Case Study: Medical and Dental Recruitment & Selection (MDRS)

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I am extremely proud of the role we have played in delivering recruitment to support the NHS.  Over the past 10 years we have continued to adapt the way we do things and worked closely with our stakeholders to listen to the needs of applicants to make the system far and accessible for everyone.

I cannot praise enough the fantastic work of both national and regional recruitment teams across 70 specialties in helping to make sure the NHS has the staff it needs to be deliver patient care now and in the future.

Jonathan Howes – Programme Lead

Summary

The Medical and Dental Recruitment and Selection (MDRS) service co-ordinates and delivers the recruitment to over 70 medical specialty training programmes on behalf of the 4 nations across 4 recruitment rounds each year. An estimated 50,000 applications are made for 23,000 posts each year.

Impact

Medical specialty recruitment facts and figures

• The number of doctors entering specialty training in England per year has increased from 8,631 in 2013 to 11,119 in 2022, an increase of 28.8% since the start of HEE.
• The number of applications received to national recruitment vacancies (UK wide, not just England) have increased from 27,801 in 2013 to 45,342 in 2022, an increase of 63.1%.
• Number of special circumstances applications (which is the process that allows applicants with a disability, medical condition, or carer responsibility to be pre-allocated to a specific region) have increased by 74.6% since the national process was introduced in 2018. The number of approvals has increased by 167.8%.

Medical foundation training facts and figures

The UK foundation programme is a two-year generic training programme working across 19 foundation schools in 4 UK nations. It is jointly funded and governed by Health Education England (HEE) and the four UK Health Departments.

Achievements

• Interim FY1 (“FiY1”) allocation process April – July 2020
• Situational Judgement Test (SJT) centralised and digitised December 2020
• Extended induction/shadowing for all July 2021
• New curriculum launched August 2021
• Widening Participation added to pre-allocation criteria for FP2022

It is a very popular programme and regularly receives more applications than there are places available.  For the last few years, the programme has allocated a place to all applicants.

Dental recruitment facts and figures

• The number of dentists entering specialty training in England per year has increased year on year since the start of the pandemic.
• The number of applications received to national recruitment vacancies (UK wide, not just England) have seen a year on year increase since 2020.
• Dental Foundation training places have increased from 978 in 2016 to 1012 in 2022 with fill rates never dropping below 99% in England.

Oriel

In 2014 we launched Oriel, a bespoke UK-wide recruitment system for postgraduate specialty medical, dental, pharmacy, healthcare science and public health training. Oriel allows applicants to register, view vacancies, apply, schedule, and manage interviews within a single online portal. The platform significantly improved efficiency and consistency, introducing a centralised one-stop shop system for applicants. 

The Oriel system has the numbers using the system rise year on year from around 2500 in 2014 to over 30,000 in 2020. Applicants using the system come from all around the world including, Saudi Arabia, Australia, India and Nigeria.  At key points in the annual recruitment cycle, over half a million applicant log ins per month are common.

Flexibility

Our aim to make sure that the medical and dental recruitment that we deliver across 70+ specialties that is fair and equitable.  Work is currently underway to review the processes we introduced in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Examples include a of review of selection methods used across specialties. We are also looking at current and historic methods to explore best practice in recruitment including validity, fairness, efficiency, likelihood of risk, alignment with NHS constitution values. This work will help shape future speciality recruitment rounds. 

We want every doctor to have the best chance of success, so flexibility is key so offering special circumstances to applicants who might be a primary carer for someone who is disabled and want to train close to where they live.  Less than full time training is also helping doctors in training undertake their training when they are unable to work and train full time for “well-founded” reasons or to increase flexibility within Postgraduate Medical Education by allowing LTFT training for personal choice.  We are currently exploring widening it out to more specialties.

Enabling Staff Movement

The ‘Enabling Staff Movement’ programme involves three workstreams that aim to improve the experiences of all NHS staff when moving between NHS organisations.  The programme is a partnership between HEE and NHS England and includes digital staff passports which will allow employment and training records to be transported by staff when they change organisations, removing unnecessary bureaucracy and repetition.

Future direction

The important work will continue as we move into the new organisation.  Training more doctors is a key Government priority. One of the key things we need to do is to continue to reform our recruitment processes to remove any unnecessary complexities in order to make sure that opportunities are fair and open to all.