The Foundation Programme Reference Guide - Academy of Medical ...

4. Shape of the Foundation ProgrammeTwo year programmes, F1, F2, lengths of placements4.1 The Foundation Programme is a two-year programme comprising the F1 and F2 years.4.2 Satisfactory completion of the F1 year allows the foundation doctor to apply for fullregistration with the GMC. Satisfactory completion of F2 results in the award of theFoundation Achievement of Competence Document (FACD) (see appendix 11g).4.3 On behalf of the GMC, deaneries/foundation schools are responsible for prospectivelyapproving the individual placements and rotations that make up the FoundationProgramme. In addition, through their quality management processes, deaneries/foundation schools are responsible for ensuring that the placements are structuredas managed rotations, and enable foundation doctors to meet the requirements forsatisfactory completion of F1 and the Foundation Programme.4.4 The Foundation Programme Curriculum (the Curriculum) follows a spiral model. Thismeans that foundation doctors are expected to acquire and demonstrate the same broadoutcomes by the end of F1 and by the end of F2 but at a higher level of competence forF2. There are however different detailed competences between F1 and F2.4.5 Individual placement lengths may vary with placements typically lasting 3, 4 or 6months. They must be long enough to allow foundation doctors to become membersof the team and allow team members to make reliable judgements about foundationdoctors’ abilities, performance and progress.4.6 The placements configured as a rotation for F1 must provide a balanced programmeand enable the acquisition and demonstration of the outcomes and competencesset by the GMC in The New Doctor and described in the Curriculum. Similarly, theplacements configured as a rotation for F2 must provide a balanced programme andenable the acquisition and demonstration of the outcomes and competences describedin the Curriculum. It is important that the two-year Foundation Programme is alsobalanced and that foundation doctors are able to train within a range of differentspecialties and settings.4.7 From time to time, vacancies arise in a Foundation Programme. Under suchcircumstances, the deanery/foundation school must agree with the employer how tocarry out the recruitment process (see 4.12 - 4.15).Academic Foundation Programmes4.8 Academic and related (e.g. e-learning, leadership, pharmaceutical medicine)Foundation Programmes provide foundation doctors with the opportunity to developtheir research, teaching and/or leadership skills and explore academia as a career at thesame time as developing their clinical and generic skills. These training opportunitiesare the product of local innovation. By convention, the term “Academic” is used onlyto describe programmes with a research or teaching focus.4.9 Foundation doctors appointed to an academic or related programme mustdemonstrate that they have met the requirements for satisfactory completion of F1and the Foundation Programme (see section 10). While there is much variation in howthese programmes are structured, these programmes must support the acquisitionThe UK Foundation Programme: Reference Guide8