Becoming an Educational Supervisor
This information is provided for those wishing to supervise postgraduate doctors and public health practitioners in training.
If you are interested in becoming an educational supervisor in dentistry, please see their separate guidance.
Introduction
Effective educational supervision is at the core of postgraduate training in all medical and dental specialties. It follows that a clear understanding of the roles and responsibilities is fundamental to effective educational supervision. There are a number of competencies required to facilitate good educational supervision so that professional development opportunities are maximised for the postgraduate doctor or dentist in training.
NHS England Workforce, Training and Education operate a blended learning approach to educational supervisor training, combining online learning with face to face training to provide a comprehensive course that is designed to provide consultants new to educational supervision with the skills to support our Postgraduate Doctors in Training (PGDiTs) in the workplace. Senior Postgraduate Doctors in Training (PGDiTs) who are close to CCT are also welcome to complete the programme, where they will soon be undertaking the role of educational supervisor.
Please note: you must complete both parts of the training to be eligible to act as an educational supervisor.
Online Learning
The online element of educational supervisor training is delivered via the eLearning for Healthcare platform. If you do not already have one, you must create an account before you can complete the training.
There are a number of compulsory modules which will take approximately three hours in total to complete. You cannot attend the second part of educational supervisor training until you are able to evidence that you have completed all the mandatory modules. You can download an activity report confirming completion of these modules from the 'My Activity' section on eLearning for Healthcare.
Whilst not compulsory, we have also recommended a range of optional modules you may wish to access to further support your development as an educational supervisor.
Face to Face Training
The second part of educational supervisor training is a half-day face to face session, which is delivered by your trust. You must have completed all of the compulsory online modules before you can attend the face to face part of training.
To book a place onto the face to face training, please contact the Medical Education Team at your base trust for details of the next available dates.
Approval of status
The GMC has arrangements for the formal recognition and approval of Clinical and Educational Supervisors which requires NHS England to be responsible for recognising trainers and forwarding details to the GMC for inclusion on the List of Registered Medical Practitioners. Trusts are responsible for notifying NHS England YH via the Quality Team of any new educators added to the PARE (Practice Assessment Record & Evaluation) system so that they can be aligned with the GMC Connect trainer database. To do this, Trusts should contact the team via email.
Trusts/LEPs are responsible for ensuring that all their trainers are appropriately trained to be either an Educational Supervisor or both Clinical and Educational Supervisor. The person in charge of the Recognition of Trainers process should be the Director of Medical Education (DME). The DME may delegate the process to a team in the postgraduate medical centre or elsewhere in the trust, however, they are still responsible for the information being reported from that team to the NHS England Quality Team.
To update a trainer’s GMC medical register page, the trainer will need to ask their PARE trust contact to add them to the ‘approved trainer register’ on PARE. Trust contacts can be identified by emailing the Yorkshire and Humber Quality Team.
Educator data is entered directly onto the PARE database by trust representatives. The trust will then inform NHS England that new Educator records have been added to PARE, who will then enter this data manually onto the GMC Connect Trainer database. The YH Quality Team will need to be informed by trust representatives of any new educators that are added to the PARE system and details of any trainers who have undertaken reapproval training so that their details can be picked up in a timely way and the records can be added manually onto the GMC register. The YH Quality Team will also need to be informed of any trainers who need to be removed from the GMC register, you can do this by email.
Guidance for PARE and GMC Connect is available by emailing the YH Quality Team.