Revalidation

Yes. Revalidation has existed for post-training doctors for several years, and as of 3^rd December 2012 has now come into effect for doctors in training who hold a full licence to practise (i.e. Foundation Year 2 and above). Since that date, fully licenced trainee doctors have been required to provide evidence for their revalidation to the Responsible Officer at their Designated Body, which forms part of their appraisal process and informs the Responsible Officer’s recommendation to the GMC about the doctor’s revalidation. 

It is important to remember that your revalidation is ultimately your own responsibility. The East Midlands Revalidation team will work to request information from you when required and process your revalidation recommendation to the GMC in good time, but you should be aware of the process and check that it is happening if your revalidation date is less than 2 weeks away.

The East Midlands Regulation and Profession (formerly Assessments & Revalidation) team will contact you by email approximately two months before your ARCP to request that you complete a self-declaration form (Form R part B) about scope of practice, time out of training, significant events, complaints, compliments, and honesty & integrity. It is important that you complete the self-declaration form by the deadline requested, or it may not be processed in time for your ARCP, which means you could receive an Outcome 5 in your ARCP (insufficient evidence provided) or ultimately a non-standard outcome. Persistent failure to engage with the revalidation process will be flagged to the GMC and could jeopardise your licence to practise. For this reason, it is vital that you keep your Designated Body updated with your current email address and check it regularly. Failure to do this will not be accepted byNHSE Education East Midlands or the GMC as an excuse for non-engagement.

Once we have received your completed self-declaration form via TIS Self Service, this will be processed and the information will be provided to your ARCP panel as formal evidence. The panel will use this evidence, along with all other evidence reviewed in the ARCP, to make a comment on your ARCP form about your fitness to practise. Such a comment is made each time you have an ARCP and recorded by the East Midlands Regulation and Progression (formerly Assessments & Revalidation) team. If concerns are raised that have an immediate effect on patient safety, they will be flagged to your employer and your Training Programme Director (TPD) will put measures into place to address this. If concerns are raised that are not a direct threat to patient safety but may develop into serious practise concerns, these will be recorded by our team and reviewed by the Dean (or an Associate Dean linked to revalidation on her behalf). Once your revalidation date comes around, the Dean (as Responsible Officer) or their delegates will review the comments made by panels since your last revalidation (or since enrolling if you have not had a revalidation yet) and determine whether or not a positive recommendation should be submitted to the GMC for your revalidation. 

Like the educational outcome of the ARCP process, the fitness to practise comment made by the panel reflects the panel members’ professional judgement and opinion based on written evidence presented at that panel. However, unlike with the educational outcome, the FTP comment is not subject to a structured appeal process in the same way. The FTP comment is based on professional judgements and opinions and only informs the Responsible Officer’s submission to the GMC. It is not a ‘final’ decision and so cannot be challenged in the same way that an educational outcome can. The Responsible Officer is not obliged to submit a submission pursuant to the panel’s comment if they feel that it is not a fair and reasonably complete reflection of the trainee’s fitness to practise, or if more investigation and evidence are required to inform the submission than was available prior to the panel. If a trainee has reason to believe that the fitness to practise comment made by the panel is unreasonable, the trainee can contact the East Midlands Regulation and Progression (formerly Assessments and Revalidation) Team to discuss this, and if appropriate, it will be raised to the Responsible Officer for further review or investigation.

Equally, the Responsible Officer’s submission to the GMC is also not subject to a structured appeal process in the same way. This, too, is based on the professional judgements and opinions of the Responsible Officer based on all the evidence available to them; and once again it is not a ‘final’ decision and so cannot be challenged in the same way that an educational outcome can. The GMC makes the final decision about a PGDiT's revalidation based on the Responsible Officer’s submission and any other evidence it has available to it.  The GMC is not obliged to make a decision pursuant to the Responsible Officer’s submission if the assessing panel feel that it is not a fair and reasonably complete reflection of the trainee’s fitness to practise, or if more investigation and evidence is required to inform the final decision than was available to the Responsible Officer at the time that they made their submission. If a trainee has reason to believe that the fitness to practise comment made by the Responsible Officer is unreasonable, the trainee can contact the GMC directly on 0161 923 6277 to discuss this, and if appropriate, it will be raised to the appropriate department of the GMC for further review or investigation.

Doctors in training in the East Midlands will be eligible for a revalidation submission to made to the GMC at all of the following times that apply:

• After holding your full licence to practise for five years
• Five years after your previous revalidation, if your training programme is long enough for this.
• At the point of eligibility for Certificate of Completion of Training at the end of your higher specialty training. This submission would be made to the GMC after your final ARCP outcome is confirmed and before your CCT date.
• Upon release from training (Outcome 4)
• At the time of your GMC-assigned revalidation date, as long as this is not anticipated to be within one year of any of the above criteria.

After you are revalidated by the GMC and leave training, you will begin a five year cycle of revalidations, though evidence for these will still be gathered every year during that cycle, as before. 

The GMC can change this date for you if your Designated Body requests it. You cannot make this request yourself. Please contact the Regulation and Progression Team if you think your revalidation submission date is incorrect and needs changing. (See ‘Contacts’ section at the top of the page).

•  What is the self declaration form?

The self-declaration form is completed by trainee doctors. It is different to the annual 'Demographic Information' form (the Form R Part A), which asks for personal and contact information that is used to maintain our database.

The self-declaration form (Form R Part B) asks for information about your recent scope of practice, time out of training, and declarations relating to revalidation. This information informs the ARCP Panel's comment on your fitness to practise, which in turn informs the Dean’s recommendation to the GMC about your revalidation.

• Why do I need to fill in the self declaration form?

The self-declaration form is part of the evidence required for your ARCP and revalidation. It will be requested from you prior to every ARCP, even if you are on an Out of Programme (OOP) rotation.

• When do I need to fill in the self declaration form?

You will receive an email from the Regulation and Progression Team 4-8 weeks prior to your ARCP requesting that you fill out a Form R Part B.

• How do I fill in the ‘Form R (Part B)’?

Form R Part B declaration forms are now completed online on TIS Self Service. https://trainee.tis.nhs.uk You should log in with the email address you have registered with NHSE Education East Midlands. We are no longer able to accept PDF copies of Form R Part B forms. 

• What do I do if some information changes after I submit my Form R Part B?

​Email us on england.TIS.EM@nhs.net and reques that we 'Unsubmit' your form so that you can make amendments. Please ensure that you re-submit the form or else it won't be valid for your ARCP.

• If you undertake an OOP (Out of Programme) status within the training programme for reseach, experience or career break, or take maternity leave, you will still hold your National Training Number with NHSE and we will still remain your Designated Body for Revalidation.
• Many trainees take a year or two out of training to go overseas, often before starting Core or Higher Specialty Training, on an OOPC (Career Break). Unless your work overseas specifically requires that you hold a UK GMC Licence to practice, the GMC recommend that you downgrade from a licence to just 'registered' status. This is usually less expensive than retaining your full registration. If you relinquish your full licence and are just registered, you do not need to be Revalidated anymore. Once you reinstate your full licence, you would be assigned a new Revalidation date by the GMC. This would probably be a year or more after the date of your reinstatement so that your new Designated Body has time to gather evidence of your performance and fitness to practice.

Visit http://www.gmc-uk.org/doctors/revalidation/13728.asp for more information. In the last paragraph of the third question down there are links to information about giving up and restoring your licence, which may be a better and cheaper option for you if you're going to be out of medical employment in the UK at the time of your next GMC-assigned Revalidation date.

• If you return and apply to a new core or higher specialty training programme, you need to decide whether or not you want to use your time worked overseas as experience in your application.
  • If you do wish to use this experience as part of your application, you will need to keep any important documentation (e.g. appraisals, sign-offs, contracts, letters confirming appointment, and other similar things). There are no specific guidelines as everyone’s overseas work experience varies so much, so try to keep anything (documents or emails) that you think might prove useful in an application. There is no structured portfolio system for this, so you can just keep the documents/emails and bring them back with you, or if you still have access to do so, upload them to your ePortfolio.
  • If you do NOT wish to use this experience as part of your application, you do not need to keep any evidence, though it wouldn’t be detrimental your interview to demonstrate that you’d been working whilst overseas if this is the case.