NHS England and the Medical Schools Council have launched a new partnership that will give students the opportunity to apply directly to medical schools for certain Specialised Foundation Programmes in England.

The Specialised Foundation Programme has been created to offer medical school graduates the opportunity to develop skills in research, teaching and leadership alongside their core medical foundation training.

Medical school students in England who have demonstrated to their medical school that they have the interest, aptitude and commitment to pursue a career in academia, leadership or education will be able to apply through their medical school for an SFP post in the Foundation School linked to the medical school.

The arrangement means that selection for one third of the posts for the Specialised Foundation Programme (SFP) in England for 2025 will be managed directly by medical schools with support from the Medical Schools Council (MSC).

Successful students will be assigned to SFP posts in the Foundation School local to their medical school. NHS England will inform medical schools of the number of SFP posts allocated pro rata to each medical school.

The MSC will develop guidelines to encourage consistency and will work with NHS England to monitor the outcomes and equality, diversity and inclusion data, to ensure fairness in their recruitment processes.

A list of the selected medical students will be passed to NHS England so that they can be matched to their local foundation school on Oriel, the recruitment system.

The remaining two thirds of SFP posts will be managed by NHS England through the preference informed allocation process (PIA). This has been designed to allow interested applicants with and without prior research experience to access research opportunities.

All applicants must first submit an application on Oriel for the Foundation Programme 2025 between 25 September and 9 October (12:00) 2024.

All students must submit a main application on Oriel even if they only wish to apply for a ringfenced SFP post.

Applicants who wish to stay local to their medical school and to apply for one of the ringfenced SFP posts will be able to do so after the main Foundation Programme application process, through their medical school’s selection process.

NHS England will publish guidance on how the process will work in the near future.

Professor Sheona MacLeod, Director of Education and Training at NHS England said: “We received considerable feedback on the plans for managing the Specialist Foundation Programme process in England, when they were announced in February.

“We have been engaging with key stakeholders such as the Medical Schools Council, British Medical Association and representatives from academic bodies such as National Institution for Health and care Research, the Academy of Medical Sciences and InterACt, to see whether any further changes could be made. This change is a result of this engagement.

“We shall continue to monitor the process, and this will help inform decisions for how it will be managed in the future.”

Dr Katie Petty-Saphon, Chief Executive at the Medical Schools Council said: “The Medical Schools Council was delighted that NHS England recognised the need to ringfence a number of Specialist Foundation Programme posts as part of the national strategy to support clinical academic careers.

“Medical schools look forward to working more closely with their colleagues in foundation schools to ensure that trainees all have fruitful and productive experiences and that we continue to optimise the opportunities provided in all SFP posts.

“Students do though need to be aware that an SFP is not the only route into a clinical academic career and that there will be multiple opportunities to gain relevant experience during their training.”