Introduction
Applying for your first hospital job as a doctor can seem like a daunting task. The UKFPO has designed this handbook to answer all your questions about the recruitment process and FPAS (the online Foundation Programme Application System). Our medical student advisors have helped us put it together to ensure all the important points are covered. Further information is available at: FPAS, the national online application process for the Foundation Programme 2011, is used for allocating Foundation Programme places across the UK, covering England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland.
If you are applying for an Academic Foundation Programme, there is a separate process, which begins earlier than the main recruitment round. For more information, go to:
Contents
Timeline and overview of the process
Before you apply
Are you eligible?
Registering & enrolling online
Pre-allocation to a foundation school based on special circumstances
Contacting you
The FPAS application form
Personal
Disabilities and personal health
Linked applications
Qualifications
Clinical skills
Equal Opportunities
References
Helping your referees
The reference form
Questions
Tips for writing good answers
Myth Buster:
DOs and DON’Ts for completing your form
DOs and DON’Ts for completing your form
Preferences
Competition Ratios for 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010
Submit
Probity
Data Protection
Scoring
Number of points available
How your application is scored
Allocation to a foundation school
Matching to a foundation training programme
Transfer of Information
Frequently asked questions
APPENDIX A
Cover photo: Photographs taken by Yves Salmon Photography. With thanks to our medical student models who were all members of the UKFPO’s Medical Students Board.
Timeline and overview of the process
19 Jul – 20 Aug2010 / Ensure that you are eligible to apply. If your medical school is outside the UK, or if you qualified from a UK medical school prior to 1 August 2009, you must apply to the Eligibility Office by midday on 20 August 2010.30 Sept 2010 / Deadline for the submission of special circumstances applications.
4 Oct2010 / View programmes. All programmes available in each foundation school are posted on FPAS.
4 – 22 Oct 2010 / Register and enrol online at . You must register online and enrol in the FP2011 recruitment round before you can complete the application form.Only eligible candidates will be able to apply. We recommend that you register before the start of the application period so any issues can be resolved before you try to complete the application form.
11 - 22 Oct 2010 / Complete the online application form. The application period closes at 12.00 noon (BST) on 22 October 2010.Late applications will not be accepted.
1 – 19 Nov 2010 / Applications are scored by your first choice foundation school.
8 Dec 2010 / You will be notified via email when your application results are available to view online. You can log into your online account to see your overall application score and your allocated foundation school.
By 25 Jan 2011 / Submit your preferences for specificfoundation programmes.
Deadlines and processes for matching you to your specific foundation programme will vary by foundation school. Check your foundation school’s website for further information.
17 Dec 2010 –
25 Feb 2011 / Your referees will be asked to submit a structured reference for you as part of pre-employment checks.
15 Feb 2011 / You will be notified via email when you have been matched to a specific programme. You will need to log into your online account to see your foundation programme.
18 Feb 2011 / Breakdown of scores available. You can log into your account to see the score you received for each individual answer.
Apr - Jul 2011 / Pre-employment checks begin.
Jul 2011 / You must have provisional GMC registration with a Licence to Practise before your employer will issue a contract of employment. Registering with the GMC is a different process from applying to the Foundation Programme and you must apply to them directly. The GMC advises that you apply in May 2011 to ensure you are registered before August 2011.
July/Aug2011 / A contract of employment is issued to you. Your employer will also confirm your salary details, pay banding, location and starting rota.
Aug 2011 / Foundation Programme placements start.
Before you apply
Are you eligible?
If you qualified or are expecting to qualify from a UK medical school between August 2009 and July 2011, you are deemed eligible to apply to the Foundation Programme commencing August 2011. If your medical school is outside the UK, or if you qualified from a UK medical school prior to 1 August 2009, you must apply to the UK Foundation Programme’s Eligibility Office by midday on 20 August 2010.
Registering & enrolling online
- From 4 October, you can register online with FPAS at
- Click on “Registering an account” and follow the instructions to choose a login and password. Ensure you keep your password confidential.
- You will be emailed an activation link.You must click on the link, or enter the activation code supplied, to activate your account. The email will give you exact instructions.
- Once your account is activated, you will need to enrol in the FP 2011 recruitment round. The online system will guide you through this process.
- The system will check the personal information you enter against its database of eligible applicants. If the details you enter match those provided by your medical school, deanery or the UKFPO’s Eligibility Office, you will be able to start your application from 11 October 2010.
Register online as soon as you can. Enter your personal data: name, date of birth and email address EXACTLY as you supplied it to the medical school, foundation school, deanery or UKFPO Eligibility Office. Your data is pre-loaded onto FPAS and when you register and enrol, the system matches the data you entered with the data provided by your medical school in order to ensure that only eligible applicants can apply.If you do not enter your personal data exactly as it was preloaded, the system will not be able to match the information and you may face a delay in accessing your applications. If there are any problems setting up your account, don’t panic. Just contact the organisation you supplied your details to and they can help you access your account.
Pre-allocation to a foundation school based on special circumstances
If you need to be placed in a specific foundation school due to being the primary carer for someone with a disability, you are a parent or legal guardian for a child or children and you have significant caring responsibilities, or you have a medical condition for which local follow-up is a necessary requirement, then you may be able to apply to your medical school for pre-allocation to a foundation school. Details of the special circumstances process is available on the UKFPO website under the “Medical Students” tab in Key Documents.
The criteria for special circumstances are very strict and you must supply all supporting documentation that is requested. The deadline is 30 September 2010.
Every effort will be made to honour those whose special circumstances applications have been approved. However, if there are more applicants than places, then those who do not score highly enough to make the primary list and are placed on the reserve list are unlikely to be allocated to their first choice foundation school.
Contacting you
Remember to check your email regularly throughout the process. We will use your email address to send you information throughout the entire recruitment period. If you need to change your email address for any reason, update the “account details” section of FPAS and notify your local foundation school.
Please note: We strongly advise that you DO NOT USE HOTMAIL email accounts as they regularly block emails from NHS servers. This means you would not get important messages about your application.
The FPAS application form
The application form will be divided into eight sections: Personal, Qualifications, Clinical Skills, Equal Opportunities, References, Preferences, Questions and Submit. Each section is represented online by a separate page, delineated by “tabs” across the top of the screen. Each section is further explained below. You will not be able to see the application form until the application period opens on 11 October.
The questions on the application form reflect the knowledge, skills and attributes required by the national Person Specification for the Foundation Programme 2011. Your answers must demonstrate that you meet the person specification in order for you to be allocated to a Foundation Programme and take up employment in August 2011.
Personal
This part of the form will only be used for employment purposes and will not be scored. If your application is successful, the details in this section will be passed to your employer.
This section of the form asks you to complete the following:
- Your personal contact details (name, address, telephone numbers, etc).
- Details of any disabilities or health issues which you would want your employer to know about in order for them to make reasonable adjustments for your employment.
- Details of any unspent and spent convictions; and investigations into fitness to practise. In this section, the GMC has provided guidance which states that you do not have to declare fixed penalty notices for traffic offences.
- Linked application request (if applicable).
Disabilities and personal health
We recommend that you disclose disabilities and personal health issues, such as blood borne virus infections, in the disability declaration on the application form. This information will be held in confidence and only authorised foundation school staff members and the HR department of your employing healthcare organisation will be able to access this information.
If you do not wish to disclose this information on the application form, it is essential that you inform your allocated foundation school, in confidence, by no later than 8th January 2011 as your specific programme allocation may be affected. For example, you may need to avoid exposure prone procedures. Arrangements will be made for you to meet up with a foundation school staff member to discuss your training.
Linked applications
You can link your application to that of another person to ensure you will both be allocated to the same foundation school. Please note that you can only link to one other person. That person can be a partner, friend, sibling – any two applicants who want to link can do so.Scoring panels will not know that your application is linked.
Keep in mind that the link only guarantees that you will be in the same foundation school, not the same programme, employing organisation or town. Some foundation schools will try to place linked applicants within an hour’s commute of each other, others will not. Check the foundation school websites for their policy on linked applications.
If you and another applicant want to link your applications, you can do so in this section of the form by choosing “yes” when asked if you wish to link your application. More information will then appear, along with a box for you to type in the email address of the applicant you are linking to. The process of linking works in this way:
- You must enter the email address of the person you want to link to, ensuring it is the same one they are using for the application process.
- Once you type their email address in and save it, you will see a notification on your personal account page (which comes up as soon as you log in). It will say either “X linked to you” or “You are linked to X, but they have not linked to you”.
- In order for the link to be complete, the other person must enter the email address you are using for the application process on their application form.
- Both of you must rank all of the foundation schools in the same order of preference.
- WARNING: The preferences and score of the lower scoring applicant will be used to allocate both applicants to a foundation school.The result of your link may be that either:
- you will be allocated to a foundation school which is lower in your order of preference than would otherwise have been the case had you not linked your application
OR
- the other individual will be allocated to a foundation school lower in his/her order of preference than would otherwise have been the case.
The link will be honoured if:
- all the information required is provided on both applicants’ forms; and
- neither you nor the other individual has been pre-allocated to a particular foundation school on the grounds of special circumstances; and
- there are enough programmes for all applicants. If there are more applicants than places, the link will be severed if the lowest scoring applicant is below the threshold of appointment. See the “Frequently Asked Questions” section for more information on what happens if there are more applicants than places.
IMPORTANT: You cannot un-link your application once you have submitted your form either at the allocation to foundation school stage or at match to programme stage.
Please note: Members of the scoring panel will not have access to the “Personal” section of your form.
Qualifications
Please list your qualifications, including your main medical degree, in this section. If you are NOT a final year medical student in a UK medical school, you must answer questions about your GMC registration status. You will also have to provide details of your main medical degree, post qualification experience (not applicable to current medical students) and any other educational qualifications.
This part of the form will only be used for employment purposes and will not be scored. If your application is successful, the details in this section will be passed to your employer.
GMC registration status
For those who have provisional registration with a Licence to Practise, please enter your GMC registration details. (This will only be shown for those who do NOT choose “I am currently a medical student in a UK medical school” from the drop-down menu.)
Main medical degree
You must enter details of your medical degree and university. If you have not yet graduated, enter the anticipated date of qualification.
Post qualification experience
This section is for those applicants who have already completed medical school and may have had some experience working as a doctor prior to applying for the Foundation Programme. We would expect to see your last five years of experience.
Other educational qualifications
This section is for applicants who have completed additional educational degrees or relevant diplomas only. These may include: BA, BSc, BMedSci, PhD, etc.This section of the form is not scored and has no links to Question 1 “Educational Achievements”.
Please note: Members of the scoring panel will not have access to the “Qualifications” section of your form. If you have qualifications that can gain points in Question 1, you must also list them in this section of the form. If you do not, you will not get any points for them.
Clinical skills
The assessment of your clinical skills is made primarily throughout your time at medical school. By passing your final exams, we expect you to be clinically prepared to proceed with foundation training and we ask you to confirm this in the section. It lists the clinical and practical skills that the GMC requires you to have by the end of medical school. You are asked to tick a box to indicate if you have attained, or expect to attain, each skill listed by August 2011.
This section is not scored, so be honest in your answers. Ticking a box that says you don’t have a specific skill won’t prevent you from securing a post. This section of the form will be sent to employers once you have a post in order to ensure that you receive the training and support you need. So, please say if you don’t have one or more of the skills listed.
Please note: Members of the scoring panel will not have access to the “Clinical Skills” section of your form.
Equal Opportunities
This section includes the equal opportunities monitoring information required by the health service to monitor their recruitment practices. This section asks you to provide your age, gender, ethnic origin, religious beliefs and whether you consider yourself to have a disability under the Disability Discrimination Act. If you do not wish to disclose your age, you may leave that field blank. The rest of the fields are mandatory, but you may choose the option “I do not wish to disclose this information”.
The information you provide in this sectionwill only be accessed by authorised individuals involved in the recruitment process to ensure that this process adheres to equality and diversity legislation. Anonymised reports will be produced to analyse recruitment practices.