UKFPO Bulletin

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January Bulletin

Word 'January' displayed in colourful text on a outside winter snowy background

Dry January 

World Religion Day – 18 January 

Other national campaigns this month 

Action for happiness calendar – ‘Happier January’ 

Introduction 

A happy New Year to you all, I hope that everyone connected with the Foundation Programme has a good 2026. I also hope that everyone got some time to rest and relax over the festive period. 

Looking back….. 

As I write this just before 2025 turns into 2026, it is a time of year for reflection on what went before in UKFPO.  

For UKFPO, the year started with the National Foundation Doctors Presentation Day in Sheffield, where fantastic QI projects, research work and case reports were presented by Foundation doctors. All the senior doctors present were very impressed, and there are details below of the 2026 event.  

2025 was also the 20th anniversary of the start of the Foundation Programme. At the recent DEMEC conference, one of my predecessors, Professor Derek Gallen, spoke on how the Foundation Programme came about, which was then followed by some lovely reflections on the current Foundation Programme by Dr Ali Carter, London Foundation School Director – these talks can be seen on the DEMEC YouTube channel.  

We went through our annual recruitment cycle, with about 9000 new doctors starting in the NHS in August. Although I appreciate that not everyone got their first choice location, I hope that all of our F1 doctors are being supported well in their professional development and learning the ‘hidden curriculum’ of medical practice that isn’t taught at medical school. Some of this is captured on UKFPO’s ‘Humans of the Foundation Programme’ webpage and in the resulting e-book – this was set up by Jie Fei Lau, UKFPO Fellow 2024-25, and continues to be a very interesting read as new articles come in. 

I have been working with our 2025-26 Fellows, Devon Ward and Kaveeta Malhi, on their projects covering a wide range of topics such as self-development time, helping new Foundation doctors settle when starting, and capturing the full potential of the e-portfolio. Look out for more details of this great work in forthcoming bulletins. 

….. & looking forward 

It is common at this time of year to make New Years’ resolutions. As well as/Rather than (delete as applicable) joining a gym or trying ‘dry January’, try some Foundation Programme resolutions: 

  • Spend a bit more time keeping your e-portfolio up to date? 
  • Working on your reflective writing skills and discussing these with your supervisor? 
  • Doing some SLEs and getting some feedback on your performance? 
  • Getting on with your QI project? 
  • Having a look through the curriculum to make sure you have evidence for all of the HLOs? (or at least a plan for getting that evidence?) 
  • Thinking about what you would like to do after completing the Foundation Programme, and making a plan for getting there? 

Doing these types of things will make life much easier as we move in the spring towards ARCP season. If you are not sure about what to do, then please discuss with your educational supervisor and/or your Foundation Programme Training Director.  

National Foundation Doctors Presentation Day 

I look forward to seeing those of you who will be attending the National Foundation Doctors Presentation Day at Southampton FC on Friday 23 January 2026. I know it will be a great day seeing the fantastic presentations about work done in the Foundation Programme. 

As ever, look after yourselves and each other. 

Best wishes 

Dr Mike Masding, UKFPO National Clinical Director

Notices and announcements

Share your STEP experience! 

 
In preparation for STEP 2026, which opens on 2 March 2026, we have updated the content on our STEP microsite. The microsite features a STEP ‘Case Studies’ section, which is intended to help students understand how completing the STEP form can support their transition to Foundation training. 

If you would like to contribute to our collection of STEP Case Studies, please email foundation.step@nhs.net with your short article about how the STEP process has benefited you in your career. Please include your Foundation Year level (that is FY1 or FY2) and the name of your Foundation School.  

If your submission is selected to be published on the UKFPO website, we will anonymise your submission and issue you with a certificate of participation.  

Please submit your articles by Friday 20 February 2026

Spotlight on educational resources

UKFPO webinars mapped to the Curriculum FPCs 

Check out our Curriculum resource page, where we have mapped most of our UKFPO Education and Support (E&S) webinars (2023-2025) to the relevant FPCs. These are suggested mappings, to support you in building up evidence in your e-portfolio. The Webinars page also shows suggested FPC mappings for each E&S webinar.  

Please watch any webinars you’ve missed and then consider whether they could be a useful part of your curriculum mapping. 

Webinars

Recent webinars 

See our Webinars page for recordings of our most recent webinars: 

If you missed any of these please watch the recording, and share it with your colleagues! 

We have further webinars coming up in March and April 2026, including our annual ARCP guidance webinar in late March – information will be shared in our next edition. 

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

Humans of the Foundation Programme 

Are you interested in creative writing and would like your article published on the UKFPO website, social media platforms and in this monthly bulletin (which is shared with the whole UK Foundation Programme community)? See our ‘Humans of the Foundation Programme’ webpage, created by Dr Jie Fei Lau, 2024-25 UKFPO Fellow, for further details, published articles and the submission form to submit articles of your own.   

New articles published this month: 

National Foundation Doctors Presentation Day 2026 

NFDPD 2026 is taking place in a couple of weeks, on Friday 23 January 2026 at the Southampton Football Club.  

We are pleased to welcome Professor Chris Whitty, Chief Medical Officer for England, as our keynote speaker this year. 

This year we received an incredible 923 abstract submissions, the highest number we have ever received! We are looking forward to hearing from our 20 oral presenters and 154 poster presenters on the day.  

The winning oral presenters will be awarded a slot to present their work as part of the UKFPO E&S webinar series in April 2026.  

Please send all NFDPD queries to our dedicated mailbox foundation.nfdpd@nhs.net and visit our NFDPD microsite for more information.  

Elearning for healthcare update

Review the December 2025 elfh update