Offers FAQs

Deaneries/UoAs can begin making offers once they have finished interviewing candidates. Obviously, this will depend upon when UoAs/deaneries carry out their interviews - these dates can be viewed on the interview dates page of this website.

In terms of how the offer will be made, you will be contacted via email to be notified of the outcome of your interview; this will also be recorded in your personal summary page of the application system ('My Messages').

No, you don’t have to accept a post if one is offered to you. You will, however, be expected to respond to any offer within 48 hours of receiving it, regardless of whether you wish to accept, hold or decline the offer.

Please note that if you decline the offer, you will not be made another offer from that UoA in that specialty.

In certain circumstances, you will be able to hold an offer beyond this 48-hour limit. For information on this, please see either our applicants' guide (available from the homepage of this website), or the FAQ on holding offers further down this page.

Please be advised that the GMC states, in 'Good Medical Practice', that if you do accept an offer, you must withdraw any other ongoing applications you have made to other specialties; and that you should not withdraw an application to a specialty once you have formally accepted a post resulting from that application.

Up until the holding deadline, you will be given the option to 'hold' an offer you have received beyond the standard 48-hour limit. All offers received before the deadline will have this option in your candidate portal where you make decisions on offers; you will also be asked to select the specialty for which you are holding. However, please be aware that to hold an offer, you will still need to inform the offering deanery/UoA of your intention to hold the offer within 48 hours (again including weekends/bank holidays) of receiving it.

Unlike previous years, in 2012 the holding process applies across all bodies participating in the current recruitment round - not just specialties/deaneries within the RCP-coordinated process. So if you receive an offer from within the RCP process, you can elect to hold that offer while awaiting the outcome of an application made outside of the RCP process (eg a non-RCP hosted medical specialty), or vice versa. This still applies if you have made two applications to different deaneries/UoAs in the same specialty, or if you have applied to two specialties within the same deanery/UoA.

A further point is that only one offer can be held at once. Not only is it against DH rules to continue to hold more than one offer of a post at one time; more importantly, it is depriving someone else - who may already be a colleague of yours - of a timely post offer.

Lastly - please note that all candidates must accept or reject any and all offers they have received by the overall offers holding deadline; if you are still holding an offer at the deadline it may be withdrawn. See the timeline page of our website for details of the holding deadline.

The DH Gold Guide states that:

"...the start of training may only be deferred on statutory grounds (eg maternity leave, ill health)."

Candidates may believe that their particular circumstances will make it necessary for the start date of any post offered to them to be deferred or delayed, but which are not covered by the text above. In this instance, candidates should contact the deanery/UoA managing their application(s), as the final decision over whether a start date can be deferred will be at the UoA's discretion.

The allocation of programmes within each deanery is a matter for the deaneries to decide. Allocations will be made by the training programme director, or appropriate staff within each deanery. Individual deaneries will advise how this is done, and it is important to refer to deanery websites. Many deaneries offer programmes based on overall ranking of the final assessment score.

Most deaneries ask successful applicants to state their preferences for either a particular sub-region within the deanery, or a particular training programme. Unless you are a very strong candidate, it is often not possible to have exactly the specialty you want in the hospital you want.

It is not usually possible to advise trainees of their ranked position before offers have to be accepted – obviously, the ranking cannot be worked out until it is known who has accepted. Most programme directors wait until the majority of accepting candidates are known before allocating posts, but this is not universal.

Therefore, you may find that you have to accept an offer of a specialty training post in a deanery/UoA without knowing exactly to which programme you will be allocated.

It is not usually possible to apply for an inter-deanery transfer (IDT) within a training programme. In exceptional circumstances, after you have been in post for at least twelve months, and if you can show that your personal circumstances have changed since your appointment, you can apply to transfer.

However, inter-deanery transfers are only possible if the proposed destination deanery has a vacant slot that can accommodate your remaining training requirements. Not all approved transfers will actually be able to transfer.

You cannot transfer to another deanery during your training just because you feel like a change. Please bear this in mind when identifying your preferred deanery choices.

Guidelines for IDT requests are available from your current deanery.