ARCP stands for Annual Review of Competence Progression and is a vital part of the training programme. Click here for a video that explains the ARCP process.
In short, all trainees need an annual ARCP review on a calendar basis, usually on the anniversary of the commencement of training. This includes those trainees in less than full time training (LTFT). If a trainee is OOP (Out Of Programme), for example, on sick leave or maternity leave, then it is not possible to do an ARCP although the trainee still needs to provide a Form R for revalidation purposes.
Key points:
- All trainees need an annual calendar review and this will generally be undertaken locally.
- All trainees currently OOP or on sick leave/ maternity leave / unpaid leave will not have a formal ARCP but will still need to provide a Form R
- Trainees taking a planned absence from training, eg maternity leave, should have an ARCP before the start of this absence
- ST3 trainees undertaking normal training programmes should ideally have their final review in the first two weeks of June as it takes up to 6 weeks to get a CCT during the summer CCT peak and the point at which all recommendations need to be made to the GMC is usually around 20th July.
The majority of annual calendar ARCPs take place between June and July as trainees usually commence training in August. However, if the trainee commenced training in February, their annual calendar ARCPs will happen in December and January. Trainees who have fallen out of sync from the more usual training programme timings as a result of maternity leave, working LTFT, being OOP or taking any other paid or unpaid leave will continue to have their annual calendar ARCP at a time to mirror their commencement of training. They should ideally have an ESR and ARCP just before the planned interruption to training starts and should have a planning ESR within 2 months of returning to training. This might take the form of a formal ESR or a planning discussion recorded as an Educators Note. They will continue to have an annual calendar ARCP until the time when they are nearing completion of training. At that point, their final ESR and ARCP review period will be adjusted to incorporate a single review within 2 months of their CCT date.
A list of possible outcomes may be found by clicking this link here.
An ESR (Educational Supervisor's Review) must take place before you can have an ARCP.
Please ensure that this is between 2 – 8 weeks of the date of your ARCP.
Find out more about the ESR by clicking here.
If you do not submit an ESR, you will automatically be awarded an Outcome 5 (Incomplete evidence presented) for your ARCP. See the "Outcomes" link in the clickable box above this one for more information about the possible Outcomes of an ARCP.
You must complete a Form R before every ARCP.
The Form R is a self-declaration form completed by trainee doctors. Until January 2014, trainees were asked to complete an Enhanced Form R for the purposes of registration and revalidation. To avoid duplication and minimise the amount of unnecessary form filling for trainees, this combined form has now been made into two separate parts, Part A and Part B, so that both parts don’t always have to be completed when only one is needed.
You can find more explanation about a Form R, and links to download it by clicking here. Read the instructions carefully, especially about carefully recording any absence that counts as "Time Out Of Training", and watch the instructional video to make sure you're completing it correctly. Many trainees can avoid unnecessary worry by taking time to record the information carefully.
Remember to attach Form R to your ePortfolio as a log entry.
If you do not submit a Form R, you will automatically be awarded an Outcome 5 (Incomplete evidence presented) for your ARCP. See the Outcomes link in the clickable box above this one for more information about the possible Outcomes of an ARCP.
If you have had an ARCP before, you will be able to view your previous ARCP Panel Forms in your ePortfolio.
Make sure you have read it, and if you have been instructed to do something by the previous panel, make sure you have done so.
Make sure you've completed the required ePortfolio assessments for your phase of training.
The RCGP requirements for ST1, ST2 and ST3 phases of training, including LTFT (Less Than Full Time Trainees) can be found by clicking here.
YES. In the new e-portfolio there are different types of log entries that you can input. You should endeavor to cover the 13 professional capabilities during each ST phase. The following are the minimum requirements for learning logs:
- 3 Clinical Case Reviews (CCRs) per month whole time equivalent (36 per ST phase)
- 1 Learning Event Analysis (LEA) per ST phase
- At least one entry per year demonstrating practical application of BOTH adult and child safeguarding knowledge within clinical practice. NB. Child safeguarding not required if posts within the year do not involve caring for children
- Quality Improvement Activity (QIA). One in each ST phase where you are not undertaking a Quality Improvement Project (QIP).
- Leadership Activity. One in the ST3 phase.
- Where you have been involved in any significant events or serious untoward incidents that have been declared on your form R there should be a log entry within the e-portfolio reflecting on this.
Other types of log entry are encouraged and may help you to demonstrate your coverage of the clinical experience groups.
There is no minimum number at any one stage of training. However, CEPS assessments are helpful to demonstrate achievement in the Clinical Examination and Procedural Skills competency. This can also be demonstrated with log entries and observations in other assessments (eg, COT, CSR) and specific skill training certificates (eg, Basic Life Support). However, it makes it easier to demonstrate development in that competency if you do.
Trainees are considered relative to where they've been. It may be quite typical for a trainee to have no CEPS in a Psychiatry post, for example. However, it would be very unusual for a trainee not to have a CEPS in Female Genital Examination after a post in Obstetrics and Gynaecology.
For your final ARCP you must have completed all of the compulsory CEPS observed: Breast examination, male genital examination, female bimanual and speculum, prostate examination and rectal examination. Please note that prostate examination and rectal examination are two different assessments and there must be separate documentary evidence of both assessments.
CEPS must be observed by a doctor of ST4 level or above, or by an appropriately trained nurse who is competent to perform the procedure being assessed. (e.g., A nurse practitioner working in Breast Clinic is competent to assess examination of the breast, but a nurse working on an orthopaedic ward would not usually be.)
You need the following for your final ARCP before qualifying as a GP (in addition to the usual requirements for an ARCP):
- Examination Passes
- Passes in AKT and CSA examinations.
- Completion of the compulsory CEPS assessments
- There are five intimate examinations, which need to be specifically included, as these are mandated by the GMC. These include breast, rectal, prostate, male genital examinations and female bimanual and speculum examination. Please note that prostate examination and rectal examination are two different assessments, and there must be separate documentary evidence of both assessments.
- Evidence of Life Support Training
- Trainees can demonstrate competence in Life Support in ONE of the following ways:
- A BLS and AED certificate that is current beyond your CCT date. As a BLS certificate is only valid for 1 year, this means that it would need to be done at an appropriate point in the ST3 year. It also needs to be face to face training.
- An ALS certificate will not suffice unless it is supported with evidence of face-to-face BLS and AED training that is current beyond your CCT date. (Please note that an ALS course is not eligible for funding via the GP School as it does not form part of the RCGP curricular requirements. Where this is needed for a hospital post, the hospital is responsible for funding the course.)
- Trainees can demonstrate competence in Life Support in ONE of the following ways:
- Evidence of Urgent and Unscheduled Care (UUC)
- UUC evidence may be provided when working in primary care and secondary care. It may also be demonstrated in hours as well as out of hours. Evidence could include workplace-based assessments and learning logs reflecting on urgent and unscheduled care. You will not be able to demonstrate this clinical experience group without having worked within traditional out of hours settings, so it is vital that you arrange to undertake some out of hours shifts and upload evidence for this.
- Evidence of Level 3 Safeguarding
- This requirement can be met by providing the following:
- At the beginning of training trainees should undertake both adult and child safeguarding level 3 training and record this in the e-portfolio.
- There should be an annual update for both adult and child safeguarding each year that should be titled as such. These are normally provided by the half day release programme.
- There should be annual log entries that demonstrate the practical application of the knowledge learnt in clinical practice for both adult and child safeguarding. These may include attendance at safeguarding meetings, professional conversations, or active involvement in safeguarding cases.
- This requirement can be met by providing the following:
- Prescribing Assessment
- This should be started once you have been in your ST3 phase for 3 months whole time equivalent
- Leadership Activity and Leadership MSF
- These should be undertaken in your ST3 phase. The leadership MSF should be linked to the leadership activity that you have undertaken.
- Evidence of Capability in all 13 Professional Capabilities
- Your final ESR should be marked as “Competent for Licensing” in all of the 13 professional capabilities.
Combined training is where a trainee may have relevant previous clinical experience that allows them to shorten the normal 3-year training programme by 6 months. There are 3 categories:
ATC UK Specialty Training – Combining other GMC approved specialty training with GP training
CCT (CP) UK Experience (Formerly CEGPR) - Combining other relevant previous UK experience with GP training
CCT(CP) Overseas Training or Experience (Formerly CEGPR)
To be eligible all applicants must have had at least 12 months of relevant experience (relevant to General Practice) and this must have been within 5 years of the starting date of the GP training programme.
There are certain criteria that need to be fulfilled
- The intention to use the combined training process needs to have been declared by the trainee doctor at the time they applied to GP training via the NRO website.
- After being successfully appointed to GP training a CV will need to be uploaded to the e-portfolio indicating the relevant experience to be considered. HEE will check eligibility and then confirm that the trainee is eligible.
- Trainees who are eligible will then need to complete the section in the e-portfolio mapping their previous experience to the 13 professional capabilities. The Royal College of GPs and the deanery will consider this evidence and the amount of time that the standard 3-year training programme may be reduced by.
- Generally, the trainee needs to have had an outcome 1 (satisfactory progress) from an ARCP when exiting their previous speciality.
- If the exiting ARCP outcome was an unsatisfactory one, applicants for combined training will need to provide a letter from their previous responsible officer indicating their suitability for combined training.
- The relevant ARCP form needs to be uploaded to the trainee’s GP e-portfolio so that it is available to the ST1 ARCP panel.
- Once deemed eligible for combined training trainees will need to have a full ESR and ARCP at 6 months to determine whether a reduction in the training time should be applied. Please note that you must have completed all the required workplace-based assessment and clinical case reviews for ST1 at this stage.
- Usually, the ARCP panel will award an outcome 1 and decide whether the reduction in training should be applied at that stage. If successful trainees would become ST2 at that point but may need to continue in hospital posts until their next planned rotation.
- Please note that once accepted for combined training you are not able to extend the training programme further.
- If the trainee is not making satisfactory progress at that time, the ARCP panel is likely to award an unsatisfactory outcome and the trainee will remain ST1.
Maternity leave or shared parental leave can disrupt the usual ESR and ARCP timings. We are keen to ensure that, wherever possible, trainees have an up to date ARCP done before commencement of their maternity leave whilst avoiding multiple ESRs and ARCPs.
- If a trainee’s planned maternity leave/shared parental leave starts within 3 months of the usual ESR and ARCP timing, then the local administrator should contact both the trainee and their Educational Supervisor (ES) to advise them to delay the ESR so that it happens within 4-6 weeks of the anticipated commencement of maternity leave/shared parental leave. This should then be quickly followed by a local virtual ARCP.
- The GP trainee should still submit a Form R at the usual ARCP time as determined by their start date of training. This is in order to meet revalidation requirements
- As the usual maximum period between ARCPs is 15 months, if a trainee’s planned maternity leave/shared parental leave starts more than 3 months after the usual ESR and ARCP timings, then it will be necessary to repeat the process for both the ESR and the ARCP. This would mean undertaking an ESR and ARCP at the usual timing and then repeating both of these prior to the commencement of maternity leave/shared parental leave.
- As the onset of maternity leave/shared parental leave can at times be unpredictable, with the trainee’s consent, and assuming that the ESR has taken place, an ARCP panel can still take place in the first 2 weeks of that maternity leave/shared parental leave.
- If it proves impossible to do both the ESR and ARCP prior to maternity leave/shared parental leave, then these should be undertaken within 3 months of returning to work.
- Where an ESR and ARCP have both taken place prior to maternity leave/shared parental leave, the trainee should have a return to work discussion with their ES within 3 months of their return to work date. This could take place in person, on the telephone or by email and should be recorded as an Educators Note on the trainee’s eportfolio. This will act a back to work ESR.
- Once back at work, the trainee should slot into the next most appropriate timing for their ESR and ARCP, taking into account that ESRs should generally happen every 6 months, with a maximum period of 9 months, and that ARCPs should generally happen every year, with a maximum period of 15 months.
- If there is any doubt as to the optimal timing for ESRs and ARCPs, the local administrator will discuss this with their local Training Programme Directors initially, and if extra clarification is necessary, then from their county Associate Dean or the assessment lead.
Academic Trainees
All Trainees who are currently completing an academic element to their training in the ST year being assessed will have an ARCP to ensure an academic report has been considered. Trainees do not usually need to attend this. Only if concerns are raised might trainees be asked to attend a central panel (which is usually held on Microsoft Teams).
Trainees on an academic programme will need to complete both the full training programme and meet the requirements of the academic programme. They must have an academic educational supervisor who will normally be different from their clinical educational supervisor. This academic ES is responsible for drawing up an academic training programme with the trainee, with clear milestones for delivery. Both supervisors should be aware of the trainee’s overall clinical and academic requirements.
The trainee will meet regularly with both educational supervisors, and an annual assessment of academic progress should take place ideally one month before the joint academic/clinical ARCP panel. The academic supervisor completes the Report on Academic Progress form which once agreed with the trainee is submitted to the panel.
ST4 Fellows
These trainees are assessed in a similar way to Academic Trainees by a combination of clinical/ commissioning supervisors and panel. They should still be providing WPBA pro rata to the time spent in general practice, as well as demonstrating their urgent and unscheduled care capability.