll get an extra 5 points as a sort of commitment to specialty mark.

40:37
But if you submit applications to anything else, you won't get that.

40:40
So it's worth mentioning that one as well.

40:42
Yeah, thank you.

40:46
There's a few questions about people that have used Oriel in the past for Foundation.

40:50
We assume automatically those accounts are still active.

40:54
Yeah, it will still be active.

40:59
But if you don't know the password and you don't have access to the email that you registered with, it's really worth just registering for a new one with a different e-mail address.

41:06
OK, perfect.

41:07
Thank you.

41:12
Right.

41:13
I'm pretty sure I know the answer to this.

41:15
But if you're holding an offer in one specialty, can you still be eligible for upgrades in another specialty?

41:23
So you can't really be eligible for upgrades until you've had an offer and made a decision on it.

41:29
So you can't really be holding one offer and be eligible for upgrades.

41:33
What you could do is hold, and you could hold an offer and be eligible for offers in another speciality.

41:38
And then if you decide, you make a decision on this second offer, either you hold it or you accept it, then you're eligible for upgrades after that.

41:46
Yeah, so if you really think you'd like upgrades, ask for it and then you can.

41:50
But you still end up having to make a decision eventually in the end.

41:54
Yeah, you can only ever hold one.

41:55
So you can't make a decision on an offer until you've done something with the one you're already holding.

42:01
And, and this is slightly sad, but I'm going to say it.

42:05
If you don't get an offer at all, do you find out or assume because you've not heard you haven't got anything?

42:11
So I think specialties normally send some comms out to applicants that say we're now at the end of the offer process.

42:17
We've appointed to all our posts.

42:20
Thank you for your interest

42:22
but unfortunately you haven't been successful this year just so they're aware

42:24
But it's worth remembering that even when posts are filled, if posts become available at a later date and you are appointable for that speciality, you could still continue to receive an offer quite late in the day.

42:37
So it's always worth just checking back in Oriel.

42:38
There's some really hard ones in here about candidate A and candidate B.

42:44
They're all in Scotland though, Lindsay, so I'm blaming you.

42:48
I've just picked out one that again becomes a bit perhaps niche, niche isn't the right word but something a technical point .

43:00
For current less than full time trainees who won't finish F2 until later November.

43:04
Are we eligible to apply for round one this year?

43:07
Sorry, it depends on your situation I think if it's just that you are less than full time and you haven't had any statutory leave, then unfortunately you are out of sync and you aren't able to apply because you won't meet the requirements by the start date.

43:25
If however you are, you've had some statutory leave, either maternity leave or sick leave or something like that during your foundation programme, then you can defer for the amount of time that you were on statutory leave for.

43:41
So you had 12 months paternity leave, you could be appointed and defer by 12 months.

43:45
But if the less than full time training is going to increase the amount of time beyond that 12 months, because it's basically it's 12 month calendar year kind of thing, then you still need to wait the following year.

43:58
So it depends on your individual circumstances. OK, some other slightly niche, but not that niche.

44:07
So I'll let them off; employment history.

44:11
If you're just finishing F2, I assume you have to detail your entire like say your F1 in one place and F2 somewhere else.

44:18
You've got to put all of that on there, haven't you?

44:20
Yeah.

44:21
So I think it normally requires the application form requires 3 years of employment history.

44:27
And obviously if you're in foundation, you're not going to have three years.

44:31
So it will come up as a career gap.

44:32
So you just need to explain.

44:33
I think it's that career gap is that you were at university or at medical school at the time.

44:37
But yeah, you will need to detail all of your foundation rotations.

44:44
Any others from you, Lindsay?

44:47
Sorry.

44:48
Thanks.

44:49
Thanks very much, Jo.

44:50
Will we

44:51
go through this?

44:52
Candidate A and Candidate B in Scotland

44:56
So Candidate A puts Scotland as their first choice but has a lower MSRA score.

45:03
Candidate B puts Scotland as their fifth choice, but as a higher score.

45:09
How will that work, Clare?

45:12
Run it past me again. I've got a pen and paper.

45:14
This is like Carol Vorderman.

45:16
They're all too young to know who that is.  Rachel Riley

45:17
This is really important and I'm really grateful for the for the question.

45:25
Yeah, it's a good question.

45:26
So Candidate A

45:27
puts Scotland as their first choice.

45:30
but has a lower MSRA score.

45:32
Candidate B puts Scotland as their fifth choice, but as a higher MSRA score.

45:39
Is there any advantage for Candidate B?

45:41
Sorry.

45:42
A.

45:42
Do applications offer release at the same time Candidate A would accept Scotland and for candidate B they would have to reject their top choice before being offered Scotland.

45:55
So all of the offers will go out at the same time.

46:00
So your preferences are looked at secondary.

46:03
Your rank is the first thing that is looked at, so when the system makes offers it will go through in rank order.

46:09
So Candidate B will be reached before Candidate A. Candidate B who has Scotland as their fifth choice.

46:17
If any of their one to four choices are available at that point in time, they'll be offered one of those.

46:24
If not, and Scotland is available, they'll be offered Scotland Candidate A when their rank is reached.

46:30
If there are still posts to be offered, they will be offered the highest preference that they can be offered at that time.

46:36
So if there are posts available in Scotland, they would get offered Scotland.

46:39
If not, they would get one of their other options.

46:43
Does that help?

46:44
Is that clear?

46:46
Well, I understand it.

46:47
So I would say that's quite clear.

46:50
Thank you very much.

46:52
OK, another one.

46:53
Sorry Clare, we should have got your extra squash, shouldn't we?

46:56
Because you have to answer everything.

46:58
If it's just a quick one about the five point booster score, if you apply to ACF as well, that doesn't lose you the five points as long as it's an ACF application that's linked to your IMT application.

47:09
Yeah, and also ACF application are in a different recruitment round, so the system won't pick those up.

47:14
This is everything that's in round one that gets advertised tomorrow.

47:16
So even if you applied something in Round 2 later on, an ST3/ST4 specialty, that wouldn't count either because it's a different recruitment round.

47:24
OK, brilliant.

47:25
Thank you.

47:28
Can you use previous application information on Oriel to pre-fill if the information is still the same 

47:39
I'd need to go away and check it, but I've got a feeling that you can copy previous application but I think because it's a new recruitment year the application form will be different.

47:47
So I think no

47:48
You probably can't.

47:49
But if you're applying for multiple specialties within the recruitment round, you can copy your information across from one to the other because the application form changes each year slightly.

47:58
You can't, you can't copy across.

48:00
Yeah, there is just headline for you all.

48:03
We are re procuring Oriel at the moment and it's one of the things that unsurprisingly you all asked for.

48:09
So it's definitely being worked into that piece of like if we're going to change it and have a new, new programme, what do we need?

48:17
It's definitely on the wish list there.

48:18
So that would be nice because there's nothing worse than writing everything out several times.

48:25
A bit more about evidence.

48:27
I mean the evidence stuff, have a look on the website because it will tell you very clearly what is good evidence.

48:32
You know, what kind of stuff you should put down and all that kind of stuff.

48:37
There's more. Lots of surgeons on. "Hello surgeons!"

48:42
There's a bit about, you know, when you get something after you've applied and you get something published, you can't put the publication on, can you?

48:52
But obviously, if something gets published afterwards, you've probably got some kind of information to say you've submitted it, which gives you points, I think.

49:01
So just whatever you've got, you put that on.

49:04
Yeah, but you can't change your application form at a later date.

49:08
If it gets published afterwards, you can't change that.

49:12
But you could say that it's in, it's been submitted. Windows, LATs, Oriel.

49:25
I mean, feel free to frantically upvote something if Lindsay and I've missed it because it'll be easier to see it.

49:30
Because at the moment I'm just checking if there's any others. Jo, can I come in with this?

49:39
There's a little bit of discussion about the boost score.

49:45
Yeah.

49:47
And the IMT can be combined with ACCS, acute medicine or anaesthetics.

49:57
So I think the question they're asking is why have they put a boost score in for IMT?

50:02
And the reasons for that is many of you will know this, the competition ratios were very high for IMT.

50:08
It doesn't use an MSRA and it was felt to be a way of demonstrating commitment to IMT.

50:17
And that was something that was proposed by the colleges and the federation of all colleges for for IMT.

50:24
And that's the reason for it.

50:26
They want people who want to be a physician to be going into IMT.

50:31
So it should support people who that is the thing that they want to do.

50:37
But it's our first year of doing it.

50:39
So we will not be able to tell what the impact of that is.

50:44
And in terms of that question, it says that you can combine it with ACCS Acute Medicine or Anaesthetics.

50:50
So in terms of I think it's now ACCS internal medicine rather than acute medicine, it's the same vacancy you apply to 1, you apply and you're considered for INT and ACS internal medicine.

51:02
So it's not different.

51:03
It's not two different applications.

51:05
Yes, if you're doing ACCS anaesthetics, you will do some acute medicine in your the first year of that.

51:11
Is that six months, isn't it?

51:13
But that's different.

51:14
So in terms of INT and ACCS, internal medicine, that's one application.

51:19
So that would count for your booster score if you apply to nothing else.

51:29
There's no more voting going on because it's the same stuff at the top.

51:40
It's your last chance, guys, because we're closing very soon.

51:43
Can I pick up on one that I can see?

51:45
There's one that says, is it true that IMG applications are given half marks only?

51:50
Absolutely not.

51:51
No.

51:52
You are scored in exactly the same way as all other applicants.

51:55
And those scoring applications will not know where you have graduated from unless there's some evidence that that shows that.

52:01
But you're treated in exactly the same way.

52:03
It makes no difference.

52:04
Yeah.

52:16
I cannot see any more.

52:19
Oh, there's a question about are there plans to increase in training numbers?

52:22
But I think I've answered that there are always plans to increase training numbers because we know we need more every year.

52:28
There's a related point which I think is it might be of interest to those who you don't think about it.

52:34
It's not about training numbers, it's about capacity in a programme.

52:37
So it's about the posts.

52:39
So even if you've got people out on, you know, out of programme, so for example, if you go out for three years to do a PhD, that doesn't mean that nobody can go into that area.

52:49
It's about whether we can provide the training for the people in the training programme.

52:53
And the training programme directors do an amazing job of managing how many people should be in a programme and where the posts are.

53:02
So it isn't as straightforward as thinking, oh, it's a speciality where everybody goes out and then nobody can get into it.

53:08
It doesn't work like that.

53:09
So but you know, we all work really hard to make sure we've got as many training posts as possible for you and run the best possible training programmes that we can to make sure you meet your curriculum and as I said, develop your career and those programmes that you're all trying to get into.

53:24
So I as there have not been any more, I think I'm going to close, but as and Lindsay said earlier, anything we will go through this all just in case we've missed something through our scrolling and we'll make sure we've got answers to everything that we haven't answered on the webinar.

53:39
And obviously the recording will be available for you as soon as we can get it up and sorted and cleaned up.

53:45
So I think the last thing to say is thank you to you all for joining us.

53:49
We've had, you know, somewhere around 250 to nearly 300 people on this call, which I'm, you know, very impressed that so many of people have come.

53:59
And we've got a slide to put up for you just in case any of you are Foundation Year 2, the UKFPO are running something for you.

54:10
So the webinar is here.

54:13
Look, you've got a little QR code or a link, so please get in touch and register for that if you'd like to attend.

54:21
We really hope you found the webinar useful.

54:25
And I just like to say if you're applying, I'm assuming most of you who are on this are thinking about applying in this current round that's about to open.

54:34
I just like to say from all of us, we wish you every success in your applications.

54:39
And please just make sure you take the time, maybe watch the webinar back if you're not sure, look at all the information that's available for you online and make sure you really attend to your application because that will give you the best possible chance of getting into the speciality and the programme that you want.

54:55
So as I say, the recording be available, we'll make sure we've answered all the questions and there are lots of links that are in the chat which will help you with your application, education and your careers.

55:04
So thank you very much for attending and good night.