North West School of Ophthalmology - ARCP

North West Postgraduate Medical and Dental Education

Annual Review of Competence Progression (ARCP)

An ARCP (Annual Review of Competence Progression) will take place for all trainees (including LTFT trainees) at least once per calendar year. For most trainees this will take place in June however some trainees may have their ARCP in January. Ad-hoc ARCPs may take place at other times of the year as required. The ARCP outcome will be decided at an ARCP assessment panel at which the trainee will not be present. All evidence must be uploaded to the e-portfolio 2 weeks in advance of the ARCP assessment panel. Documentation should be uploaded regularly throughout the year. Trainees issued a developmental outcome (Outcome 2, 3, 4) must attend the ARCP feedback panel to discuss the outcome and objectives for the next period of training.

The majority of trainees will be assessed as they approach the end of their training year. The programme support team at NHS England will advise the trainee that they are having an ARCP and that their portfolios must be fully up to date. Following the assessment trainees will be issued with an outcome and this will be recorded on both the e-portfolio and NHS England’s Trainee Information System (TIS).

Trainees that are part way through a training year at the time of the ARCPs i.e. LTFT or out of sync due to maternity leave, etc, will be assessed pro-rata. Unfortunately the e-portfolio system works on the basic principle that an Outcome 1 automatically upgrades the trainee to the next stage of training. In this instance a manual adjustment will be made by the College.   

Occasionally trainees will have an educational review. This is usually for trainees that are on an adverse outcome and the panel wish to check their progress.  Trainees will be advised that they are having an educational review and that their portfolios must be fully up to date. Trainees will be asked to complete a template form (currently being agreed and finalised) and this must be uploaded in the ‘additional evidence’ tab selecting ‘interim review’ as record type (a small ‘IR’ icon will then appear alongside the relevant ARCP).  No outcome will be issued and following the review the Training Programme Director or member of the panel will feedback to the trainee.

Dates of Next Assessments

Form R

Once complete, please remember to upload a copy of your completed Form R (Part B) to the personal library of your e-portfolio.

The Form R is a mandatory requirement from the GMC for all ARCPs. From August 2022, only Form R (Part B) needs to be completed for every ARCP (the Form R is not required for Educational Reviews and the Form R (Part A) is no longer required for ARCP). The Form R must be completed within 4 weeks prior to the ARCP and by the deadline for cutoff date for evidence submission. If a Form R (Part B) has not been completed within the month prior to the ARCP or is incomplete the panel will be unable to issue a satisfactory outcome.

It is important any ongoing or closed investigations/complaints since your last Form R are included.

You must make sure that all parts of the Form R are fully completed including the scope of practice section. The Scope of practice should include:

Each of your training posts if you are or were in a training programme;

• Any time out of programme, e.g. OOP, maternity leave, career break, etc;
• Any voluntary or advisory work, work in non-NHS bodies, or self-employment;
• Any work as a locum. For locum work, please group shifts with one employer within an unbroken period as one employer-entry. Include the number of shifts worked during each employer-period.

IMPORTANT: From August 2022, all Form Rs must be completed via TIS Self Service (TSS). Old style form Rs (Word or PDF versions) will not be accepted.

To use TSS you must first sign up using the email address that NHS England have recorded for you. Trying to sign up with any other email address means the sign up process will fail.

 TIS Self Service (TSS) sign up guidance

 TIS Self Service (TSS) user guide

The Royal College of Ophthalmologists ARCP Guidance

2024 Curriculum

 RCOphth 2024 Curriculum Martix of Progession Added 19 Nov 2024

Previous/Old Curriculum

 RCOphth Annual Review of Competence Progression (ARCP) Guidance

 RCOphth ‘derogation’ ARCP Guide 2021

OOP Trainees

You need to submit the following:

OOPC Trainees

• Form R (Part B) via TIS Self Service

OOPE Trainees

• Form R (Part B) via TIS Self Service
• Supervisor’s report – either the supervisor’s report template on the e-portfolio or if this is not appropriate, a report on letter headed paper which should be uploaded to the personal library of your e-portfolio.

OOPT Trainees

• Form R (Part B) via TIS Self Service
• Educational supervisor’s report using the supervisor’s report template on the e-portfolio.

OOPR Trainees

• Form R (Part B) via TIS Self Service
• Academic supervisor’s report using the academic supervisor’s report template on the e-portfolio. Your supervisor will need to be added to the e-portfolio to complete the academic supervisor’s report. If you have difficulty adding your OOP supervisor to the e-portfolio, your supervisor can write a report on letter headed paper which should be saved to your personal library. If you submit a free style report rather than the template, it should comment on the below areas:
  • Generic Research Skills (Training and use in practice)
  • Statistics (Training and use in practice)
  • Progress report on Research Project(s)
  • Research Output
  • What went well?
  • What areas require development?
  • Action plan If you are counting any OOPR time towards training, you should also submit a proportionate number of SLEs depending on how much time you are counting.

All OOP Trainees

If you have been in programme for part of the year, the panel will also expect to see evidence that you have achieved the requirements of the ARCP decision aid in proportion to the amount of time you have been in programme, including an educational supervisor’s report.

Page last updated 19 December 2024