Accepting job offers under Modernising Medical Caeers: advice for junior doctors


May 2007

When accepting any offer of a post or training programme, we advise that you respond asking for confirmation of the following:
  • Your expected start date
  • Your annual pay and the incremental point you will start post on
  • Your incremental date
  • When you will be issued with a contract of employment*
  • The pay-banding of your first post
  • The job description for the first post
  • That completion of the programme will lead to CCT (rather than CESR/CEGPR)
  • How any application for flexible training will now progress, if this is applicable to you**
  • In some specialties it may be relevant to ask whether the programme is:
    Themed; or
    Intended to lead directly into a particular specialty later; or
    Will require further competition at a later stage with respect to which specialty you will enter after core training (e.g. with medical specialties);
    And if further competition is required to reach the higher levels of specialty training, how likely are you to be displaced by any new applicants (e.g. SAS grades) coming in at ST3
  • The future posts in the rotation – those that are confirmed and those that are likely or possible – including the name of the employer, the locations of each hospital site and whether there is any likelihood of you having to work at peripheral units
  • The pay-banding of those future posts
  • The removals and associated expenses policy that operates within the deanery or at your employer and confirmation it complies with national guidance. Also ask for confirmation that you are eligible for such expenses
  • The accommodation available at each employer on the rotations
  • Information about each employer’s doctors’ mess
  • Information about the teaching and training opportunities provided in each post
  • Details of the rota you will work, including the number of doctors on the rota and the out of hours commitment
  • The rota template and details of the first six months of shifts
  • The employer’s policy on the booking of annual leave
  • Your intention to take annual or study leave on planned dates
  • Details of ancillary backup – for example phlebotomy services
  • Out of hours catering facilities available
  • Standard of on call accommodation
  • Whether 24 hours locum cover is provided for annual leave or study leave
It is important that you ask for this information as early as possible in the process so that you can rely on it at a later stage. If it is the deanery that is offering you a place on a programme, they may not be able to provide you with all this information e.g. rota details or annual leave policies, so you should write to at least your first employer on the rotation requesting the missing information.

The MMC team and the DH have made it clear that the offer of a training programme by a deanery or Unit of Application is not the same as being offered a contract of employment. If this is the case, there must be an element of flexibility in the organisation of an individual’s training placements to allow there to be true offer and acceptance of each period of employment on the training programme. Therefore, if your offer is made by a deanery, we would advise that you ask how much choice you will receive in determining the future posts on the rotation. If the deanery responds that you will be ‘placed’ and therefore will have little or no choice, we advise you clarify with the deanery what arrangements will be made if you decline to rotate into a future placement, for example if it is too far away from your home.

* Before signing, BMA members should forward their contract to askBMA to check that it complies with the national model
**NB you may not wish to reveal at this point your desire to train flexibly

© British Medical Association 2008

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