Specialty Recruitment

The Applicant Handbook for Northern Ireland for posts commencing August 2020 is available below:

Applicants Handbook 2020

Please note this applies to Northern Ireland only. It is important that all applicants read this guide as it contains all the information that applicants will require regarding this Recruitment process.

SPECIFIC ARRANGEMENTS IN NORTHERN IRELAND: Please note that Flexibility in Deployment of Trainees is applicable only to England, Scotland and Wales. Northern Ireland has separate arrangements for management of requests for Special Circumstances. Further information is available via email to Recruitmentconfidential.NIMDTA@hscni.net Facilitated Placements will not take place in Northern Ireland for August 2018 in any specialty process.

Deferral of Posts: Deferral for non-statutory reasons within the GP Process will not be facilitated in Northern Ireland.

Single Transferable Score: Please note, where a recruitment process is using Single Transferable Score, applicants should be reminded that offers should be accepted with upgrades.

2014 Competition Ratios

2015 Competition Ratios

2016 Competition Ratios

2017 Competition Ratios

2018 Competition Ratios

2019 Competition Ratios

2020 Competition Ratios

For information regarding National Recruitment Processes, please refer to the lead recruiters’ website.

Below you will find a list of documents that you will be required for ID check process when attending interview in Northern Ireland.

PORTFOLIO Candidate portfolios may be examined by panel members and may be scored as part of the interview process. Candidates are strongly advised to ensure that it contains all information detailed in their application form e.g. audits, publications, evidence of any specific competences required to enter the specialty. As candidates will be asked to refer to documents during the interview process it is important that these can be accessed quickly if required. Although many trainees now use e-portfolio, a hard copy portfolio is required at interview. Candidates should refer to the lead recruiter website for further guidance on how to prepare their portfolio, but please see below for a basic guide

Portfolio Guidance

All specialty training offers will be made through Oriel.
Appointments to training programmes or posts will be offered in rank order, based on selection scores.
Not all candidates deemed eligible for appointment by the interview/selection panel will be offered a post as recruitment offices will invite more applicants to interview than posts available.
Following interview and/or assessment, the recruitment office will contact applicants, if successful, with news of an offer. Unsuccessful applicants will receive a message informing them that they have not been successful on this occasion.
Applicants deemed eligible for appointment who rank below the number of vacancies available, could still receive an offer, if offers made to higher ranked candidates are rejected.
Applicants receiving training offers through Oriel will have the option to accept, decline or hold (until the hold deadline) the offer made. Applicants will be given 48 hours (excluding weekends but including bank holidays) from release of the offer to decide whether to accept, reject or hold it.
Offers which are not responded to within the 48 hour deadline will expire and will be offered to another applicant.

Single Transferable Score:  Please note, where a recruitment process is using Single Transferable Score, applicants should be reminded that offers should be accepted with upgrades.

Further information is available via the Applicants Handbook

• 2020 Career Planning Presentation
• Professional Support Unit Contacts

Written feedback will, be made available to candidates on request.

The following information will be made available:

• Your score per station
• Your total score
• Maximum score available
• Your appointability and the minimum score required for appointability
• Your rank and the rank needed to obtain a post

For National Recruitment processes using the digital scoring system, all candidates will receive feedback no later than 7 days after the nationally agreed offers deadline.

Candidates may request feedback by submitting the form below:

Feedback Form 382.93 KB 80 downloads

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Written feedback, other than the information identified above, is not provided. Verbal feedback is also not provided.

Requests for scoresheets / interview notes will be dealt with under the Subject Access Provisions of the Data Protection Act. For details of how to make a request, please visit our Data Protection and Freedom of Information Page.

References

Reference reports are not used for scoring purposes during shortlisting or interview but will be reviewed during the selection process and again prior to confirmation of appointment for successful applicants. The reference process is designed to check the accuracy of your previous employment and training history and to provide assurance of your suitability for employment.  You must provide contact details, including up-to-date e-mail addresses, of three referees who have supervised your clinical training within the past three years. If you are applying to more than one specialty, you may opt to nominate different referees for each specialty. If you have recently had a career break and can not nominate referees from the past three years, then your referees must include your two most recent supervisors.  You should contact your clinical referees in advance to confirm that they are willing to provide a reference and are available and able to do so in the time period required for selection and appointment.  If you are offered, and accept a training programme, your employer will not be able to issue a contract without references.  It is important that applicants confirm referee email addresses prior to completing the application form. Once offers have been accepted, referees will be contacted by email with details of their referee account. It is therefore important that email addresses are and for email accounts that are regularly accessed.

2018 Reference Form 75.00 KB 159 downloads

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Access NI Checks (Criminal Records Checks)

Fitness to Practise Declarations

As part of the application process to specialty training, applicants are required to declare any fitness to practise issues to recruitmentconfidential.nimdta@hscni.net. These declarations are held confidentially by the Professional Support Department until the recruitment process is complete. Declarations from successful applicants will be shared with the Trainee Review Group (TRG) to establish if the information provided warrants completion of an individual Transfer of Information (TOI) form. The information will also be forwarded to the Medical Director, Director of Medical Education and Medical HR within each future employing Trust for the duration of the training programme.

Please complete and return the form below to declare any Fitness to Practise issues:

Fitness to Practse Declaration Form 382.85 KB 18 downloads

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Pre-Placement Health Assessment

Evidence of Advanced Life Support (ALS)

Right to work in the UK

Home Office Requirements

• Criminal Records Certificates
The Home Office requires those applying to come to the UK as a Tier 2 doctor or dentist in training, and their adult dependants, to produce a criminal record certificate from any country in which they have been resident for 12 months or more, consecutively or cumulatively, in the previous 10 years, aged 18 or over.

As it can take some time to obtain a criminal record certificate, applicants should begin the process of seeking certificates, if required, at the earliest opportunity.  Further information is available from page 11 of the Applicants Handbook available from the Oriel Resource Bank.

• Maintenance
Public bodies cannot offer to certify maintenance on the Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS). If applicants are successful in being appointed to a training programme in the UK, and require Tier 2 sponsorship, they will be required to provide evidence of maintenance (funds) to the Home Office when they make their visa application.
Full guidance can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-on-application-for-uk-visa-as-tier-2-worker

Evidence of immigration status would be a biometric residence card, date stamped passport and/or identity card. All of these documents need to be dated as at or prior to the application closing date.  You will be asked to bring your passport and proof of your immigration status to any interviews or assessments you attend

Further information will be made available via the NIMDTA Immigration page.  A link to the page will be added here in due course.

Information for applicants from the EU
You will be aware that the UK is in the process of leaving the European Union.  This means freedom of movement will be affected in the future.  The HSC will continue to welcome and value staff and trainees from Europe as it does the whole world.

From 31 October 2019 the UK will have left the European Union. If an agreement is reached with the EU, then EU citizens and their family members will be able to move to the UK until 2021 on the same basis as you could do today, with the same rights to work and study freely, as you currently do. For EU citizens who already live in the UK, you are eligible to apply to the EU Settlement Scheme.  All EU citizens who have lived in the UK for more than five years continuously will be eligible for ‘settled status’ (equivalent to indefinite leave to remain).  If you have lived in the UK for less than five years you will be eligible for ‘pre-settled status’ and can upgrade this to ‘settled status’ when you have been here for five years.  As the Prime Minister announced on 21 January, this process is free to all from 30 March 2019. Any payment made for an application before this date will be refunded. More information on the settlement scheme can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/settled-status-eu-citizens-families

In the event that an agreement is not reached, from 31 October 2019 EU nationals could still continue to come to the UK as they do now under retained free movement laws until 31 December 2020 before the UK’s new immigration system begins in 2021. During this period, newly arriving EU citizens will still be able to enter the UK as they do now and will be able to visit, work or study without applying for a visa, but they will not be eligible to apply to the EU Settlement Scheme.  European Temporary Leave to Remain (Euro TLR) has been introduced as a new transitional immigration status for EEA and Swiss citizens and their family members who arrive in the UK after a no-deal exit day and before 31 December 2020. If you want to stay in the UK, you can apply from within the UK for Euro TLR status which will be granted for 36 months, subject to identity, criminality and security checks. Application for the Euro TLR status is voluntary, however if you do not gain Euro TLR status before 31 December 2020 you will be required to apply for a work visa under the future immigration system. Being granted the Euro TLR status does not secure a right to stay in the UK when the 36 month period expires. It can be used as a bridge to a new immigration status where the time accrued under Euro TLR can be used towards a qualifying period for settlement under a future immigration system.
More information will be available soon on the process to register and how the UK’s Future Immigration System will work.  To keep up to date, please regularly visit https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/eu-immigration-after-free-movement-ends-if-theres-no-deal

Guaranteed Interview Scheme

Deferral of Start Date

Applicants can only defer the start of their specialty training programmes on statutory grounds such as personal ill health or maternity leave. Commencement cannot be deferred for reasons such as research, except in the case of candidates who have accepted a GP Post (subject to approval). Applicants who have had a period of ill health or maternity during the training programme from which they are applying will be permitted to defer their entry to specialty training by the same period of time. Tier 2 visa applicants wishing to defer should also discuss this with the appropriate Tier 2 sponsor to ensure they are able to do so under current immigration rules. Applicants must complete the form below and forward it to gpspecialtytraining.nimdta@hscni.net or specialty.nimdta@hscni.net as soon as possible after acceptance of post.

2019 Application For Deferral Of Commencement Of Specialty Training 22.79 KB 24 downloads

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For Hospital Specialty Training applications, NIMDTA will seek support from the appropriate Head of School and Training Programme Director. All applications will be considered by the relevant Head of Department and applicants will be advised by email of the outcome.

Special Circumstances