Workforce, training and education
East of England
Welcome to the East of England
Foundation School

Welcome to the East of England Foundation Programme!

Thank you for looking at our web pages. Hopefully the information is clear, and you can find answers for any of your queries that are locally based!

For national FAQ, the UKFPO Rough Guide and Curriculum should answer most of your questions. You can also refer to the GMC website for guidance on registration, the UKFPO website or in their FAQ section for information on national policy and the medical careers website for careers advice. If you have questions that are specific to your personal situation and which are not answered on this page, they may be in  our trainee hub pages, or then you should ask your FTPD in the first instance.

These pages are specific to NHSE EoE and our two foundation schools: East Anglia Foundation Schools (EAFS) and Essex, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire (EBH).

Our Trusts

EAFS - EAFS has ten Trusts under its remit and is split into 2 regions EAFS East and EAFS West.

EBH - EBH foundation school has eight acute NHS Trusts under its remit and is split into 2 regions EBH East and EBH West.  

 

Meet the team

East of England Foundation School Director:

Dr Helen Barker

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Deputy Foundation School Director SFP and QI:

Prof Ritwik Banerjee

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The East of England is headed up by our Dean, Professor Bill Irish, supported by the Deputy and Reporting Deans.

The Deputy Dean supporting Foundation, is Dr Helen Johnson, the previous Foundation School Director.

Dr Helen Johnson

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Foundation Faculty

We liaise with the national group, other schools and supports within the deanery, the foundation training programme directors and medical education managers to set policy and guidance for foundation. We are part of various national groups looking to set the shape of training and best practice. We support trainees with difficulties, oversee recruitment and assessment, quality assurance and the education and training within trusts, and look to provide innovation and improve the benefit of training in foundation for you. We make the call on difficult decisions.

We have a number of team members from administration, recruitment, assessment, programmes and faculty support who work tirelessly to help keep the backbone function of Foundation, as well as the other schools, running smoothly. Their contacts are below. The Programme Management Team answer all the queries around rotations and programmes, and should be notified of sickness, maternity and all LTFT, TOFP and IFST requests. The Assessment Team answer all the queries around ARCP, and the Faculty Support Team are involved with the Hub Events, wider programme issues and trainee representatives.

 

The wider team

The interface between the deanery and you is your local trust education team. This is led in foundation by your FTPD and the Medical Education Manager [MEM]. They organise local teaching and training, review their local rotations and troubleshoot for you, as well as liaise with your Education and Clinical Supervisors. We meet them at central teaching, training and business meetings, as well as when we drop in on trusts. They look at our ideas and aspirations and help hone them into workable advances for you.

    

 

What do we do?

We have three key themes we focus on each year: 

  1. The first of our three key themes for foundation training in the East of England is Excellence in Education. We are aspiring to create a focussed, delivered educational programme of 60 mandatory hours per year for each trainee that covers the curriculum and is also inspiring. Look at our education page to find out more.
  2. We wish for trustworthy training rotations for our foundation doctors. We review the GMC survey and information we get from our Foundation training programme directors [ FTPD] , visits and trainee reps to provide suitable balanced rotations and provide quality training. Our hospitals can sometimes be hard pressed, and in those instances we work with them to provide solutions that maintain training and education. We aren't perfect, but we are aspiring to be better. Sometimes the best, and most innovative, solutions come from trainees themselves and we can help you with implementation. Our FTPD in each trust are there for your assistance.
  3. Our final strand is in personalising support. Becoming a doctor can be tough, and we want to do everything we can to help this go smoothly. We have an F2 to F1 mentorship programme, to support that step from medical student to doctor; resilience training workshops, careers and professional workshops. We are supportive of those requiring Less than Full Time Training [LTFTT] and if required time out of training or Inter-Foundation school transfers. We  also have an excellent professional support unit for those that need a little more. The deanery trainee wellbeing hub describes many of the opportunities for you. We are looking to see what else would be helpful and useful. All ideas are considered! Either talk to your foundation representatives or FTPD about taking forwards good ideas.

 

Important dates

Welcome to EoE – open to all Foundation Trainees – link for registration https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/WelcomeEoE/ - see poster here

  • 8th July 2025 13.30-16.30
  • 17th July 2025 13.30-16.30
  • 22nd July 2025 13.30-16.30

EoE IMG Induction – open to all EoE IMG Doctors – registration link to follow

  • 24th July (virtual, whole day)

Central PSA orientation session - open to those who are required to pass PSA exam – link for registration to follow

  • 25th July 9.30-12.00

Trainee Representatives

Trainee representation is a key element in the development and monitoring of the Foundation Programme and representatives play a valuable role in providing feedback and helping shape new initiatives. We have trainee reps from across the schools and from both academic and standard training programmes. Please talk to them, feedback and give ideas through them. They are given advance access to guidelines in draft to consider the trainee view.

As a trainee representative, you are mandated to attend FDAB  - the Foundation Doctors Advisory Board - which develops policies and feeds back nationally, as well as local meetings with the FSD.

Please see the Trainee Representative Role document for further information. 

 

Administrative teams contact

These are the generic mailboxes used by our administrative teams.

·   Foundation Recruitment: england.foundation.eoe@nhs.net

·   Foundation assessment/sign off: england.assessment.eoe@nhs.net

·   Professional Support and Well-being Service​ (PSW)england.psw.eoe@nhs.net

·   Foundation programmes and information england.foundationrecruitment.eoe@nhs.net

·   Foundation School Faculty - england.foundationfaculty.eoe@nhs.net

·   Mentoring queries: england.mentoring.eoe@nhs.net

Improving junior doctors working lives
When do we get access to Horus?
Do FY1's do night shifts ?

Yes you are expected to undertake night shifts.  More details on rota can be obtained from your Trusts.

My start date needs to be delayed for XXX reason. What do I do?

You need to contact the Trust, Programme team and recruitment to inform them why you will be unable to start and ask for a deferral.  You will need to do that now and not delay in informing them.

england.foundationfaculty.eoe@nhs.net

 

How many study days (which I assume are different to annual leave) can we take? Not just for hubs but conferences etc

In f1 all of your study leave is for the taught programme e.g hubs etc. There is no additional study leave in f1. All f1 and f2 get 2 hours per week to use for self-development - which is not the 60 hours - and is for working on ePortfolio, doing audit, teaching medical and PA students, meeting supervisors etc. You do not need to use Non Working Days for Hubs.

Is exception reporting done in retrospect? As in, when you notice a pattern over time rather than ASAP when something happens

As soon as possible, ideally within a few days of the incident

With regards to exception reporting, at what point is it sensible to report?

What ever feels to you as being significant or regular lateness. As a guide anything more than 30mins.

Is Study Leave separate from Annual Leave? How much do I get?

Yes. Further info on Study Leave can be found at https://heeoe.hee.nhs.uk/foundation/training-programme/taught-programmestudy-leave. Annual Leave, Sick Leave and Study Leave are all separate! All of study, annual and sick leave entitlements increase with service length through your training. For more details catch a BMA contract talk or visit their page on leave entitlements.

Is there a way to see all the different courses before the hub goes live on 6th of Aug?

You can view last year' spreadsheet to get an idea - most of last year's results are being re-run.

If there’s a specialty we’re interested in but it’s not available in the hub of our specific patch, could we apply to a nearby patch?

If there's nothing in your sub region, contact the administrator for the location of the one you are interested in. They will be able to advise if there is space for you to attend.

When arranging career taster weeks do they happen during our study leave or are separate days allocated for it?

It is part of your study leave. A 5-day Taster in the second or third FY1 placement (not both) is allowed. The time for this activity is borrowed from the FY2 study leave allowance and can therefore be attended in addition to the 90-hour FY1 allowance. Each Taster week is the equivalent of 5x6 hours (30 hours total). More information can be found on the link below : https://heeoe.hee.nhs.uk/foundation/training-programme/taught-programmestudy-leave

My rota doesn't show the 2 hours for self-development. Is this something we're supposed to arrange ourselves if not already on the rota?

Go back to the rota coordinator and highlight to your FTPD at the trust

Do we have to pay for the in-person part of the ALS course?

If you do the eALS - that is one day of online learning (for which you get study leave) and one day in person (for which you also get study leave), and both days cost around £275 - that should be covered. If you did the two day all in-person course then that would be more expensive and you may need to top things up.

If we sign up to hubs on 6th August, do we then have to confirm study leave days after with our hospital?

Yes, this is part of your study leave allowance for FY1, but you will need to ensure that your hospital is aware that you will not be at work.

Do we need to take annual leave in every rotation? Or not necessarily?

Yes definitely! You'll have 9 days per rotation, 27 overall. You can't usually roll them over

Is ALS part of the taught programme? Do we need to arrange/attend this as part of our foundation programme?

Yes it is part of the taught programme and you will need to have done this during your foundation programme.  

If we’ve already completed ALS who do we send our certificate to?

That will be to your resus officer at the hospital from a trust mandatory training perspective; from an FY1 requirements perspective you will need to upload it onto your Horus eportfolio

Thursday, 15 November, 2018
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