UKRDC represents the views of resident doctors across the UK to the Government, royal colleges and educational bodies.
Our priorities
UKRDC is changing for 2025-26. We will be focussing on addressing the two biggest issues of the day – the specialty training crisis and full pay restoration for doctors in England.
In addition to that, our officers and executive will set other key priorities for the year ahead – leading in several agreed areas with reps of the UKRDC forming working groups.
These priorities will be updated below in December 2025.
Our current priorities are:
Pay restoration for resident doctors in England
After 11 rounds of historic strike action, UKRDC reached a deal with Government in September 2024 that started a journey towards pay restoration.
Read the latest on our campaign for pay restoration.
Specialty training places
A crisis point has been reached in competition ratios for specialty training places: in 2025 there were 33,108 doctors applying for fewer than 10,000 CT1/ ST1 specialty training places. In a BMA survey, 1,062 FY2 doctors (52%) who responded said they did not have substantive employment or regular locum work from August 2025. Overall, a third (34%) of the doctors who responded did not.
UKRDC and the BMA’s Representative Body passed motions in 2025 committing the BMA to lobby for prioritisation of UK graduates and international medical graduates working in the UK on or before 5th March 2025 for specialty training places. UKRDC continues to push for significant expansions to specialty training places and to hold the Government to account for successive failures in workforce planning. Read more about the BMA’s specialty training policy.
Commitments from Government to address this crisis haven’t gone far enough, so, alongside fighting to restore resident doctor pay, UKRDC has entered into an additional, linked dispute to demand a rapid expansion of specialty training places in England. Read more about the dispute.
Exception reporting reform
After months of negotiations and a formal trade dispute, UKRDC announced in April 2025 that it had secured an agreement on exception reporting reform.
The new system will remove clinical supervisors from the process of reviewing work hours exceptions. Reports will go directly to HR and the Guardian of Safe Working Hours (GOSWH), providing greater confidentiality and reducing potential conflicts of interest or detriment. The new system is designed to empower doctors and trust their professional judgement.
Rotational training
As part of the 2024 pay deal, UKRDC obtained commitments from DHSC to work in partnership to reform the current system of training and rotational placements.
A review of rotational training is underway, and UKRDC heard from more than 5,000 members about your experience of rotational training and what reform you’d like to see. The committee is working with the review steering group to identify solutions that address the disruptions and limitations to doctors' lives caused by the current rotational training system.
Addressing system errors
The recent MRCP exam errors, radiology offer retractions, and rheumatology exam errors have been catastrophic for the doctors affected. UKRDC has pushed for protections for the affected doctors, including via legal action where appropriate.
Study leave in England
UKRDC is inputting into ongoing updates to NHSE’s national overarching study leave guidance and aiming to specifically address issues in GP and foundation training. We’re consistent in our demands that the study budget needs significant further investment to ensure it meets the needs of resident doctors, including expanding funding to locally employed doctors.
Focus on flexibility
A key demand for resident doctors is greater flexibility in their working lives. The UKRDC has been working with the GMC, national education bodies and other stakeholders to improve flexibility for all trainees, both those training less than full time (LTFT) and full time.
Our LTFT training forum focuses on the issues relating to less than full time training and contractual implications for LTFT trainees.
Regional rep training
Voting members of UKRDC are given the opportunity to become accredited LNC representatives, and all accredited LNC reps are now offered up to six days of BMA training. The training takes place regionally in two-day blocks (Reps 1, Reps 2 and workplace leaders training) and accredited reps will be invited to apply for a training place in their region. Paid time off is available for the training and expenses are covered by the BMA.
The training applies a trade union organising approach to winning in the workplace. It helps to ensure that reps know how to tackle issues in the workplace and benefit from the legal protection of trade union accreditation.
The future workforce
The makeup of the NHS workforce is changing. UKRDC will continue to advocate for appropriate regulation of the Medical Associate Professions and Advanced Clinical Practitioners and seek to ensure the protection of our training time and standards.
The Leng review has been published, and its recommendations are clear: reform is essential. The guidance is clear, and it is now up to trusts to deliver. The BMA will be doing all it can to hold trusts accountable at a local, regional and national level.
Resident doctors contracts
Resident doctors in England voted in favour of accepting negotiated contract improvements to the 2016 terms and conditions of service (TCS) for doctors and dentists in training. These improvements were negotiated as part of the 2018 review of the 2016 TCS, undertaken between the BMA, NHS Employers, and the Department of Health and Social Care.
UKRDC also continues to ensure that the 2002 terms and conditions of service work for the trainees who remain on this contract.
Protecting resident doctors from contract breaches
In 2019 a legal test case on behalf of RDC secured a binding precedent in England and Wales regarding how monitoring of rotas for those resident doctors on the 2002 contract should be done. You can find out more about this case and what support the BMA can offer you if you have been affected.
Covid-19
We continue to focus efforts on ensuring the rights, training and wellbeing of resident doctors are protected throughout the response to the pandemic. We are also working with the wider association on working conditions, safety at work and other key issues facing our profession.
Our people
Chair: Jack Fletcher
Deputy chairs
- Arjan Singh and Shivam Sharma - deputy co-chairs of the UKRDC with the education and training portfolio.
- Thomas Cheliotis-James - deputy chair of the UKRDC with the professional issues portfolio.
- Callum Parr - deputy chair of the UKRDC with the terms and conditions of service and negotiating portfolio.
The RDC executive subcommittee is made up of:
- the chair of the UKRDC
- the three deputy chairs of the UKRDC
- four UKRDC members elected to the education and training subcommittee
- four UKRDC members elected to the terms and conditions of service and negotiating subcommittee.
With the addition of the following non-voting seats:
- the chairs of the Scottish RDC, Welsh RDC, Northern Ireland RDC and the chair of one of the English regional RDCs
- the chair(s) of the resident doctors' conference
- the chair(s) of the medical students committee
- the chair(s) of the general practitioners registrars committee
- the chair(s) of the public health medicine registrars subcommittee
- one representative of the consultants committee
- one representative of the staff and associate specialists committee
- one doctor in flexible training elected by the less than full time training forum
Take part in one of our free courses designed to give you the right skills to:
- break down equality and inclusion bias (CPD-accredited)
- value difference and inclusivity
- live our BMA behaviour principles.
Associated committees
Our meetings
UKRDC meets at least four times a year to discuss the issues that are most important to resident doctors. These meetings are open to UKRDC members only, but you can attend as a visitor as part of the committee visitors scheme.
Meeting dates:
-
Saturday 27 September 2025
-
Friday 7 November 2025
-
Thursday 11 December 2025
-
Friday 6 March 2026
-
Friday 8 May 2026
-
Wednesday 8 July 2026
UKRDC executive meetings
Meeting dates:
-
Wednesday 5 and Thursday 6 November 2025
-
Wednesday 28 January 2026
-
Friday 10 April 2026
-
Thursday 13 August 2026
For more information, email [email protected]
How to join
There are many advantages to becoming involved in our committees. You can actively influence BMA policy-making and negotiations, represent your colleagues' voices and develop your leadership skills.
Each committee has a few routes to becoming an elected member. In the case of UKRDC, these are:
- Seats/term - every year, elections for the 13 RRDCs in England are held for their executive committee for a one-session term. Roles include, but are not limited to: chair, deputy chair, secretary, communications officer and equalities officer. Of the elected, 42 will automatically get a seat on UKRDC.
- Timeline - these elections are run by regional staff after the August rotation, results are usually known in late August.
- Eligibility - all resident doctors* who are BMA members are eligible to stand and vote in this election exclusively in the region where they live or work.
- Seats/term - every year, elections on UKRDC from the resident doctor committees in the devolved nations take place for the following seats:
- NIRDC - 2 seats
- SRDC - 4 members
- WRDC - 2 seats.
- Timeline - these elections are run by staff in the devolved nations at their first meetings of the session, usually held in September.
- Eligibility - all resident doctor* voting members of NIRDC, SRDC or WRDC are eligible to stand and vote in this election.
- Seats/term - every year, elections for 8 seats on UKRDC take place for a one-session term.
- Timeline - the nomination period opens a month before ARM and voting closes a few days after ARM.
- Eligibility - all UK resident doctors* who are BMA members can stand for election but only ARM delegates can vote.
- Seats/term - every four years, those five members who are elected to BMA UK council via the resident doctor branch of practice seats will gain a non-voting seat on UKRDC.
*For all four routes, a resident doctor is defined as:
Doctors holding an appointment in a recognised training grade or who are within four calendar years of holding such an appointment and able to declare their intention of fulfilling such an appointment again. Any period of statutory leave is excluded when determining four calendar years.
The election section below is kept up to date with details about any running elections, so make sure you keep checking it throughout the year.
Please check the election sections of your regional or national RDCs for details about any running elections:
Conferences
The next annual resident doctors conference will be held on Saturday 18 April 2026.There will be an event for first time attendees on Friday 17 April 2026.
BMA members can sign in to access past resident conference agendas and minutes.
Elections
Elections to UKRDC are currently closed. Nominations and voting for regional elections usually take place in August/September each year.
Get in touch
If you are interested in finding out more about the work of the UKRDC, email [email protected]
The BMA’s network of elected women (NEW) is a BMA-wide group which supports elected women members.
The BMA is working to meet the challenges that women face in the medical profession.
Stand for a BMA committee and be part of this change.