Eligibility Applications UKFP 2023 – What happens next

The assessments will be undertaken by Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust. The team at Manchester has many years of experience of assessment and Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs), from theoretical design, through evaluation to the practical provision of information to candidates. All candidates will sit a 12-station OSCE. Each station is 10 minutes long, including 1 minute of preparation time.

All candidates will sit this assessment in one session (approximately four hours). Instructions will be posted outside each station, giving clear guidance about the task to be performed at that station. In line with our current practice, care will be taken to ensure accessibility and to avoid discrimination against candidates with disabilities or those whose first language is not English.

Applicants who are required to undertake a clinical assessment will be required to pay the full cost of £850 by 26th August 2022, 12:00 midday BST and this is non-refundable.

The examinations will differ from day to day to maintain test security but will be based on a similar blueprint. Candidates sitting the examination in the morning or afternoon will be ‘quarantined’ to ensure they cannot come into contact with each other. Candidates are not permitted to use their mobile phones during this period.

Each candidate will be notified of the specific date and time of their assessment on 19th September 2022, when they will also be supplied with more detailed information, including directions to the venue. The assessments take place at Wythenshawe Hospital, part of the Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust. The hospital has excellent facilities for running an OSCE of this size and has many years of experience in this field.

These will be selected from the Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust’s pool of highly experienced simulated patients. All have undergone training in standardisation for OSCEs and will be trained specifically for the roles within these assessments.

Candidates will be given a written report, analysing their performance on a station-by-station basis. As the stations are explicitly linked to many of the Foundation Programme Curriculum competencies of the F1 year, this will provide useful information for candidates on their strengths and weaknesses as they enter the Foundation Programme. Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust is working closely with their colleagues in the North West of England Foundation School to ensure that the questions authentically represent the current NHS working environment.

Reasonable adjustments are practical changes to the delivery of the Clinical Assessment that mitigate the effects of particular applicants’ characteristics and/or circumstances, for example, a disability, health condition or impairment, or religious observance, on their ability to undertake the assessment, without changing the requirements of the assessment. No adjustment will be made to the standard of the Clinical Assessment or the score achieved by any applicant.

 Applicants can apply for reasonable adjustments on the grounds of the following criteria:

i. a long-standing learning disability

ii. long-term or permanent physical disability, health condition or impairment

iii. temporary health condition or impairment, or acute flare-up of a long-term health condition

iv. other, for example, religious observance

Please refer to the reasonable adjustments guidance.

If you require Reasonable Adjustments, you must inform the UKFPO via email at helpdesk@foundationprogramme.nhs.uk by the deadline on 31 August 12:00 midday (BST).

Candidates will not be told at the time they attend for the OSCEs whether they have passed or failed the assessment. Clinical Assessment outcomes and feedback released to applicants on the 23 November 2022.

Information about the appeals procedure will be available on the UKFPO website before the start date of the assessments. Appeals will only be accepted about the process and not about academic judgement.

Reasonable adjustments are practical changes to the delivery of the SJT that consider individual characteristics or circumstances that may affect an applicant’s ability to take the SJT, without changing the demands of the test, for example, a disability, health condition or impairment, or religious observance. Further information regarding the SJT and reasonable adjustments is available on the UKFPO website and UKFP 2023 Applicants’ Handbook.