The General Medical Council has mandated that trainees who are working towards a Certificate of Completion of Training (CCT) must be trained and assessed against the most recent standards for the specialty. Current arrangements have resulted in multiple curricula in some specialties. Training using older versions of a curriculum could be a risk to patient safety and frequent changes to curricula are unsettling for trainees and difficult for trainers to manage.

Transferring to the latest curriculum will ensure that trainees are fully up to date with current requirements to safeguard patient safety and educational quality.

All trainees who will complete their training after the 31 December 2015 should be using the most up to date General Medical Council (GMC) approved curriculum. Trainees will be required to transfer to the 2010 version of the specialty curriculum and the 2009 versions of the General Internal Medicine or Acute Internal Medicine curriculum. Please note, trainees in AIM and GIM specialty programmes were requested to move to the new curriculum in 2009 so most trainees will have already completed the transfer process in these specialties. No trainee (including less than full time or those out of programme) may remain in an “old” curriculum from 1 January 2016. 

The GMC requires trainees to move to the current curriculum between 1 January 2014 and 31 December 2015. The deadline of 31 December 2015 is the latest point at which all trainees will be required to have moved.

The GMC encourages trainees to transfer earlier in the interests of patient safety and educational quality. The JRCPTB has begun the process of transferring trainees to the current curriculum as best practice.

You should have received notification that you will be transferred to the latest curriculum if your CCT date is after December 2015. You do not need to take any action, the JRCPTB is contacting each Training Programme Director (TPD) and asking them to confirm which trainees should be transferred and this will include anyone whose CCT date has recently been changed. Once the TPD has confirmed that you should transfer, the JRCPTB will add the current curriculum to your eportfolio account.

Trainees should talk to their TPD and Educational Supervisor (ES) promptly after the transfer date to discuss any training needs to meet additional/changed competencies in the current curriculum. Trainees will need to comply with the assessment criteria of the latest curriculum which may include an examination. If an examination is introduced in a trainee’s final year it would not be reasonable to expect them to take it, although trainees may still wish to take the examination for future employment opportunities.

JRCPTB does not mandate that competencies already achieved are marked off on the new curriculum, but you and your ES might find it helpful to add ratings for competencies already achieved and in the comments insert “see evidence on {name of previous curriculum}”.

Any links to competencies within older versions of the curriculum will not be transferred to the new curriculum but they will remain accessible on your eportfolio. All future evidence of competence progression should be linked to the most recent curriculum once you have transferred.

The 2010 curriculum requires all trainees to use the eportfolio; for those trainees who have previously been working on a 2003 curricula an eportfolio account will be set up for you by the JRCPTB.

JRCPTB has provided mapping guidance to TPDs to identify differences between older versions and the most up to date curriculum. It is recommended that you familiarise yourself with the relevant curriculum – all specialty curricula are available on the JRCPTB website. The Specialty Advisory Committees (SACs) will continue to review the curricula to ensure they are up to date and any amendments will be added to the current version and trainees notified.

The JRCPTB is introducing a new process to ensure that trainees are recommended to the GMC for specialist registration in a more efficient manner. The current process requires trainees to complete a notification form that also needs to be signed by their TPDs to confirm successful completion of any PYA targets set. It has been decided that this form will no longer be used and instead the JRCPTB will use the final ARCP to determine whether a trainee has achieved all curriculum competencies. We believe that the elimination of this form will make the completion process easier for all involved and will eliminate delays that often occur with the current form.

Further information about this process can be found here

Your training programme director will be able to provide specialty specific guidance, and along with your educational supervisor, can help you to identify any training and assessment needs.

Please also see the GMC’s position statement on moving to the current curriculum for further general information and guidance.

For queries regarding the transfer process managed by the JRCPTB please email: curriculum@jrcptb.org.uk