Specialised Foundation Programme Allocation Process
Overview
YHFS is one Specialised Unit of Application (SUoA) that comprises three Locality Schemes or Groups (East Yorkshire, West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire. In total we have 81 Specialised Foundation Programmes (SFP), with a four-month placement in the FY2 year, either Research or Medical Education.
With expansion in Foundation training the number of SFP posts have increased from 66 posts to 81 posts for August 2023.
There will be an additional 12 Medical Education placements in South Yorkshire. 6 based in Barnsley and 6 based in Doncaster. The academic placement will be hosted by Sheffield University.
There are also 3 Medical Education posts that will cross both East Yorkshire and South Yorkshire with the FY1 year being based at Diana Princess of Wales Hospital in Grimsby, East Yorkshire and the FY2 year being based at Doncaster Royal Infirmary, South Yorkshire. The academic placement will be hosted by Sheffield Medical School.
Applications
The UKFPO has published national information and guidance relating to SFP recruitment commencing in August 2023. The most useful document for you at the time is the FP/SFP Applicants Handbook which can be found in the ‘Resource Bank’ section of the website. Please look at the Resource Bank on the UKFPO website.
Applications are processed via the national recruitment system, Oriel. If eligible, your Medical School will “nominate” you for entry to the application process. Once confirmed, you will receive an email with a link to the Oriel system. You can then register and complete your application for Foundation, Foundation Priority Programmes, Psychiatry Foundation Fellowships and Specialised Foundation Programmes. Applicants are advised to start their applications early to allow sufficient time to complete necessary sections of the application form and to gather evidence in support of their application.
The national time frames for this are listed in the timeline at the bottom of this page and are also available via the UKFPO website / in the FP/SFP Applicants Handbook.
There is a national Person Specification for the Specialised Foundation Programme, which can be found on the UKFPO website. In addition to this, at the bottom of this page, YHFS have an additional Person Specification for both our Medical Education and Research Foundation Programmes.
Please click on the links below for further details on the SFP programmes across YHFS:
- 24 in East Yorkshire (21 Research posts and 3 Medical Education posts)
- 33 in South Yorkshire (9 Research posts and 24 Medical Education posts)
- 21 in West Yorkshire (18 Research posts and 3 Medical Education posts)
- For August 2023 there are also 3 Medical Education posts that will cross both East Yorkshire and South Yorkshire with the FY1 year being based at Diana Princess of Wales Hospital in Grimsby and the FY2 year being based at Doncaster Royal Infirmary. The academic placement will be hosted by Sheffield University.
Key Dates
- Register and enrol online: 25th August to 7th September 2022
- Complete the online application form: 7th to 20th September 2022
**Due to the additional bank holiday on the 19th of September 2022, the application deadline has been extended to the 21st of September at 12 noon**
- YHFS applicants will be sent the self-assessment tool and white space questions on the 21st September 2022 12 noon
**Due to the application deadline being extended, the self assessment tool will now not open on Forms until the 22nd of September 12 noon**
- Deadline to complete the self-assessment tool 2nd November 2022 12 noon
- FSD / Deputies and Academic Leads will review the forms submitted 2nd November to 10th December 2022
- Self-assessment / white space questions scores uploaded to Oriel 11th December 2022
- SJT dates - New online system windows:
- Window 1 - 7th December 2022 – 20th December 2022
- Window 2 - 19th January 2023 to 23rd January 2023
You must book a slot to sit the SJT within these windows. Please see the applicants guide for more information on this process
- SFP national offers: 11th to 13th January 2023 (48 hours to accept or decline)
- Round 2 offers: 18th to 20th January 2023
- Round 3 offers: 25th to 27th January 2023
- Round 4 offers: 1st to 3rd February 2023
- Candidates that have accepted offers for YHFS SFP posts must send their evidence used for the self assessment tool to be validated as soon as an offer has been accepted. With subsequent rounds of offers we will allow evidence to be sent up to the 5th of February 2023. Failure to send your evidence will result in a withdrawal of the post offer
- Clearing round: 6th to 10th of February 2023
- Notification to Employer / Trust: from 10th February 2023
The enrolment for applications for the Specialised Programme will start on the 25th of August 2022. Please see the FP/SFP Applicants Handbook for more information. You must enrol on Oriel prior to application process opening from Wednesday 7th September 2022
Situational Judgement Test
All applicants must sit the Situational Judgement Test (SJT), but as this is taken during the application process, the score will not be used to allocate to an SUoA. All SFP offers are subject to a satisfactory SJT score.
EPM
With the change to the EPM process. Decile scores may be amended by medical schools until the 29th of November 2023. We will be reviewing scores until the 10th of December so there will be no changes accepted after that date.
Self Assessment tool and White Space Questions
YHFS will not be interviewing SFP candidates this year. We will be using the medical school EPM score, white space questions and a self-assessment tool. The white space questions and self-assessment tool guidance, and example scoresheets are at the bottom of this page. Please read the guidance carefully! Scoresheets will be available on forms via this link:
- The link for ACADEMIC SELF-ASSESSMENT SCORESHEET is available here https://forms.office.com/r/Pvd1eJDdZy
- The link for the SKILLS BASED SELF-ASSESSMENT SCORESHEET is available here https://forms.office.com/r/pACirvfVfv
The forms will not open until after the application window is closed. We will contact all candidates that have applied for SFP in YHFS.
Further information and guidance is included in the documents at the bottom of this page. The link for the self-assessment tool will open on the 21st of September and close on the 2nd of November.
**Due to the application deadline being extended, the self assessment tool will now not open on Forms until the 22nd of September 12 noon**
LATE SUBMISSIONS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED. If you do not complete the form by the deadline, your application will not be considered. The white space questions for YHFS are included in the self-assessment tool
Please DO NOT complete the white space questions on the SFP section of the application form for YHFS.
If you are applying to another Foundation School, please check their requirements for SFP recruitment as not all schools use the same processes. They may want you to complete some or all of the white space questions on the application form or provide evidence of additional educational achievements. Please check the requirements for the schools you are applying to. If the other school you are applying to also does not require you to complete the white space questions you must enter N/A in this section of the application.
Please note: Additional Educational Achievements (AEA) are no longer taken into account as part of your Foundation Programme application but we are using them as part of the Self-Assessment tool
As part of the self-assessment tool you are required to provide any AEA or “soft skills” you have to date. These will be scored and used as part of your total SFP score.
If you are offered a post with YHFS you will be asked to submit evidence used in your self-assessment tool. This will be verified by the FSD / Deputies and Academic leads. If you cannot provide evidence at this stage and by the deadline, your offer of a post will be withdrawn,
Scoring of SFP applications
- White Space Questions: 10
- Medical School Decile Score: Maximum 50 points
- Self-assessment tool: Skills based self assessment is out of 31, Academic self assessment is out of 45. Total Self assessment score will marked as a percentage.
- Total score available: Skills base self assessment: 91, marked as a percentage. Academic self assessment: 105, marked as a percentage
Programme Preferences
Students applying to start a two-year Specialised Foundation Programme in August 2022 will rank all 81 programmes on application. Successful applicants will be allocated to either a research project or medical education post. Research projects are decided subject to completion of the Application Form for an F2 Academic Foundation Placement (YHAF2). This form does not need to be completed for your SFP application; it will be completed during the F1 year and submitted towards the end of your 2nd placement in FY1.
Please rank all of the 81 programmes in order of preference by using the drag and drop function. We ask you to rank all of the posts in order to give you more of an opportunity to be offered a place you prefer.
You have until the 14th of October 2022 to rank the SFP programmes on Oriel
Please rank all programmes under the "Preference" column.
Any programmes you do not wish to be considered for should remain in the "Not Wanted" column. Please note the implications of this will be that you will not be offered a place on any programmes listed under the "Not Wanted" column.
If you choose to only rank 1 group of posts – e.g., South Yorkshire, and don't put any of the other programmes into the "Not Wanted" column, you may still be given a post elsewhere in YHSF depending on how the other candidates score and preference.
Offers and withdrawals
Based on your total score you will be given an individual rank, made up of your decile score, white space questions score and self-assessment tool. This is calculated via the Oriel system. This ranking, in conjunction with your preferenced posts are subjected to an algorithm, which will allocate the available programmes in order of rank and preference. The higher your score & rank combined with the number of posts you preference means you are more likely to be offered a post of your top preference.
In all offer rounds, if you are offered a programme, you are given 48 hours to accept or decline.
If you decline the offer, you are taken out of the SFP process, and you will continue with your Foundation Programme application only.
You can withdraw from the SFP process at any time. However, if you accept an SFP post and then withdraw from that post, you are then excluded out of the allocation process for SFP and FP. You will have to reapply the following year.
As you can apply to two AUoAs, if you accept one post, your other post will automatically be declined on the Oriel system. For example, if you apply to North West and YHFS and accept the North West post, your YHFS will be declined.
Good luck with your applications!
