New GP Trainer Approval.

First step – contact your local GP Training programme Director to express your intention to start the process of becoming a trainer.

If you are wanting to become a trainer in Sheffield or Barnsley, you can also contact:

• • england.Intendingtrainers.sheffieldbarnsley@nhs.net

The process is presented as a flowchart (please see the documents section at the bottom of the page) – please make sure you read all the information and take note of the relevant deadlines and timelines.

Initial Enquiry:

Any GP wishing to become a GP trainer should initially contact the Scheme TPD (Training Programme Director) to discuss suitability for the role and what GP training involves. The TPD will inform you of Trainer Workshops/ Plenaries run by the scheme and you should start to attend these.

Initial Application on PARE:

 Intending Trainers should submit their initial application on PARE Apply to become a GP Trainer or Dental Educational Supervisor using the application form for GP trainers.

Please complete this application form, taking into account the notes:

• Complete the ‘GP Trainer Details’: At this point you should indicate whether you wish to undertake the Postgraduate Certificate in Medical Education (see notes in ‘A Few FAQs’ further information). If you wish to undertake the PGCME then please select the option ‘PGCert funding requested’
• Complete the ‘Practice Details’: The practices are listed under the old CCGs at present with the prefix NHS, for example ‘NHS Barnsley CCG’. Selecting the CCG will then open another box that will allow you to select the practice. The practices on PARE are approved training practices. If your practice does not appear on this list, it is because it is not an approved training practice. In this case, before you can complete this form you will need to complete the ‘Register a Practice’ form on the front page.
• Obtain an initial TPD form: You will also need to obtain an initial TPD form. You should complete the request for this with the email of the scheme TPD that you have spoken to with regards to becoming a trainer, who will complete this for you.
• Submit application: Press ‘submit application’

Once the initial TPD report is completed, the application will be reviewed by GP Approvals, who can then accept the application. If there are any issues with the initial application, this will be discussed with you.

Once the initial application has been accepted, you will receive an email advising you to create an account on PARE, which will enable you to access the application form.

Courses:

The next stage is to book onto the intending trainer courses.

These courses are available to book on MaxCourse. (search for intending trainer)

All intending trainer courses are run virtually. You should book onto ALL the courses as soon as your initial application has been approved – ensuring that they are booked to be completed in the correct order below:

The first course to complete is a one-and-a-half-day course run by the Primary Care School

• Intending GP trainers and Multiprofessional Supervisor Pathway Day 1/Day 2 (This must be completed before the other courses are undertaken.)

Once this course has been completed, a further 4 half day courses designed to provide further knowledge and skills related to specific areas of GP training must be completed. These can be done in any order.

• Intending GP Trainer – WPBA (workplace-based assessments)
• Intending GP Trainer – Clinical Supervision
• Intending GP Trainer – Consulting Skills
• Intending GP Trainer – Educational Difficulties in GP Training

Application to be a Clinical Supervisor:

Once the courses have been booked, you will need to complete the section on PARE to 

apply to become a Clinical Supervisor. Applications to start as a Clinical Supervisor in August will need to be submitted by 1^st April and applications to start as a Clinical Supervisor in February will need to be submitted by 1^st October.

You will need to have completed all the above courses prior to your start date as a clinical supervisor. After submitting your application, if you are unable to complete all the courses before this date, then you need to contact GP Approvals and your start date as a Clinical Supervisor will be deferred by 6 months to allow any missing course to be completed.

For the Clinical Supervisor Application, the following will need to be completed:

• Dates of courses booked/ completed (in the Training and Development tab)
• LAT report
• Declaration of Health and Conduct
• TPD recommendation

The application will be reviewed once all the courses have been completed (end June for August start and end December for February start, and at that point you will be registered as a Clinical Supervisor with the GMC.

When starting as a Clinical Supervisor, you will be allocated a ST1/2 GP Registrar to supervise with the support of your mentor (see below).

Funding for Equipment:

At the point where you are approved as a Clinical Supervisor, funding of £1500 will be provided to enable the practice to purchase necessary equipment need for the GP registrar working in the practice. This will be done automatically, without the need for a claim form.

Mentoring:

All Intending Trainers will be allocated a mentor by their TPD. The mentor will provide 1 to 1 training and support for you on the practicalities of GP training. The expectation is 18 hours of mentoring time (nominally 6 x 3-hour session). Up to 6 hours of the mentoring time can be before you start as a Clinical Supervisor. Most of the Mentoring will be when you are a Clinical Supervisor and have a GP Registrar at the practice.

Final Course:

Approximately 5 months into being a Clinical Supervisor, you will need to attend a final half day course, Intending GP Trainer – Final Course Including Educational Supervision. These will be held in December/January for Clinical Supervisors who started in the August, and in June/July for Clinical Supervisors who started in February.

Application to be a full trainer:

Once the Final Course has been completed, you will need to submit your full Trainer Approval Application on PARE. This needs to be submitted by 1^st August if you started as a Clinical Supervisor in February, and by 1^st February if you started as a Clinical Supervisor in August. It is essential that these deadlines are adhered to, to allow the GP Approvals Team to arrange the interviews. Please ensure you request the mentor form and the final TPD report with sufficient time to allow these to be completed before the deadlines.

The information needed for this full application is on PARE and includes:

1. Mentor Form (request to complete to be sent to mentor through PARE
2. Final TPD report (request to complete to be sent to TPD through PARE)
3. Confirmation of the date of the Final Course completed
4. Attendance at Trainers Workshops/ Plenaries (minimum 6 hours attendance)
5. Evidence of up-to-date Equality and Diversity training
6. Completion of the submission declaration
7. Don’t forget to press ‘Submit Application’ when everything is completed

Trainer Approval Interview:

Following submission of the full application, you will be invited to a 1 to 1 interview with a QA TPD to discuss various aspects of GP training and ensure you can be approved as a GP Trainer (both clinical and educational supervisor). These are held on Teams and will be in September/October for an August final application and in March/April for a February final application.

If successful at interview, you will be approved as a GP Trainer from either the August or the February immediately following the interview.

Detailed information on the role of a GP Trainer and the training curriculum can be found on the RCGP website. 

The courses can all be booked on MaxCourse. They need to be booked so they are completed in the following order.

Intending GP trainers and Multiprofessional Supervisor Pathway Day 1/Day 2 (half day)

You will need to complete both day 1 and the morning of Day 2 of this course. This must be booked to be completed before the other courses.

The other courses to become a CS can be completed in any order:

• Intending GP Trainer – WPBA (workplace-based assessments)
• Intending GP Trainer – Clinical Supervision (½ day)
• Intending GP Trainer – Consulting Skills (½ day)
• Intending GP Trainer – Educational Difficulties in GP Training (½ day)

When you start as a Clinical Supervisor, you should book onto the final intending trainer course (these are held when you have been a Clinical Supervisor for approximately 5 months), Intending GP Trainer – Final Course Including Educational Supervision. These will be held in December/January for Clinical Supervisors who started in the August, and in June/July for Clinical Supervisors who started in February.

• If you are in a current training practice and training from a site that is already approved then you do not need a formal visit.
• If your practice is not a current training practice then you will need a visit. Please see the site approvals section.

• At the point of your approval as a Clinical Supervisor, the GP Approvals team will register you as a CS only with the GMC.
• Following a successful interview, the GP Approvals team will update your registration with the GMC to be both a Clinical Supervisor and an Educational Supervisor.
• You will be registered as a trainer.
• You need to continue to be involved in trainer’s workshops or plenaries depending on the programme in your area and what is available.
• You will be invited to a mandatory Y&H Experienced Educator Course after approximately 18 months. You will need to ensure that you meet all the requirements for re-approval as a GP Trainer within the 2 years of your initial re-approval period.
• Your work as a GP trainer must be assessed as part of your NHS annual appraisal.

Equipment provided for trainees:

GP Registrars need to be provided with the necessary facilities and equipment to be able to undertake their role as outlined below:

• The GP Registrar will be provided with a well-equipped room to work in, meeting regulatory standards.
• The practice will provide a doctor's bag with the following equipment as a minimum: diagnostics set (ophthalmoscope and otoscope), sphygmomanometer, pulse oximeter, glucometer, peak flow meter, spacer for inhaler, tendon hammer, tape measure, tympanic thermometer
• The GP Registrar will have access to appropriate drugs that can be used in an emergency and taken out on visits, if necessary, in line with the other GPs at the practice. There is a process for regularly checking these medications are in date that covers any medication carried in the doctor's bag.

Attendance at meetings:

Involvement in practice meetings is beneficial for GP Registrars with regards to working with colleagues and developing understanding of the business side of general practice.

• It is expected that GP Registrars will be invited to attend a range of meetings at the practice.
• GP Registrars will be expected to attend regular practice meetings / clinical meetings where possible
• These meetings should be included in the GP Registrar's timetable. These can be included as educational time.

GP Registrar timetables:

GP Registrar timetables must be compliant with the resident doctor’s contract; the hours will be monitored by HR in the employing trust.

• Hours must not exceed 40 hours for a full-time GP Registrar (including protected breaks).
• For a full-time GP Registrar, the breakdown of the hours is as follows (LTFT pro-rata hours):
  
  • Clinical time: 21 hours. This includes surgeries, visits, clinical debriefs. Debriefs are clinical time unless they are > 30 minutes in duration and timetabled as educational debriefs.
  • Administration time: 7 hours
  • Educational time: 12 hours. This is split as follows:
    
    • Structured educational time at the practice: 4 hours. This must include at least 2 hours of tutorial time (which can be individual, joint with other GP registrars/ learners at the practice or a combination of both). It may also include joint surgeries, practice meetings, educational debriefs (as defined above).
    • Half day release: 4 hours.
    • Protected study time: 4 hours. This should be in one 'block' though it is acceptable if it is split into a maximum of 2 sessions.
  • Protected breaks: These are included in the overall hours and the time for them can be taken out of any of the above areas; it is recommended that it is split between each of the areas.
• See the ‘Guide to the Training Week for GP Registrars and Trainers whilst working in General Practice, July 2024’ for more information

Alterations according to GP Registrar need:

Certain aspects of the GP Registrar timetable will need to be adapted, depending on the stage of training and the individual capabilities of the GP Registrar. These include:

• Appointment length: Appointment lengths will generally reduce as the GP Registrar becomes more experienced and this should be monitored on an individual basis. For ST1s, appointments will generally start at 30 minutes, reducing in stages to 15 minutes by the end of the post. ST3s generally start at 15-20 minutes, reducing to 10 minutes (or the rate of the other GPs at the practice if longer) by the end of the post.
• GP Registrar involvement in urgent and unscheduled care: This may include telephone triage and involvement in on-call/ duty doctor roles. Trainers need to consider how this can be incorporated into the GP Registrar timetable in a proportionate and appropriately supervised way.
• Home visits: Home visits should initially be directly supervised, however once the GP Registrar is able then they can undertake home visits on their own. Consideration needs to be given to ensure that the visits are appropriate for the GP Registrar's stage of training. The GP Registrar must have a way to contact a supervisor during any home visit.
• Tasks and test results: GP Registrars should be responsible for managing their own tasks and blood results and should have training and supervision to enable them to do this. For ST3 GP Registrars at the end of training, it may be acceptable to ask them to manage a select number of results for other GPs, for training purposes.
• Insurance and other paperwork: In general, GP Registrars should not be asked to complete insurance reports etc. Exceptions can be made if the GP Registrar knows the patient well and the report is completed as a learning exercise. GP Registrars should be responsible for managing letters generated from their referrals, or any other paperwork they have generated.

Induction:

A well thought out induction program is essential to allow GP Registrars to integrate into the practice team. This is individual to the practice but should have the following characteristics:

• Length of induction: at least 2 weeks for ST1/2 GP Registrars new to general practice. For other GP Registrars it can be shorter, however it should be at least 1 week and incorporate all the essential elements.
• Involvement of practice team members: should involve meeting practice team members from all teams (reception/ administration/ nursing/ pharmacist/ ACPs etc. as well as GPs)
• Involvement of wider primary health care team: should involve meeting other members of the primary health care team e.g. community nurses, health visitors, midwives etc.
• Include time for administration: including time for practice induction to policies and procedures, learning how to use the clinical system.
• Safeguarding: must include a face-to-face safeguarding briefing specific to the practice (e-learning alone is not sufficient).

The expectation is that GP trainers should have a minimum of 1 hour per week non-trainee facing protected time per GP Registrar, to allow time for reviewing the portfolio, preparing for tutorials etc. This is in addition to the protected time with the trainee for tutorials and debriefs.