F2 Stand-alone

The UK Foundation Programme Office annually recruit doctors who hold or are eligible for full registration with the General Medical Council (GMC) to work in recognised F2 Stand-alone training programmes as part of the UK Foundation Programme. Applicants are invited to apply for F2 level posts across the four nations of the UK.

F2 Stand-alone doctors will have the opportunity to gain experience in a series of placements in a variety of specialties and healthcare settings and will be offered the same educational resources and teaching opportunities as F2 doctors on two-year programmes.

2024 Notification of Post Numbers

Published 05/02/2024:

This year we have approximately 240 posts available across the UK. Please note these figures are subject to change:

East of England: 35

Kent, Surrey, and Sussex: 0

Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, and Rutland: 4

London: 0

North West of England: 14

Northern: 26

Peninsula: 18

Severn: 15

Thames Valley Oxford: 12

Trent: 25

Wessex: 13

West Midlands Central: 4

West Midlands North: 16

West Midlands South: 0

Yorkshire and Humber: 10

Northern Ireland: 35

Scotland: 13

Wales: 0

There has been a high volume of applications for the UKFPO Stand-alone F2 programme for 2024. Applicants are advised that interviews will only be offered to applicants who have achieved the very highest SJT scores.  

The UKFPO would also like to remind applicants: 

The details of specific programmes and posts available within each foundation school are not yet confirmed. These will be available to applicants on Oriel during the programme preferencing window (30 April –14 May 2024).

2024 Key Documents

The application window for 2024 F2 Stand-alone programme recruitment will open on Tuesday 09 January 2024 and close on Tuesday 23 January 2024 (12:00 midday GMT). A link to the F2 Stand-alone 2024 vacancy on Oriel can be found below.

https://www.oriel.nhs.uk/Web/PermaLink/Vacancy/220AAC80

Recruitment Timeline

Applicant Guidance and Forms

Situational Judgement Test (SJT)

Other guidance

The details of specific programmes and posts available within each foundation school are not yet confirmed. These will be available to applicants on Oriel during the programme preferencing window (30 April –14 May 2024).

Frequently Asked Questions can be found on the Stand-alone Application FAQs page and Stand-alone Eligibility FAQs page.

Foundation Year 2

In Foundation Year 2 (F2) doctors remain under clinical supervision (as do all doctors in training) but take on increasing responsibility for patient care. In particular, they begin to make management decisions as part of their progress towards independent practice. F2 doctors further develop their core generic skills and contribute more to the education and training of the wider healthcare workforce, for example nurses, medical students and less experienced doctors. At the end of F2, they will have begun to demonstrate clinical effectiveness, leadership and the decision-making responsibilities that are essential for hospital and general practice speciality training.

Satisfactory completion of F2 will lead to the award of a Foundation Programme Certificate of Completion (FPCC), which indicates that the foundation doctor is ready to enter a core, specialty or general practice training programme.

See the key documents for the current recruitment year at the top of this page.

*Applicants who are currently working as part of the two-year programme or have successfully completed the F2 year and received a Foundation Achievement of Competency Document (FACD)/Foundation Programme Certificate of Completion (FPCC) are not eligible to apply for F2 Stand-alone posts.

Application & selection process

Comparison of 2-year programmes to F2 Stand-alone programmes

Two-Year Foundation Programme (FP) F2 Stand-alone Programmes
Provisional Registration with GMCFull registration with GMC
2-year programme allocations1-year fixed-terms posts
FP CurriculumFP Curriculum
Clinical and Educational SupervisorClinical and Educational Supervisor
Foundation Programme Certificate of Completion (FPCC) upon satisfactory completion of the F2 Foundation Programme Certificate of Completion (FPCC) upon satisfactory completion of the F2
Access to the online foundation e-portfolioAccess to the online foundation e-portfolio