New & Intending Trainers

Every scheme has a Training Programme Director (TPD) with lead responsibility for intending and new GP Trainers.

The TPD for our scheme is: Chris Hirst.
Email: chrishirst@nhs.net

Do you fancy becoming a part of shaping young doctors’ careers and lives?

Did you have a trainer that influenced your career?

Then GP training may be for you!

The route to becoming a GP trainer has recently changed. There is no longer a requirement for completion of the PGCME, although this is still a route into training if you desire.  If you don’t wish to complete the PGCME, you will need to attend a number of practical courses as part of the process.

Contact the York GPST team to arrange a meeting with a TPD. Chris Hirst leads on this aspect.

The initial meeting with the TPD is an informal one, discussing why you wish to be a trainer and also looking at your practice as a learning organisation. If your practice is not currently a training practice, this meeting should take place at the practice, but otherwise it can take place in the hospital or even virtually

Once the meeting has taken place, Chris will complete a TPD report which will be emailed to you.

Contact the GP Approvals team at gpapprovals.yh@hee.nhs.uk who will then set up a web-based app for you to upload various pieces of information, including the TPD report. Once completed this is then submitted to the team. The web app then expands with further sections to fill in as below:

You are then eligible to book onto two courses:

The Educational Theory Course

The Intending Trainer Course

These are booked through Maxcourse and the GP Approvals team should be able to give you details of course dates and how to use Maxcourse.

Contact the York GPST team to arrange to sit in and be involved in some of the HDR teaching. You can also sit in on ARCP panels which give an invaluable insight into the e-portfolio. 

You should also attend trainers workshops and the annual awayday. In addition, Chris runs an Intending Trainers Group which meets, four times a year which is designed to support you during this process

Contact the York GPST team to arrange to sit in and be involved in some of the HDR teaching. You can also sit in on ARCP panels which give an invaluable insight into the e-portfolio. 

You should also attend trainers workshops and the annual awayday. In addition, Chris runs an Intending Trainers Group which meets, four times a year which is designed to support you during this process

At this point, you should contact Chris to be assigned a mentor who should organise a number of sessions with you (up to six) to support your development as a trainer.

Whilst you are being involved in the activities above, you should also complete the web app and apply for a new trainers interview by submitting the completed app.

To complete the web app, you will need a final TPD report, which Chris will fill in. He needs the following details

• Your educational PDP
• The trainees timetable
• Details of your involvement with HDR teaching
• Details of trainers and intending trainers workshops that you have attended
• Details of your Mentoring sessions, with reflection on the sessions

Note that you do not need to have completed all of your mentoring sessions prior to your interview. However it is very helpful to have been involved in assessing a trainee in a COT and a CBD

To start as a trainer in August, you need to have completed the app and applied for your interview by 1^stFebruary. Interview dates for this tranche are usually in April

To start as a trainer in February, you need to have completed the app and applied by 1^st August, with interview dates usually being in October or November

Bradford VTS has a whole page devoted to Educational Resources for New and Intending GP Trainers. Click the link below to visit it.

Another great resource is GP-training.net although it is no longer updated, its resources are useful and many are timeless.

And of course, don’t forget to check out the main pages for all Trainers to see what’s happening in York.