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.
2023 Key Documents
The application window for 2023 F2 Stand-alone programme recruitment closed on Monday 30 January 2023 (12:00 midday GMT)
Recruitment Timeline
Applicant Guidance and Forms
- F2 Stand-alone 2023 Guide To Longlist Outcomes
- F2 Stand-alone Applicant Handbook 2023
- How to Apply Guidance F2 Stand-alone 2023 (Note: The wording about how to preference programmes was updated on pages 11-12 on 26 April 2023 ahead of the release of interview outcomes to applicants)
- F2 Stand-alone Person Specification 2023
- Consultant Testimony Proforma
- Reapplication to Foundation Training (F2)
- Disability Confident Scheme
Situational Judgement Test (SJT)
- F2 2023 Understanding your SJT score
- F2 Stand-alone 2023 – Situational Judgement Test (SJT) Guidance – Updated March 2023
- F2 Stand-alone 2023 – Extenuating Circumstances Policy
- F2 Stand-alone 2023 – Extenuating Circumstances Claim Form
- F2 Stand-alone SJT Practice Scenarios
Other Guidance
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 GMC | Full registration with GMC |
| 2-year programme allocations | 1-year fixed-terms posts |
| FP Curriculum | FP Curriculum |
| Clinical and Educational Supervisor | Clinical 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-portfolio | Access to the online foundation e-portfolio |