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Appointments to training programmes or posts will be offered to the people who ranked the highest in interviews. Not all candidates deemed eligible for appointment by their interview panel would be offered a post. This is because there could be several eligible applicants for a particular post, in which case, the post will be offered to the person with the highest score.

Usually, a training offer will follow soon after the interview, most likely by phone or email. 

The following four specialties have agreed to coordinate their recruitment offers, which means that you can hold an offer until 22 March, before deciding whether or not to accept it:

• Core Medical Training
• Paediatrics and Child Health
• Psychiatry
• General Practice

For other specialties, you will have a minimum of 48 hours (not including weekends and Bank Holidays) to accept or decline an offer. In other words, if you receive an offer on Monday, the deadline for a response would be the following Wednesday, whereas if you receive an offer on Friday, the deadline for response would be the following Tuesday. Where possible, deaneries will try to give you longer if necessary. After the agreed deadline, the offer will expire and will be deemed to have been declined.

If you are sure that a particular offer is the best for you, you should accept it as soon as possible and decline any others.

Deaneries do need an answer to any training offer as soon as possible so that any post you decline can be offered to other applicants deemed eligible for appointment at interview.

Before you decline an offer, remember that recruitment is very competitive – it would be unwise to assume that you will receive more than one training offer.

Unsuccessful applicants will be contacted by email. If you are not being offered a place but are considered appointable, you will be told that an offer cannot be made to you at the present time, but if appropriate vacancies present themselves due to other applicants rejecting offers, you may be contacted in the near future.

Acceptances

Once you have been offered and have accepted a post, you must withdraw from any further applications, interviews or offers.

Deaneries in their offer letter will state that the offer is made on the condition that you have not accepted other offers and that you withdraw from other applications within the current recruitment round. You will be expected to give an undertaking when accepting a post that you have not accepted another post and that you will withdraw from further recruitment. If you do not agree to this undertaking, then the offer will be withdrawn.

If it is discovered that you have accepted an offer after you have already accepted another post, the offer will be withdrawn. There are a few exceptions to this rule.

Exceptions

Academic Clinical Fellowships

If you have accepted a run through training post, you are eligible to apply for an Academic Clinical Fellowship post.

One-year training programmes

If you have accepted a final year core training post (CT2 or CT3 in emergency medicine and psychiatry) or a fixed-term specialty training appointment (FTSTA) in a run-through specialty, you may continue to compete for run-through training posts or for uncoupled training programmes that offer two years or more of core training. You may not apply for other FTSTAs or other posts that only offer one year of training.

 

Examples:

If you have accepted a CT2 post (or CT3 in emergency medicine or psychiatry), you can continue to compete for run-through training posts.

If you have accepted an FTSTA2, you could still apply for CT2 in emergency medicine or psychiatry because these programmes would run for two years, CT2 and CT3. You could not apply for CT2 in general surgery, because this would only offer one year of training CT2 before the next competition to higher specialty training.

If you have accepted a CT1 post (or CT2 in emergency medicine or psychiatry), you may not continue to compete for other posts, including run-through programmes.

 

Please note: if you do want to change from having a one-year training programme, such as an FTSTA, to one that offers two or more years of training, you may still be required to work out your notice. This will be at the discretion of your employer. For example, if you accept a CT1 post in core medical training on 10 July 2010, you could reasonably be expected to start your FTSTA 1 on 4 August 2010 and work out your notice period from the date you resigned.  The notice period starts from the date you notified the deanery or employer (not from the start date of the post).

 

Download the diagram illustrating exceptions.

Options available to you if you do not gain a training post

Deaneries will continue to advertise training vacancies as they arise throughout the year (up to end of November 2010). These will be for training posts that will commence after the August intake. If you do not gain a training post in the first or second round of recruitment, you will be able to continue to apply during this later phase.

A number of other options are available.

There may be LAT or LAS locum posts available. Time spent in a LAT (Locum Appointment for Training) post can be counted towards the total time required for a CCT, whereas time spent in a LAS (Locum Appointment for Service) does not. LATs can only be appointed by a formally-defined appointments panel, whereas the appointment to a LAS may be less formal and carried out at by a local hospital. Both types of locum can offer good and worthwhile experiences and may help in gaining specific clinical skills.

Some doctors may choose to take non-training jobs available (e.g. Trust Grade) or jobs in research or abroad. These jobs may be taken as a permanent career move, or may be considered as a stepping-stone to a future training post.

Your Educational Supervisor may be able to offer individual careers advice and suggest options to you. You may also be able to speak to the Clinical Tutor or Director of Medical Education in your local hospital. Many of the Colleges have general advice on their websites for doctors considering a career in their specialty. Some of the Colleges and specialty organisations also offer a counselling/advisory service for individuals with career difficulties. The BMA offer a careers guidance service.