Specialised Foundation Programme

Specialised Foundation Programme 2025

The Specialised Foundation Programme (SFP) is run jointly by the Northern Foundation School (NFS) and Newcastle Health Innovation Partners (NHIP Academy).

The SFP is a fully integrated two-year research-focused training programme which will provide you with unique experience with a protected 4-month placement tailored to your specific areas of academic interest in both F1 and F2.

Please note that medical education research is an option within our programmes. We anticipate education and teaching delivery, as well as leadership and management will be important aspects of your placement, but we do not offer dedicated programmes in these areas.

Our academic placements are trainee-centred, and we encourage you to seek out an academic unit that is conducting research in the area that you are interested in. Please make contact with the clinical academic researcher working in the unit and explore what opportunities might be available. The named Clinical Academic will act as your SFP Supervisor throughout your Specialised Foundation Programme.

If you would like help to identify a potential SFP supervisor, please contact NHIP.Academy@newcastle.ac.uk OR Professor Gillian Vance, the NFS Director responsible for our Specialised Foundation Programme, on gillian.vance@newcastle.ac.uk.

Professor Vance is also Professor of Medical Education at the School of Medical Education, Newcastle University and Co-lead of the NIHR Incubator for Clinical Education (@ClinEdResearch).

Please do contact her if you would welcome an informal discussion or further information.   

For any other queries then please contact us via email on england.foundationrecruitmentnfs.ne@nhs.net 

SFP trainees will join the academic community of the NHIP Academy, and as an honorary member of Newcastle University staff will be able to access other Faculty based training events and research support.

Most trainees are able to produce at least one abstract from their academic period to present at a national or international meeting. Many have co-authored manuscripts which have been published, and many are successful in obtaining an Academic Clinical Fellow post, within the region or nationally, on completion of Specialised Foundation training.

 

 

 HOW MANY PROGRAMMES ARE AVAILABLE?

 

NFS currently offers 21 x 2-year Specialised Foundation Programmes with the following Local Education Providers (Acute NHS Trusts which host foundation training in our region).  For August 2025, these will be as follows:

 

12 programmes with The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and further information on this LEP is available here:  www.newcastle-hospitals.nhs.uk

 

3 programmes with Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust and further information on this LEP is available here: www.northumbria.nhs.uk

 

3 programmes with South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and further information on this LEP is available here: www.southtees.nhs.uk

 

2 programmes with North Tees & Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust and further information on this LEP is available here:  https://www.nth.nhs.uk/www.nth.nhs.uk

 

1 programme with North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust and further information on this LEP is available here: www.ncic.nhs.uk

 

The information on this page will be updated as soon as possible

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Useful links

Better Doctors Better Patients (BDBP) is the regional professionalism course that is available to all of our Foundation year 1 doctors.

It is a fun and interactive course that is delivered across 3 days encompassing many aspects of professionalism with the aim of making Foundation doctors safer, happier, more effective and efficient and therefore more able to deliver excellent quality care to our patients.

The face to face course training is supported by a manual and webinars.

It covers key themes such as well being, self-development, communication and teamworking skills, patient safety, quality improvement, non-technical skills and leadership.

These themes overlap extensively with the Enhance programme which is also available to Foundation doctors.

 

Many LEP’s have taken the principles and concepts of the better doctors better patients course to provide further training into Foundation year 2.

 

The programme is led jointly by Dr Rhian Jones and Dr Charlotte Bates who both work at the Northumbria Specialist Emergency Care Hospital

They are supported by ‘core trainers’ Dr Nigel Stout, Dr Shrikanth Mada and Mrs Liz Klein

 

The BDBP team are keen to expand their faculty, and anyone wishing to know more or become involved would be welcome to contact the programme leads.

Rhian.jones@nhct.nhs.uk

Charlotte.bates@nhct.nhs.uk

 

Additional resources for LEP trainers can be found here.