Educational Supervisor Help sheet 

 

The role 

 

The overall purpose of the educational supervisor is to facilitate and support the training and educational development of their foundation doctors over the full year of foundation training. 
 
The main aspects of the role include: 

 

  • Supervision of foundation trainees' educational and professional progress; 

  • Checking that their trainees maintain appropriate records of assessment; 

  • Reporting to their foundation programme training director on their trainees' progress, especially any performances that give rise to concern, and 

  • Providing or identifying other sources for pastoral and career advice as required.  

The Educational Supervisor (ES) should meet with the Foundation Doctor regularly to discuss the trainees progress and what they need to work on to complete the training year.  

As a minimum, meetings should take place at the beginning of the year, at the end of each placement and at the end of the year. Ideally, you should meet an F1 more frequently throughout their first year. F1s will need more support than an F2, who is familiar with the demands of working and completing the portfolio and curriculum requirements. The following framework can help structure your meetings, develop the relationship of supervisor-trainee, and ensure that you have covered the principal aspects of the role.  

August Initial Meeting with Trainees  

 This first meeting with the trainee should be arranged for August. Although it is the trainee’s responsibility to engage with you and set up the meetings, do what you can to make yourself known and meet your trainee as early as you can in the placement.  

Content 

 Getting to know you: 

  • Depending on whether F1 or F2, ask about their experience of medical school and F1.  

  • Are they new to the area? Do they have a social network locally? 

  • Work-life balance – how do they achieve this? 

  • Do they have any personal, health or domestic issues that are likely to impact on their training? Does anyone else supporting the trainee need to know about these and do any adjustments need to be made?  

  • Is there anything that they are particularly worried about or looking forward to as they start the year?  

  

Training needs: 

  • What are the main things they are hoping to gain from the year?  

  • Do they have areas of strength/weakness from F1 or medical school? 

  • Do they already have ideas about their career pathways? Have they got plans for how to identify/explore areas of interest? 

  • Does the trainee understand the curriculum, and assessments required of them? 

  • What might they target with their first assessments – do these areas relate to their PDP? 

  • Identify areas of the curriculum that may be difficult to evidence through their placements and discuss alternative ways to cover e.g., through teaching 

  • If F2, have they created a maxcourse account to access regional teaching courses? (Further information on regional teaching can be found in Appendix 1) 

  • If F2, how are they planning to use their study leave and are they planning to undertake a taster? 

  • F1s can now use 5 days of their F2 study leave allowance for a taster in F1. How might they use it?  

 

Depending on the content of the meeting and the trainee’s first post, consider whether contact between you and the clinical supervisor would be helpful at this stage. Such contact is particularly important with supervisors outside the Trust e.g. in GP, psychiatry, public health posts who are usually very appreciative of relevant information about who is coming to them and who else is involved in the support of the trainee. 

 

Agree how it is best for the trainee to contact you about the mid/end of placement review or if they have any problems in the meantime. Encourage such contact. Ask the trainee to ensure that they have requested and received the clinical supervisor’s report before your end of post review 

 

In practical terms:  

Prior to the first meeting check you have the relevant access to Horus.  

For each trainee -  

  1. Check the trainee has read and signed the Conditions of joining a Foundation Training Programme 

  1. Check trainee has read and signed the Health and Probity declarations 

  1. Check trainee has completed a Personal Development Plan (PDP) and discuss it. Is it realistic, do you have ideas about how they could achieve their aims? Discuss career management 

  1. Log the meeting 

 

Instructions for Horus:  

Enter the Horus website via https://horus.hee.nhs.uk using your username and password  

Under ‘Admin menu’ on the task bar click on ‘Foundation Doctors’ and then select the relevant trainee’s name.  

  1. On the trainee’s overview page select the declarations tab (in blue) to check the relevant declarations have been signed 
  2. From the trainee homepage select the orange box with the trainee name and the select PDP from the list 
  3. From the grey task bar click on ‘Forms (start new)’ and under ‘Mandatory forms for each placement’ you will find the form ‘Initial meeting with ES’  

Nov/Dec End of Placement Review Meeting with Trainees   

  1. Ahead of the meeting, check on Horus to see whether the clinical supervisor has already completed their supervisor’s report and whether a Placement Supervision Group (PSG) has formed part of the report. All trainees must have at least one PSG across the year. Consider contacting the trainee’s clinical supervisor for some informal feedback about how they have been getting on in the post or to clarify any comments. This contact is particularly important with supervisors outside the Trust e.g. in GP, psychiatry, public health posts. 
  2. Before the meeting you will also need to check any concerns that have been raised about the trainee and resolve them – you may need to discuss any concerns with the trainees clinical supervisor. 
  3. Discuss the trainee’s experience of the post they are completing – 
  • Did they get a good induction? 
  • Is the workload appropriate? 
  • Are they having satisfactory clinical supervision? 
  • Have they had any problems in their last placement that they need help to resolve e.g. working with colleagues, attendance at teaching? 

4. Are they developing their own teaching and presentation skills? If not, help to identify opportunities. 
5. Have there been any changes to their health or personal circumstances that are impacting on their training and require additional support? 
6. Has the trainee had any days absent from the post – has this been recorded?  
7. How has their experience affected their career plans and is there anything else that would help their career planning at this stage? Are their career plans realistic? 
8. If F2, are they undertaking an audit? If so discuss progress. If not, ensure that this has been planned.  
9. Have they created teaching logs for all teaching attended? If F2, have they been on any regional teaching days? 
10. If F2, what are they using their study leave for, have they had any difficulties accessing study leave, have they undertaken or are they planning a taster? 
11. Ensure the necessary requirements for Post 1 are logged.  To include: 

  • A summary narrative initial draft for each HLO 

  • Contemporaneous assessments – there are no longer a specific number required. 

  • Clinical supervisor end of placement report 
     
    12. Check that the trainee has completed some reflective practice. 
    13. Check the trainee is linking evidence to the Foundation Curriculum. Which areas of the curriculum have they yet to evidence and how might they do this? * 
    14. Review the PDP and support the trainee to expand this for the coming post, 
    15. Log the meeting 
    16. Flag up any issues resulting from the above checks for referral to Foundation Programme Director if necessary  

Instructions for Horus:  

  1. From the trainee homepage select the orange box with the trainee’s name. Select concerns, which will then bring up any concerns raised about the trainee. You will need to review all concerns and click on the view/update button to make comments and resolve the concern if appropriate. If you are unable to resolve the concern you must escalate this to the Foundation Programme Director. 
  2. From the trainee homepage select the orange box with the trainee’s name. Select contents and you will then see what the trainee has completed in each post. 
  3. From the trainee homepage select the orange box with the trainee name. Select Placement Supervision Group. On the next page select the orange box ‘Manage Feedback’. This will take you to another page where you can view the individual responses and a summary created by the Clinical Supervisor. 
  4. From the trainee homepage select the orange box and the PDP or Reflection to view the PDP and reflective entries that the trainee will share with you.  
  5. From the trainee homepage select the orange box and then select’ Curriculum’ to check what evidence they have used to support the curriculum * 
  6. From the taskbar click on ‘Forms (start new)’ and under ‘At the end of each placement’ select the form ‘ES end of placement report’. 

 *NB. The Curriculum section within a trainee’s portfolio details all capabilities a trainee must evidence at the end of the year to be signed off. Types of evidence include SLEs, assessments, reflective accounts, etc. The trainee should be linking a range of evidence to the curriculum throughout the year. There is no set requirement of how many pieces of evidence should be mapped to each capability, but it should not exceed 5. Each portfolio item can be mapped to a maximum of 3 capabilities. 

 As the trainee progresses through the training year, the Educational Supervisor (ES) needs to rate the trainee’s achievement of the outcomes. To do this you will need to go to the orange box with the trainees name and select ‘Curriculum’ Under the section headings you will see ‘ES Progress rating’. Click on ‘Rate progress now’ to document the trainees progress. 

In each of your meetings, please review the curriculum evidence that trainees have associated with the capabilities and assess whether they have demonstrated meeting it. This information should then inform the start of the summary narrative that should be started after placement 1 and developed as the year progresses. This should help highlight those areas of the curriculum that the trainee needs to focus on in the next placement and support a more considered approach to meeting the aims of the programme.  

March/April End of Placement Meeting with Trainees   

For each trainee – Same as Nov/Dec Meeting   

In addition the trainee will have completed a TAB (multi source feedback) round in January/ February – each trainee is required to complete one TAB per year. You will need to ensure that the trainee has received the correct number of responses and that the comments are satisfactory. You will need to discuss the feedback and release the results to the trainee.  

Instructions for Horus: 

 To check the TAB assessments, click on the orange box on the trainee homepage and select ‘TAB’. Click on the orange box ‘results’ where you can read all assessments. You are then required to complete the TAB summary form to release the results to the trainees.  

End May/Beginning June Final Meeting for sign-off 

 In this meeting the ES will need to complete and End of Year report. The ES is making a recommendation to the ARCP panel on whether or not they should award the trainee a successful ARCP outcome, based on whether the trainee has shown that they have demonstrated the 13 FPCs to a sufficient level and are on track to fulfil the three Higher Level Outcomes (HLOs) of the Foundation Programme. 

Each trainee will need to have the following contained within their e-portfolio – 

  • Clinical supervisor's reports from each post 

  • Team assessment of behaviour (TAB) 

  • Evidence the trainee has engaged with the Horus e-portfolio to show completion against the 13 Foundation Professional Capabilities (FPCs) in the curriculum 

  • Regular and contemporaneous completion of SLEs to demonstrate learning 

  • Evidence of minimum 30 hours ‘core’ learning 

  • Evidence of non-core learning to total minimum 60hours overall 

  • Regular reflection 

  • A summary narrative for each HLO 

  • Satisfactory engagement with feedback to the programme 

  • Attendance record  

The ES will need to flag up any issues relating to the above checks and refer them to the Foundation Programme Director 

 

Complete the Educational Supervisor’s End of Year Report 

Instructions for Horus: see previous pages  

 

The medical education team will be in touch with further details regarding the sign-off process nearer the time.  More information is also available at http://foundation.peninsuladeanery.nhs.uk/about-us/end-of-year-process/   

Appendix 1 

 Study Leave  

  • F2s have a total of 30 study leave days over 12 months. A number of days are pre-allocated. Please refer to the Foundation School Study Leave Policy   

  • F1 study leave is all allocated to the weekly foundation teaching.  

  • Ensure you are familiar with the study leave policy and follow this when booking study leave for regional teaching and other courses  

  • All approved study leave must be recorded on the study leave record document attached, so that a cumulative record of the number of days taken can be kept. You will be required to include this in your ARCP evidence documentation  

  • Below is a summary of how some of the study leave is pre-allocated as set out in the school policy:  

 

Summary table for use of F2 study leave time   

Use of total study leave time   

5 days teaching: minimum 4 days from regional teaching programme plus additional 6 hours foundation teaching (30 hours total)   

1 day simulation training (may be delivered in 2 half days)   

5 days Tasters (which can be taken in F1 for Taster and/or 1 day career planning)   

GP learning sets (5 days)   

ALS (2 days)   

   

This means trainees not doing GP will have 17 days’ available study leave and those doing GP will have 12. 

 

Record of teaching hours  

  • ALL teaching attended must be recorded in the personal learning log found in your Horus ePortfolio  

  • You should record all types of teaching that you wish to count to the total: regional days, local foundation teaching, departmental teaching, and eLearning modules  

  • For all teaching that cannot be verified easily by the postgraduate team, you are required to evidence your attendance by completing an additional achievement form in your portfolio; Course / seminar / other learning attended.  

 

The requirement for successful outcome at ARCP The requirements for progression at ARCP are set nationally and agreed by the GMC. They may vary (e.g. due to COVID) but each year they will be confirmed by the foundation school and an annual checklist will be sent to you. The expectation for ARCP June 2022 is: 

  • Minimum total accrued teaching of 60 hours (you can do more!)  

  • Minimum of 30 hours CORE teaching from the foundation-specific programme (local trust foundation teaching and regional programme, foundation simulation)  

  • All other types of teaching is NON-CORE: department teaching, GP learning sets, grand round, eLearning etc  

  • F2 minimum 4 days’ attendance from regional teaching programme (24 hours)  

  • Maximum 6 modules of eLearning (6 hours)  

This page was last updated July 13th 2021 (3 years ago)