UKFPO Bulletin

Posted on:

October Bulletin

Stoptober  

Black History Month 

Breast Cancer Awareness Month 

Other national campaigns this month 

Action for happiness calendar – ‘Optimistic October’ 

Introduction

Welcome to this month’s blog about the Foundation Programme.  

As I mentioned last month, 2025 marks the 20th anniversary of the start of the Foundation Programme. I led a special webinar to mark the occasion, with Professor Tom Yapp, Foundation School Director in Wales, which you can watch on the UKFPO YouTube channel, together with recordings of other webinars hosted by UKFPO. 

Changing the quality of clinical care 

Through hosting the webinar, I reflected on changes that have occurred in our profession since I started as a doctor many years ago. When I was in postgraduate training, it was never really clear to me how changes to clinical care came about, yet I saw many examples of areas that could be improved. Clinical audit was introduced, and from that evolved 21st century quality improvement (QI) processes. 

It is a curricular requirement for Foundation doctors to be involved in QI work, and I know that many see this as being a ‘tick-box’ exercise. However, working on QI represents the opportunity for Foundation doctors to influence healthcare and make changes to the clinical environment you are in. QI work can also importantly influence the environmental impact of healthcare, making it more sustainable and therefore helping the planet. 

National Foundation Doctors Presentation Day 

QI work will help applications for future jobs, in particular for those who want to enter specialty training. There are lots of opportunities to present QI projects – for Foundation doctors in particular, there is the chance to submit your work to the 2026 National Foundation Doctors Presentation Day (NFDPD), which is being held in Southampton on Friday 23 January 2026.  

There is lots more information about this event on our NFDPD webpage. The abstract submission window is now open and will close on Monday 20 October (12:00 midday), and as well as QI work, we welcome submissions about research, case reports and, new for 2026, Foundation Programme and the arts. 

Good luck with your abstract submission! 

As ever, look after yourselves and each other. 

Best wishes 

Dr Mike Masding, UKFPO National Clinical Director 

Notices and announcements 

UKFP 2024-25 Humans of the Foundation Programme E-book 

We are delighted to announce the launch of the UKFP 2024-25 Humans of the Foundation Programme E-book! The e-book is also available on our Humans of the Foundation Programme webpage. 

Congratulations again to those of you who’ve had your article published on the UKFPO website, social media channels and this e-book. 

We look forward to receiving lots more inspiring submissions this training year. 

Spotlight on educational resources 

PSA preparation resources for FY1s 

With the first sitting of the PSA coming up (15 October), we encourage those of you registered for this to review our PSA preparation resources for support and revision guides. We have further information on our PSA webpage. 

Supervised learning events (SLEs) 

Foundation doctors should be in the swing of things with their e-portfolios by now, 2 months into this new training year. We have published lots of helpful information about what SLEs are, how you go about recording them and examples of content on our SLEs microsite.  

Don’t forget to also get going on recording your reflections and learning! 

Webinars 

Coming up 

If there are any specific topics you think we have missed or you wish for us to cover in our educational webinar series, please send your suggestions to foundation.educationandsupport@nhs.net 

Opportunities and events 

Humans of the Foundation Programme 

Are you interested in creative writing and would like your article published on the UKFPO website, social media platforms and in this monthly bulletin (which is shared with the whole UK Foundation Programme community)? See our ‘Humans of the Foundation Programme’ webpage, created by Dr Jie Fei Lau, one of our previous UKFPO Fellows, for further details, published articles and the submission form to submit articles of your own.   

New articles published this month: 

National Foundation Doctors Presentation Day 2026 

Current foundation doctors are warmly invited to a day of oral and poster presentations by F1 and F2 doctors at the National Foundation Doctors Presentation Day 2026 on Friday 23 January in Southampton. 

The abstract submission window is now open and closes on the 20 October. Submission categories are: Quality Improvement & Sustainability, Clinical Case Reports, Education, Research or Original Work and Foundation Programme and the Arts undertaken during Foundation Programme training. Further details: NFDPD abstract and presentation 

Link to Abstract submission form 

Elearning for healthcare update 

Review the September 2025 elfh update