ARCP Guide for Psychiatry trainees in Wessex Deanery

September 2013

Welcome to Wessex! The Wessex Psychiatry Trainees Committee has produced this brief guide to help you get started with some of the requirements for training which you will need to demonstrate at the end of each training year.

Every year as a trainee you will have an Annual Review of Competence Progression meeting. This should be a chance for you to demonstrate your strengths, discuss any weaknesses, and plan for the year ahead. It does take a certain amount of preparation and you can make your life easier by getting to grips with it all sooner rather than later...

At the ARCP meeting you will be presenting evidence to show how you have developed as a doctor over the year, and a panel of senior educators will decide on whether your progress is adequate to progress to the next year of training. Very importantly, you need to collect this evidence throughout the year, working together with your clinical and educational supervisor. There are requirements for the minimum level of evidence needed; these usually change from year to year and so you will need to look out for an email from the Deanery (Health Education Wessex) saying exactly what you will need, which you should receive in the months leading up to ARCP, which is usually held in June or July. This email should include electronic copies of all the forms, which you will need to fill in, and then take to your supervisor to sign. As a rough guide the sort of evidence you need is usually as follows:

Core trainees (CT1-3)

General information / Up to date CV
Work place based assessments / 12 required overall, see evidence summary for details.
Reports / Core ARCP Portfolio Evidence Summary
Core Supervisor's Report
Supervisor / Local Tutor Report Check List and Validation
Revalidation information / Enhanced Form R for Doctors in Training
Revalidation Related Questions for Educational Supervisor Report
Reflection on Extra Work Outside of Training and Reflective Case Review – if appropriate
Other / GMC survey completion receipt
Exam Data Form

Higher trainees (ST4-6)

General information / Up to date CV
Work place based assessments / 12 required overall, see evidence summary for details.
Reports / ST4+/Higher ARCP Portfolio Evidence Summary
ST4+/Higher Supervisor's Report
Programme Director Report Check List and Validation
Revalidation information / Enhanced Form R for Doctors in Training
Revalidation Related Questions for Educational Supervisor Report
Reflection on Extra Work Outside of Training and Reflective Case Review – if appropriate
Other / GMC survey completion receipt

Portfolio Online

The Royal College of Psychiatrists introduced an electronic portfolio for its trainees around three years ago. All of your evidence will need to be uploaded here, and the ARCP panel will look on the website to assess it (i.e. they will not be looking at a paper portfolio).

You should upload all documents related to ARCP in the section of your Portfolio called ‘Supervision’. Please title these entries with the title of the document you have uploaded, and the training year the document relates to. Make sure you have ‘shared’ these entries, otherwise the panel can’t see them! If you are scanning and uploading a document with multiple pages, make sure you upload it as a single file. (If you don’t know how to scan documents, don’t leave it until the last minute to learn!)

What to do now…

-  Within the next month, register for Portfolio Online on the college website (see link below) as soon as possible, and learn to use it.

-  Within the next month, look at the evidence summary form which is available on the Deanery website (link below). This details exactly what evidence you need to have by the end of the year.

-  You should aim to be doing at least two WPBA per month from the start of your training. In particular make sure you plan when you are going to do your multidisciplinary feedback assessments (mini-PATs) as these take some time to organise and complete.

-  For core trainees, make sure your supervisor for your first job completes their supervisors report when you leave in January.

-  If anything occurs which could be seen as a significant incident (ask your supervisor if you are unsure), make sure you write a reflective practice note about your involvement, and remember to include a note about the incident in your ARCP reports.

-  If you need help, ask! See below for who can help.

Sources of support:

-  Your supervisor.

-  Contact the Portfolio Online support team via the website.

-  Ask other psychiatry trainees – if you have an ST4-6 doctor in your team they should be able to help. Alternatively ask any of the Wessex Psychiatry Trainee Committee members.

Links:

Portfolio Online

http://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/traininpsychiatry/trainees/portfolioonlineinformation.aspx

Deanery page on psychiatry ARCPs

http://www.wessexdeanery.nhs.uk/specialty_schools/wessex_school_of_psychiatry/arcps.aspx

WPTC

September 2013