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Midlands Deanery FY2 Swaps Policy

FY2 Placements between August 2026 - August 2027

This policy covers both East Midlands and West Midlands Foundation Resident Doctors (FRDs)

 

The Midlands Deanery recognises that over the course of their programme, FRDs may wish for changes in their allocated specialties. We are therefore happy to facilitate swaps of a doctor’s allocated F2 year, where possible, according to the following policy.

Please be aware that this policy only covers the FY2 swap request process; it does not cover swaps that may be required for changes due to Trust service provision, ARCP outcomes, time out of programme or statutory health adjustments.

Requesting an FY2 swap is an opt-in, multi-stage process; the link to the opt-in MS form will be circulated by e-mail on 5th November 2025 and will close on 26th November 2025 at 16:00. All swap applications will be assessed by a panel of FSDs and the outcome communicated to doctors by early March 2026 (exact date TBC).

Midlands FY2 Swaps Policy

  1. Current Foundation Year 1 doctors (Excluding those appointed to rotations via FPP, SFP Pathway 1, and Military FRDs) will be given the opportunity to apply for a Foundation Year 2 rotation swap.
  2. You must be on track to undertake the placement as an FY2 to be eligible for a swap.
  3. Interested FRD’s must complete the MS form, stating their intention to participate in the swap process. You must apply using the email address we have recorded for you on TIS (this will be the e-mail address this has been sent to)
  4. Once expressions of interest have been finalised, the information of interested FRD’s will be shared with everyone participating in that school.
  5. Swaps must be agreed between two eligible FRDs. There is no opportunity to swap into a vacant post.
  6. If you are an LTFT FRD, please note you will only be able to swap with another LTFT FRD.
  7. Only one swap is allowed per FRD, and it can be either:
    1. Swapping 1 placement: This can only be within the original F2 trust, and must be for the same calendar period.
    2. Swapping the entire F2 year: This can be either within the current F2 trust or to a different Trust (but within the same school).
      1. No three-way swaps will be considered. Foundation Resident Doctors can only directly swap with one other FRD. Applicants cannot swap with multiple FRDs. If you submit multiple requests with different FRD’s then you are denying them the opportunity to swap
  8. Any programmes allocated must be compliant with the usual rules governing a Foundation training programme. Balanced 2-year programmes normally have the following elements/structure:
    1. Not contain any post repeats
      1. PLEASE NOTE - General Surgery or General (internal) Medicine repeats will be considered on a case-by-case basis, due to the breadth of these specialties and variations between placements.
    2. Have a balanced mix of medical and surgical posts
    3. Should contain one community placement if that school can facilitate. (GP, Psychiatry, GUM, Palliative Medicine in hospice, Occupational Medicine, or Public Health)
      1. An FRD’s rotation that did not include community, could swap with an FRD that contained community, but as a result one FRD should not have two community placements while the other has none.
  9. There is a separate application form for each Foundation School; applicants must only fill out the application form for the Foundation School their F2 year will take place under.
    1. FRDs wishing to change Foundation Schools should refer to the IFST process on the UKFPO website: Inter-foundation School Transfer Process - UK Foundation Programme
  10.  Late applications will not be considered, nor will any requests to update specialty preferences after the deadline.
  11.  In the case of multiple submissions (of the same pair of FRD’s), only the last submission will be considered.
  12.  Any FRD withdrawing their application within the window will result in their swap being cancelled. The other FRD is welcome to seek a different swap with another FRD as long as this occurs before the window closes.
    1. In the interests of fairness, anyone withdrawing their application once the window has closed will result in that whole swap being cancelled.

 

Opt-in Process

The F2 swaps process will be opt-in to ensure we only share the data of FRDs who have consented. An email to all eligible FRD’s (excluding those appointed via the Priority programme, SFP Pathway 1 and the military FRDs) will be sent asking them to opt-in prior to the application window opening.

Submissions are done via the MS Form, linked here: https://forms.office.com/e/t56gzLjcC4

The submission form will ask for certain key data (Date of Birth, and Current Postcode.) so we can confirm you have made the submission.

Whilst TIS Self Service (TSS) is not yet optimised for foundation use, it is possible to register and see the placements recorded for you, it is advised that you do this so that you can see the information that will be shared about your rotations, and can check any perceived errors before that point.

  1. If you opt in, your name, email address, and your allocated F2 programme will be shared with all other participants in your Foundation School.
  2. This means we will provide you a list of only those FRDs and their F2 programmes who have opted in, to assist you. Please note that it is your responsibility to discuss, find a swap partner and apply for a swap.
  3. Please only submit your swap request form via the submission process once both F1s have agreed to the swap. This will ensure only the final version is submitted to the panel. (the submission process will be shared along with copies of the swap request form, and examples).

Any suspicion of coercion will result in the swap being rejected.

 

Please submit any queries about this using the following link https://nhs-help.freshdesk.com/support/home

Timeline

  • 5th November 2025– dissemination of policy via EMAIL and WEBSITE, and Opt-in link
  • Opt in Via MS Form open from 5th November 2025 to 26th November 2025 at 16:00
  • Swaps submission process, swap Forms and list of participants circulated school by school, week commencing 1st December 2025
  • Swaps submissions open week commencing 1st December 2025 to 30th January 2026 at 16:00
  • Early March 2026 – Participants informed of Outcomes (exact date TBC).

 

 

Signing up with TIS Self-service (TSS)

The TSS system allows you to be able to easily view your training information stored in our Trainee Information System (TIS).

To register, navigate to: https://trainee.tis.nhs.uk/ and follow the self-registration process using the email NHS England holds for you. (the emailed version of this will have gone to that email address)

 

Further information about signing up and TSS is available here: https://tis-support.hee.nhs.uk/trainees/

 

 

 

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