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London Salaried Portfolio Innovation (SPIN) and Fellowships Scheme

Fellowship opportunities for GPs, General Practice Nurses, and healthcare professional groups across all career stages

To support the retention of our Primary Care workforce across London, NHS England works in partnership with our regional Training Hubs and London Integrated Care Systems (ICS’/ ICBs) to enable Fellowship opportunities across all career stages  for GPs, General Practice Nurses (GPNs) and other primary care healthcare professional groups with the aim of creating positive and enhanced career pathways.

What is London SPIN and Fellowships and who is it for?

The premise of our London SPIN and Fellowships Scheme is to enable 1 or 2 sessional portfolio  fellowship opportunities, with a host employer, for the primary care workforce, at any career stage,   and who are in permanent employment for between 4 – 7 sessions within General practice, to enable the development of  generalist and specialist skills

How do I connect into the London SPIN and Fellowships

Recruitment timescales for the scheme will vary depending on what offers have been created with system host employers within each London ICS area.

Please contact your local SPIN & Fellowships Programme Team for further information (See contact details below).

Who is eligible to apply for a SPIN Fellowship?

Applicants need to be:

  • Employed within a General Practice setting with a permanent salaried or permanent contract for between 4 – 7 sessions. (Your local SPIN and Fellowships Team or local Training Hub leads can also provide information on local GP practice vacancies).
  • Early to mid-career salaried GPs, GPNs and healthcare professionals

What you should know

  • You will remain employed with your substantive employer but have an honorary contract with your host employer, detailing the expectations for your portfolio session/s.
  • Ideally you should be seeking a SPIN Fellowship within the ICS area footprint in which you are employed. Currently ICS area footprints are as follows. *Noting these may be subject change for future:
  • North Central London
  • North East London
  • North West London
  • South East London
  • South West London

How to apply

All London ICS areas have their own initiation processes, which often encompass completing an Expression of Interest form. If you are interested in a fellowship, you can email your regional key contacts to find out more:

London regional contacts

North Central London (NCL)

North East London (NEL)

North West London (NWL)

South East London (SEL)

  • Recruitment dates: Rolling recruitment. Email your regional key contact(s) for more information about what is available or to express your interest
  • Regional contacts:

South West London (SWL)

  • Recruitment dates: Rolling recruitment. Email your regional key contact(s) for more information about what is available or to express your interest
  • Regional contacts:
    • Mohan Sekeram GP Programme Manager: msekeram@nhs.net
    • Dawn Hunt GPN Programme Manager – Contact Mohan above (As Dawn is on leave)
  • Links to more information: SWL Fellowships

Next steps

Applying for a SPIN Fellowship is a fluid process, and the London Primary Care Team is there to support all potential Fellows in accessing opportunities, whether you have fully developed ideas and have already spoken to a host employer or whether you are seeking a readymade fellowship portfolio offer that you can step into. (This will depend on portfolio opportunities on offer in your area).

The London Primary Care Team can also help answer your questions and signpost you to your ICS area SPIN Programme Team who will provide you with more detailed information about the scheme, what’s available and if you meet the required eligibility criteria (please check above).

How the scheme benefits fellows, employers, and patients

The scheme helps to create and support the development of attractive portfolio opportunities for GPs, GPNs and other healthcare professionals (who may already be in a permanent, salaried role in general practice) and ensures they feel fully supported in the varied stages of their career.

Other benefits:

  • Fellows can be matched to vacancies / alerted to vacancies (each of the ICS regional SPIN & Fellowship Programme Teams can link potential Fellows with local Training Hub leads)
  • portfolio opportunities can be available and developed in a variety of settings where specialist skills can be grown.
  • solid career progression, ensuring portfolio careers meet the expectations for those applying
  • educational peer support sessions run once a month by an experienced clinical educator.

Benefits to employers and patients

SPIN and Fellowships:

  • supports practices and host portfolio employer organisations through increased capacity and supply of a skilled workforce with specialist knowledge
  • encourages increased cross sector working, as fellows are potentially able to pursue special interests and educational roles in acute, mental health and community trust settings
  • increases recruitment and retention of newly qualified GPs, GPNs and healthcare professional groups in the primary care workforce across London
  • offers a sustainable cross-sector model, encouraging integrated system working and collaboration between partners and innovation across the sector
  • ensures primary care patients benefit from the specialist knowledge gained from a fellowship and excellent working relationships with healthcare partners, resulting in a higher standard of service delivery.

To apply, Fellows must be working substantively between 4-7 sessions within a general practice setting.  Each session equivalent to half a day. The 1 or 2 fellow portfolio sessions (dependent on host funding) are in addition to any substantive sessions. Fellows are recruited to the scheme by their local SPIN Programme team or via local Training Hub networks.

The fellowship means engaging in 1 or 2 sessions per week (dependent on host funding) in an alternative setting – for example, ICS/ ICB based leadership opportunities, system-wide development activities, acute /mental health /community trust specialisms or educational fellowships (with scope to develop an innovative fellowship experience).

A self-sustaining model, this is dependent on host employer or partner organisation funding. Fellows are also encouraged to work on innovations across system and PCNs, which is contingent on employer service need and where opportunities arise or are created. 

Please email your local ICS/ ICB area SPIN Programme Team (contacts above) who will be able to advise how they can support you.

The SPIN Model was first introduced in 2017-18 in response to the workforce needs of the system, population health need and to sustain a permanent general practice workforce in the London region, particularly GPs and GPNs. With the aim to tailor roles to benefit both ‘the individual and the needs of the local primary care system,’ as stated in the prior NHS long term workforce plan and has hosted over circa 500 fellows,

Hear from fellows and host employers who have taken part in the scheme

You can watch a series of short films where some of our former SPIN Fellows talk about how SPIN Fellowships have supported and developed their careers:

Related blogs:

Rachel Roberts, former Primary Care Dean for London, tells us how she set up the scheme while Munir Ali-Zubair looks at things from the perspective of a SPIN GP Programme Director. Ferduche Miah and Fatima Sharifee share what they have gained from becoming a SPIN early career GP Fellow / GPN Fellow respectively. Finally, Duncan Brooke, Former PG Certificate (Cert) Academic Tutor, talks about the legacy PG Cert in Healthcare Practice course, one of the former portfolio options which was available to fellows on the London SPIN – New to Practice (NTP) Fellowship Scheme.

Narrative case stories

Read more about the opportunities fellowships open up and how fellowships support host organisations in our series of narrative case stories

Hear from a host employer

“UCL Medical School’s Department of Primary Care and Population Health hosts newly qualified GPs as Teaching Fellows in Medical Education. The new GPs teach small groups of undergraduate medical students for 1-2 sessions per week at the practice where Fellows work clinically.

We strongly recommend Medical Education Fellowships to all medical schools. They increase the quality and quantity of undergraduate education in primary care and are a win-win for all concerned.

New GPs build their skills and benefit from the variety of a portfolio career. They get access to teaching courses and a community of peer educators.

Medical students tell us they like being taught by someone near their stage in life and often feel more comfortable asking questions.

General practices benefit from the kudos of being a teaching practice. The new GPs embed everything they’re learning into their work at the practice.

Patients get more time in consultations with medical students and value the opportunity to contribute to training future doctors.”

Rasheeda’s experience as a Teaching Fellow

“The Fellowship gave me extra support. You are around people going through the same things and you’re able to share your experience. Everyone doing a Fellowship gets together once a month to provide a support network. I qualified in the middle of a pandemic with all sorts of challenges. It is reassuring to speak with others regularly, and with our dedicated Programme Director and my mentor. I can always call on their knowledge and experience.

The Fellowship encouraged me to stay working in my local general practice and is helping me build up my skills. I am tutoring and supporting medical students for 2 sessions a week. I have inspired some of my students to think about becoming a GP when they weren’t considering this as a career option before. I feel like I’m making a difference. My portfolio sessions are the highlight of my week.”

Contact the team

Please email the London Primary Care Team who will direct your enquiry to your local Programme Director / Training Hub. 

Associated links:

Related Documents

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