Tell Me About the ARCP Panel

 

* There is a panel called the ARCP (Annual Review of Competency Progression) that meets every December and June to review your training progression and hopefully sign you off so you can go on to the next ST stage or, if you're in your final year, get your certificate of completed training (CCT).

 

* The ARCP panel is a formal deanery sub-school of General Practice.

 

* For the ARCP panel to be able to sign you off, they have to have your educational and clinical supervisor's reports uploaded.

 

* Because the ARCP panel meet every June and December of each year, this means that you must get the last supervision meeting of each post done before the end of May and November respectively.

 

* We recommend:

Feb - Aug period: 1st ES meeting March-April crossover period, 2nd ES meeting end May

Aug - Feb period: 1st ES meeting: Sept-Oct crossover period, 2nd ES meeting end Nov.

Remind Me Again , When Should the Meetings Happen?

 

for the first 6 months of the ST year (Feb - Aug)

 

 

for the last 6 months of the ST year (Aug - Feb)

What the panel will be looking for?
The only information available to the panel is what is on your portfolio and visible using the administrator log in. This means that items in the learning log that are not marked as ‘shared’ will not be seen, nor will items saved in the ‘personal library’ section. You need to make sure that all your work is uploaded appropriately.

 

 

For full guidance on how to make sure your eportfolio is impressive, please read this document:

 

E-portfolio Pearls - making it work for you

 

 

Okay, So Have You Any Advice For Me?

 

Yes, it's quite simple really!

1. Make sure all your educational supervisor's reports are upload

2. Make sure all your clinical supervisor's reports are uploaded. Although this is not a national requirement we have taken the decision to make this mandatory in Yorkshire. Again it is important that these are uploaded to the portfolio in a way that makes them visible to an administrator log in. You will be given more information about this nearer the time.

3. Make sure you have MORE than the minimum number of CBDs, COTs/Mini-CEXs. The assessments should also show competence levels appropriate to your stage of training and demonstrate progression and improvement over time.

4. Make sure you are making good progress with your DOPS

5. Make sure you have a good number of log entries for them to look at and especially make sure that there is a variety of entries (like clinical encounters, professional conversations, audit/projects, significant events etc). And especially make sure that your entries show a good depth of reflection - in other words focusing on your own attitudes, ethics and core values as well as the knowledge and skills domains. Also make sure that your trainer/supervisor is reading them AND that you're mapping them to the curriculum statement headings and that they're mapping them to the competency domains.

6. Make sure you are using your PDP - and making the most of it. This should list identified learning needs, realistic ways to meet them, and show that some of them have been met.

7. Just email your educational supervisor and ask them if they have 'completed and submitted' their report (they'll know what that means).

8. make sure you've done an MSF and PSQ if you need to.

9. If you want to be confident of a smooth progression through the panel process you should aim to have more than the bare minimum of entries in your portfolio. This additional material may be from additional assessments if they are appropriate, or it may be things that demonstrate thoughtful consideration of your learning needs and appropriate measures to meet them.

 

Remember, a lack of evidence means ONLY YOU MISS OUT and the panel may ask you to repeat your last 6 months!

 

 

 

 

Some Notes From a Recent ARCP panel:

 

Here are some important points we felt it might be worth passing on after having been to a recent ARCP panel meeting:

 

What the curriculum headings mean:
Teaching, mentoring and clinical supervision means the teaching etc which the trainee has done, NOT the educational etc experiences which they have received
Management in General Practice means organisational management, NOT clinical management of patients
 
DOPS
There’s no point recording previous experience which hasn’t been directly observed. It’s essential to get the e portfolio entries for the compulsory DOPS put in by whoever observed the procedure.  If this isn’t done, PMETB will bounce your e portfolio when it’s submitted for CCT at the end of ST3.  Also, the procedure has to be on a patient and not, for example, in a skills lab.
 
CSA preparation
The RCGP representative who was at the panel strongly recommended that some COTs are done not on video but with directly observed consultations, i e the trainer sits in with the trainee.  This will help trainees get used to consulting with someone watching.  Also, it means that a range of normal consultations are observed by the trainer, not just the good ones which trainees tend to select for COTs
 
OOH
The educational reason for OOH is for trainees to acquire the relevant competencies.  Simply recording the number of sessions worked doesn’t provide evidence of this.   Trainees should make sure that the paper OOH workbook sheets are completed by their supervisor, scanned and uploaded to the e portfolio as evidence of the educational outcomes of the session, as well as making sure that they’ve done the required number of sessions

Signature on educational contract
Apparently this keeps disappearing so the Educational Supervisor may need to renew it every time the trainee changes post

 

 

 

What's the Timetable for the Panels?

 

PMETB requires the deaneries to complete their panel processes for their trainees 6 weeks before the end of the training programme so that CCTs can be issued at the completion date. 

 

The deanery will start to examine portfolios in the first week of June and invite any trainees whose portfolios indicate any concerns to a face to face review in the second week of June. 

 

If you are completing your training programme at this time it is essential that you protect these dates in your diaries in the event of an invitation to a panel review. Failure to do this may lead to a delay in your application for a CCT and compromise future employment.

 

 

Quality Assurance
A small percentage of trainees will be invited to a panel for quality assurance purposes. This is a RCGP requirement. These trainees will be informed that this is the case and not that their portfolio gives cause for concern.