Please find below some frequently asked questions, but also feel free to get in touch directly if you have other questions not answered here or on these webpages.
Postgraduate psychiatry training in the UK normally follows the Foundation Year programme, and usually consists of 3 years core training followed by 3 years specialist higher training. There is further information on these webpages, but usually core training will consist of six 6 monthly posts that will include a wide range of experience in patient groups and settings. Higher training is then in one of several specialties – Adult psychiatry (the largest, generally seeing people between the ages of around 18 to 65), Older Peoples’ psychiatry, Forensic, Child and Adolescent psychiatry, Learning disability psychiatry and Medical Psychotherapy. Higher trainees will spend around 9-12 months in each post.
Core Psychiatry training in the East of England consists of rotations within the various NHS Trusts (this minimizes travel and accommodation issues for trainees), and some of the larger higher training rotations similarly. The smaller higher trainee rotations might have posts in several trusts but these are often organised to help trainees manage travel etc.
There is further information on the webpages here, and also at the Royal College of Psychiatrists.
Applications for training posts are through a national process, with the larger group of trainees beginning in August each year, and a smaller group in February. The application process begins early however so don’t leave things too late. Further details of the timetable and requirements can be found here.
Psychiatry in the UK has a relatively high number of overseas applicants, who bring a wide breadth of experience to their training. Applicants from overseas can face several hurdles including GMC registration etc. Please also see the requirements for demonstrating Foundation Year competencies on the recruitment webpage above. This usually requires some planning on how to demonstrate this if you are not coming from a Foundation Year programme.
We are also welcoming of trainees who might need to be working part time. There is further information on eligibility and the application process on these pages here.
Allocations to specific training programmes are based on preference expressed in the application process and the application scoring.
Feel free to get in touch with people on this website if you have further questions (see the links on the right for contact details).
Don’t worry – there is plenty of help and support available if you have questions or specific issues at the moment.
If you are a current trainee then your educational supervisor, local tutor or training programme director may be in the best position to help you. The Deanery runs a Professional Support Unit who may be able to assist with wider issues (link here). The Royal College of Psychiatrists also has a support service and there are details available here (link).
Please ensure you look after your own health. You should be registered with a GP and if you run into health problems they will know how to help. Mental health problems are common in the population; doctors are not exempt from this but doctors working in mental health can still have unrealistic expectations of themselves or find it hard to know where to get help. Your GP will be very important in this, and your employer will have access to Occupational Health and often other options (such as counselling services).
If you are not yet a trainee with us and need some advice about applying or have questions about training please feel free to get in touch (contact details available from the buttons on the right).
If you are here looking for information and guidance about mental health, then I would suggest the NHS website, or the Royal College website.
Core training typically occurs through a rotation one of the NHS Trusts that provides mental health services in the region (though some of the larger Trusts might have 2 different rotations). The current core training schemes are Bedfordshire and Luton, Cambridgeshire, Essex (with rotations in the north and south), Norfolk and Suffolk (with two rotations but some flexibility for moving between), and Hertfordshire. There is further information in the buttons on the right.
Higher trainees might stay within a Trust (for example for General Adult higher training) or move between trusts. There are also some posts that are available for internal competition that can lead to specialist endorsements (such as liaison, substance misuse, rehabilitation psychiatry).
There are contact details for each of the programme directors available here.
This is a common question, but hopefully the new information on the ARCP pages (click here) helps to answer this.