Meet the UKFPO leads

As well as serving as Co-chair of the UKFP Board, Dr Mike Masding is the Lead Foundation School Director in England, chairs the UK Foundation School Directors Committee and is Foundation School Director in Wessex. He also continues his clinical work as a Consultant Diabetologist on the south coast of England.

Mike has been involved with the Foundation Programme since its inception in the early 2000s, with workplace supervision of Foundation doctors being the subject of his MA Education dissertation at the University of Winchester in 2010. He strongly believes that good supervision is the bedrock of high quality postgraduate medical education, chairing the Education Support group in the 2019 HEE Foundation Review, and contributing to HEE’s ‘Enhancing Supervision’ work.

He feels very strongly that Foundation training should continue to be broad based, helping doctors as they make the transition from medical school and preparing them for their career in whatever specialty they may do in the future.

Tom Lawson is Co-Chair of the UKFPO Board, and represents Wales on the UK Foundation Programme Board. He is Lead Dean for Foundation Training in Wales, and interim Deputy Postgraduate Dean for Health Education and Improvement Wales (HEIW).

Tom is also a Rheumatologist at Cardiff and Vale University Health Board and has extensive experience in undergraduate and postgraduate medical education.

He chairs standard setting groups for Cardiff University Medical School and for the Royal College of Physicians Rheumatology SCE. 

He is a PACES examiner and regional adviser for training for RCP Wales.

Prof Clare McKenzie is a Postgraduate Dean in NHS Education for Scotland and is based in Dundee. 

She is lead Dean for Foundation and Diagnostics specialties in Scotland.  Her main areas of interest are foundation doctor support and development.

She is particularly passionate about foundation training, seeing this as one of the key transitions in a medical career. 

Through her role in the UKFPO, she sees the opportunity to build upon the strengths of the UK programme and improve the experiences for foundation doctors.

Dr Tony Choules has developed his interest in medical education since becoming a Resuscitation Council (UK) instructor as a paediatric registrar in 1994.  After being appointed as a consultant in Burton-upon-Trent he undertook a Certificate and subsequently a Postgraduate Diploma in Medical Education at Staffordshire University.  During his consultant career he has undertaken the roles of medical student lead, RCPCH college tutor, postgraduate clinical tutor, DME and Foundation School Director (FSD).  Prior to the merger of local hospital trusts, he worked as Associate Dean in the West Midlands.

In his educational roles he developed simulation for the induction of new Foundation doctors and regional teaching in paediatrics including interprofessional simulation for doctors in training and student child branch nurses.

He was one of the two FSD advisors on the HEE Foundation Programme Review and worked to develop resources to facilitate induction and support of Foundation doctors including processes to deliver equity of support and training.

As Chair of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges (AoMRC) Foundation Programme Committee, he lead development of the latest iteration of the UK Foundation Programme curriculum, seeking views and best practice across all four nations of the UK.  Since obtaining GMC approval he has subsequently lead on the implementation of the 2021 curriculum.

More recently, he has become advisor to UKFPO on Education and Training.

He continues to teach on Resuscitation Council (UK) Newborn Life Support (NLS) and European Paediatric Life Support (EPALS) courses and to teach Newborn and Infant Physical Examination (NIPE) to nursing and midwifery colleagues.