Who receives a copy of my STEP form?

Your STEP form is sent to your Foundation School Director (FSD). There is a box you can tick on the form if you are happy for the FSD to contact you before you start F1. If you have ticked this box, the FSD may get in touch with you once they receive the form.

  • The Foundation School Director (FSD) will discuss with you who in their view needs to receive the information contained in your form, bearing in mind the principle that it should only be shared with those who have a real need to be informed to protect the welfare of staff, trainees and patients and should be stored and handled in line with the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulations and the Data Protection Act 2018.
  • The FSD will pass the form on to your Foundation Training Programme Director (FTPD) who looks after foundation training in your allocated employing trust/health board/Local Education Provider (LEP).
  • Your FSD may feel that your Educational Supervisor, who is responsible for educational development and progress, needs to see the contents of your form and will discuss this with you. The contents of your form will only be shared with your Educational Supervisor with your consent.
  • You can also request that your Educational Supervisor sees the contents of the form if you think it would be helpful and to prevent you from having to repeat the information in the form multiple times.

In some cases, the information may need to be shared with the Medical Staffing or Occupational Health department at your allocated employer as they have legal duties that the information will help them to fulfil. For example, they have a legal duty to consider making reasonable adjustments for employees. This will only be done with your consent.

Medical schools, foundation schools and employers are bound by the General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018, and therefore they must store personal information about you in a secure way. They must also take steps to ensure that your information is not used for any other purpose other than the one which it was intended for. There are also rules about how long information can be stored by organisations. Therefore, all copies of your STEP form will be destroyed once you complete the Foundation Programme.

Medical schools and Foundation Schools are relying on Article 6(1)(e) of the GDPR to process this data. This section of the regulations provides a lawful basis for processing where it is “necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest”. The two pieces of primary legislation relevant in these circumstances for processing under Article 6(1)(e) are “The Medical Act 1983” and “The Equality Act 2010”.