UKFPO Bulletin
August Bulletin
World Breastfeeding Awareness Week – 1-7 August
Other national campaigns this month
Action for happiness calendar – ‘Altruistic August’
Introduction
Many of you will be joining the Foundation Programme for the first time, and I would like to welcome you to this next stage in what I hope will be a long and successful career as a doctor.
A message for those new to the Foundation Programme
With that in mind, on behalf of UKFPO I would like to welcome new F1 doctors as you make the transition from medical student to doctor, and those starting F2 stand-alone posts which for many will be your first experience of working in the NHS. Remember that all the doctors with whom you come into contact have been in the same situation you’re in – feeling uncertain in the early years of their careers, not sure where to be and what to do. If you’re unsure about something then ask someone: talk to your peers, your seniors, your supervisors, other healthcare professionals. Someone will know what to do – ask nicely and they’ll help you!
Education and Support
For many of you, your only contact so far with UKFPO has been around recruitment and allocation to your Foundation Programme posts.
However, we are also here to support you as you go through your Foundation Programme as we work closely with your foundation school and employing organisation to ensure that you have a worthwhile training experience. For example, we can help you with:
- curriculum and assessment guides and requirements (FP curriculum)
- educational content such as webinars
- developing your prescribing skills (SCRIPT and PSA)
- sharing good practice
- national representation opportunities
- the opportunity to present your work at the NFDPD
There is lots more helpful information on the UKFPO website.
UKFPO Fellows
As well as learning and developing clinical and procedural skills, there are lots of really important professional skills that you will develop as you progress through your career as a doctor. For many years, UKFPO have two F2 doctors on a fellowship, appointed due to demonstrating excellent professional skills such as leadership and teamworking.
I would like to thank Drs Jie Fei Lau and Dasha Ibrahim who were UKFPO Fellows for 2024-25. They have been excellent representatives of Foundation doctors at various meetings, have completed great projects on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion teaching and establishing the Humans of the Foundation Programme project, and contributed greatly with our work. On behalf of UKFPO, I would like to wish them the very best of luck in their future careers.
Current F1 doctors will have the opportunity to apply for 2026-27 UKFPO Fellowships in March 2026; in the meantime, our new 2025-26 UKFPO Fellows will introduce themselves below.
As ever, look after yourselves and each other.
Best wishes
Dr Mike Masding, UKFPO National Clinical Director
Notices and announcements
2025-26 UKFPO Fellow Introductions
See our website for information about the UKFPO Fellowship.
Devon Ward
Hi everyone! My name is Devon Ward and I’m one of the UKFPO Fellows for 2025/26. I’m currently working as a Specialised Foundation Programme (SFP) Year 2 doctor working in the Liverpool University Hospitals Group, and I graduated from Cardiff University with a commendation in my medical degree and a 1st in an intercalated Psychology degree.
I’m really passionate about medical education, and this past year have developed an interest in improving training for foundation doctors, which inspired me to apply for this Fellowship. In tandem with my role in the North West Foundation Forum, I am committed to represent the interests of and issues faced by foundation doctors and aim to improve the experiences of foundation doctors on a national scale.
I’m looking forward to the challenges this Fellowship will bring, and hopefully I will meet and work with some of you during this coming year!
Kaveeta Malhi
Hello! My name is Kaveeta, and I am honoured to be taking up a UKFPO Fellowship post in August 2025. I am currently working in Aberystwyth, following an unexpected allocation to West Wales. This has been an interesting transition for me, having spent most of my time as a student in large tertiary centres. I have long been interested in all aspects of equality, diversity and inclusivity. In my current post, I see now more than ever the disproportionate impact on healthcare outcomes of both socioeconomic status and rurality itself. Investigating this further, along with the subsequent consequences for both patients and staff, is important to me.
Despite the unique challenges, I have also come to appreciate the invaluable nature of near peer support, both inside and outside work. Though perhaps particularly important in isolated rural settings, I believe it is something everyone could benefit from. I hope to explore the potential for formalised near peer mentoring within the Foundation Programme.
In my spare time, I am making the most of the Welsh coastline and mountains! I bake sourdough with varying levels of success, have joined a local boxing club (an excellent form of stress relief after a long day), and finally given in to buying a dry robe.
It is undoubtedly a challenging time to be working as an NHS Doctor. I applied for this Fellowship because I want to use this platform and my experience to represent the interests of my colleagues. I aim to use the opportunity accordingly and maybe make things a little bit better.
NHS England 10 Year Plan
The Government has launched its 10-year plan for the NHS in England. Read about it here 10 Year Health Plan for England: fit for the future – GOV.UK
Fairness in fitness to practise: An update from the General Medical Council
Written by Andrew Hoyle, Assistant Director – Decisions
Doctors occupy a special and highly trusted position in our society. Our fitness to practise processes exist to maintain patient safety and the trust patients and the public hold in doctors. That trust is a cornerstone of medical practice, enabling doctors to care for patients with confidence and credibility.
When doctors trust the fitness to practise process, that supports their confidence and sense of security in the workplace – foundations that are essential for safe, effective patient care. But it’s not uncommon for early career doctors to feel the exact opposite, to be apprehensive about our processes, and even to be nervous about coming into contact with the GMC at all.
We’d like to change that. There’s much more to what we do at the GMC than fitness to practise, and if doctors are fearful of that specific regulatory function, they may be less inclined to engage with services that could benefit them – such as our Outreach team and our supportive resources.
We are keen to share as much information as possible about our fitness to practise processes in order to ‘de-mystify’ how we deal with complaints. If you would like to find out more, our YouTube channel is a good place to start.
See the rest of this article in our news section, including some information about recent changes the GMC have made to ensure fairness in their regulatory processes: Fairness in fitness to practise: An update from the GMC.
Spotlight on educational resources
New PSA preparation resources for IMGs
Take a look at a new set of PSA preparation resources for IMGs, which includes resources shared by UK medical schools to support new F1 doctors who graduated outside the UK to prepare for sitting the PSA.
SCRIPT – Safe prescribing eLearning programme
SCRIPT is an eLearning programme to improve safety and competency among healthcare professionals around prescribing, therapeutics and medicines management. All foundation doctors have free access to this resource. If you haven’t signed up yet, you can do so at https://foundation.safeprescriber.org/login.
UK FP Curriculum and guides
The UK FP Curriculum and guides about the types of meetings, learning events (such as SLEs, reflection and teaching) and assessments you need to undertake are all on our Curriculum microsite.
The timeline for full time F1 doctors who commence the Foundation Programme in August 2025 and are therefore due to complete F1 in August 2026 is also on our website: Timeline for F1 completion
Webinars
Coming up
We are planning another great series of webinars for the 2025-26 training year and will publish our schedule shortly.
All previous webinar recordings are available on our webinars webpage. Of specific interest to those new to the Foundation Programme (all links lead to the UKFPO YouTube channel):
If there are any specific topics you think we have missed or you wish for us to cover in our educational webinar series, please send your suggestions to foundation.educationandsupport@nhs.net
Opportunities and events
National Foundation Doctors Presentation Day (NFDPD) 2026 – Hold the date!
Current foundation doctors are warmly invited to a day of oral and poster presentations by F1 and F2 doctors on Friday 23 January 2026 in Southampton. The NFDPD is an annual event celebrating the work of UK foundation doctors. Details on how to prepare for and apply to present at the NFDPD 2026 are on our website: UKFP National Foundation Doctors Presentation Day (NFDPD)
Humans of the Foundation Programme
See our Humans of the Foundation Programme webpage for details of this exciting creative writing initiative, including the submission form for articles of your own, and published articles.
New articles published this month:
- ‘So I ended up in…’ – Dr Immy Stringer
- ‘FAO FY2 – Are we doing enough to make ourselves understood?’ – Dr Elizabeth Martin
- ‘What does a 175g of plastic have to do with being a doctor?’ – Dr Yin Sebastian Tan
Elearning for healthcare update
Review the July 2025 elfh update