GP School Structure
Dr Liz Norris is Head of the School of General Practice across KSS and Deputy Primary Care Dean. She is supported in this role by Professor Warwick, Primary Care Dean, and overall responsibility for the quality of education and training rests with the Regional Postgraduate Dean, Professor Jo Szram. Working with them is a large team of educators and administrators who deliver excellent training to our GP trainees.
There are 12 GP Specialty Training Programmes (formerly Vocational Training Schemes) in the GP School supported by over 50 GP Training Programme Directors. There are nearly 500 GP trainers within the GP School, who at any one time are supporting about 920 GP specialty trainees in both their hospital and GP placements. Each county is supported by two Patch Associate GP Deans.
The GP Specialty Training Programmes are individual geographically based subsets of the GP School. In their configuration, some of these reflect the change in organisation of the local Acute Hospital Trusts and are thus larger than others, but many programmes have increasingly close working relationships with their neighbours.
GP Specialty Trainee Support
GP Specialty trainees have the support of a Clinical Supervisor (CS) during their hospital attachments and also have an Educational Supervisor (ES) – also known as a GP Trainer. The Clinical Supervisor will ensure that appropriate clinical experience is available for trainees, congruent with the developmental needs of the trainee with reference to the GP curriculum and patient safety. They will also be responsible for supervising workplace-based assessments. The Educational Supervisor will facilitate meetings with trainees for whom they are responsible and support their learning and development and assessments in line with the GP curriculum.
GP placements are undertaken in practices approved for GP training purposes. In a similar way to hospital placements, trainees will be supported by both a CS and an ES. However, if they are attached to a practice that has one or more GP trainers, the Trainer will undertake both roles. If the attachment is in a practice that has GPs trained for the role of CS, the ES can be a GP Trainer in a nearby practice.
Each GP Specialty Training Programme will be supported by a Local Faculty Group (LFG). LFGs are chaired by the Patch Associate GP Dean and has membership drawn from local GP trainers, GP training programme directors and trainee representatives.
In line with national policy, KSS GP trainees are spending increasing proportions of their 36-month training programmes in GP placements. From August 2022, all new recruits to KSS GP training programmes will spend 24 months in GP placements. Programmes are currently in a transition process towards this aim.