ARCP PREPARATION FOR STAGE 1 ANAESTHESIA
The Annual Review of Competence Progression (ARCP) is the way that your training progress is assessed and recorded.
As a resident doctor it is also your appraisal, which counts towards revalidation. Your responsible officer is Dr Roisin Haslett, Postgraduate Dean. You must complete a Form R declaration – link will be sent to you.
ARCP is done annually in most cases regardless of LTFT status, time out of programme or statutory leave – the only exception being if you are on statutory leave at the time of the ARCP, in which case you will be offered the next available date.
We will invite you to an educational review via Teams on the same day as your ARCP, but to be clear your attendance is not mandatory and we will still issue an ARCP outcome whether you attend or not, you will receive this via email and as a notification on LLp. That said, we value the opportunity to meet with you and discuss your progress and any needs or concerns you may have.
ARCP outcome decision is based on the evidence presented in your portfolio (Lifelong Learning Platform or LLp)
ARCP Outcomes explained briefly (see the Gold Guide for more detail if required):
Outcome 1 - satisfactory progress, can progress to next part of training
Outcome 6 – all evidence present to support completion of stage of training (end of CT3)
Outcome 5 – some documentary evidence is not presented, trainee has 10 days to correct this to get decision changed to outcome 1
Outcome 2 – progress and documentation not satisfactory, but trainee may proceed as planned into next year of training, this is usually followed up with an early repeat ARCP and educational review.
Outcome 3 – unsatisfactory progress or evidence, extension to training recommended.
Outcome 4 – unsatisfactory progress, released from training programme.
You should start your ARCP preparation early and engage with your educational supervisor for any questions. Your ESSR forms are one of the most important documents and need to be completed and sent to both your ES and College Tutor for comments, so make sure you factor enough time in for this.
ARCP CHECKLIST
Starting in the summer 2025 round we will require all resident doctors to complete and submit a checklist of evidence prior to the ARCP panel date. This will be emailed out with your notice of ARCP, but a copy is also available below:
Failure to complete the checklist and submit the required evidence will be considered non-compliance with the process and result in an outcome other than Outcome 1 or Outcome 6 (see above). The checklist needs to be emailed to your TPD and uploaded onto the document store of LLp one week before your panel date.
NOTES FOR COMPLETION OF THE FORM
Resident Doctor Details
Self-explanatory hopefully. If your end of stage date is unknown, eg parental leave or pending LTFT, put an estimated date.
Placement Paperwork Required
You must have an ESSR for each placement within the ARCP period being assessed.
You will require a separate ESSR for your 6 month ICM block.
If you move to Liverpool Women’s for your obstetric block, you will need an ESSR for this period.
Before generating an ESSR form, check your LLp setting and make sure that your Trust, Educational Supervisor and College Tutor are present and correct.
You need an MTR for each placement, (and also for the IAC and IACOA periods, in the milestone section of the form). Your ES will initiate this, choose respondents and moderate the feedback.
Some FAQs re ESSR – read this before emailing your ES/CT/TPD
If you are in 1 trust all year doing anaesthesia placements you only need 1 ESSR.
6 month ICM block requires separate ESSR even if you stay in the same trust for a whole year.
Initial obstetric block in the DGHs (Whiston, Warrington, Chester or Arrowe Park) does not require separate ESSR, but initial block at Liverpool Women’s does as this is a separate trust.
If you are in one trust eg Aintree for 9 months, but the year is ‘split’ by a Liverpool Women’s block in the middle, we require 2 separate ESSRs, one for LWH and one for both parts of the Aintree blocks. This must detail the dates for both parts of the block and provide a summary and commentary on both parts of the attachment. This is a departure from how this was previously arranged for this circumstance. If you have questions please speak to your ES and College Tutor as the understand the process for this.
Specialty Specific Paperwork
- Logbook summary - for the year being assessed. Please generate the summary and upload to LLp document store, label clearly eg ‘logbook summary CT2 Whiston’
- Multisource feedback (MSF) – you require one per training year, and there must be a minimum of 12 respondents. You can arrange this to include responses from more than 1 trust if you have moved within the training year – however the final review can only be approved by one trainer. You need a completely separate (additional) MSF for your ICM block. You need to initiate this yourself via the LLp.
- Educational Activity - CPD summary. A summary of teaching attended, external CPD, (ie outside of the organised teaching programme) teaching delivered, and evidence of how you have utilised EDT if not used only for LLp work.
- Clinical Governance Summary - a list of Clinical Governance activity, including attendance at audit meetings, mortality reviews etc. Also include here a summary of any QUIP/Audit projects from this ARCP period which are evidenced in the relevant section of the LLp, as well as management activities (also to be in the relevant section of LLp)
- Evidence of reflective practice – to include personal reflections as entries in the LLp, on both challenging situations as well as celebrating success or achievement.
- LTFT calculator if applicable. This will have been sent as a document from the deanery and LTFT teams.
- Placement feedback – a note to confirm that feedback has been completed for each separate placement.
- Research summary – if applicable.
MILESTONES
Please fill in every year, not just the year they are achieved, so we can see a complete picture at every ARCP
DOMAIN PROGRESS
It is expected that you will continue to contribute to all domains throughout the 3 year training programme. Most domains will not be complete until the end of CT3 and so we do not expect to see them signed off until this point (the exception is ICM which can be signed once the block is complete in CT2 or CT3).
We do ask that you complete the boxes in this section to show progress. This serves as a reminder to you to target areas where you are lacking experience and evidence in your next PDP.
CCC obstetrics/CCC paediatrics. These are not mandatory in stage 1. They are useful tools in certain training paths for example if you do a lot of obstetric training in CT2 but know you will have no further opportunity in CT3 (placed at Royal Liverpool or Aintree) and your general HALO will be completed there. If you think this will apply to you, discuss early with your ES or College Tutor.
Please ask if you have any questions.
Janet Slee
Stage 1 Anaesthetics TPD and Associated Head of School
janet.slee@merseywestlancs.nhs.uk
Last updated 02/04/25