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National recruitment processes for 2024

The format of recruitment for paediatrics will mirror last year's process and will therefore involve a shortlisting process, based on part of the application, which will determine those applicants that are invited to be interviewed. Interviews themselves will be held virtually.

Paediatric recruitment 2024

Recruitment for ST1 paediatrics is composed of two elements:

1. Application form (white-space questions) for shortlisting: to cover Past achievements, Clinical experience, Career motivation, Transferable Skills, Governance
2. A virtual interview, consisting of a two station multi scenario format performed online via Qpercom. Each station will be 15 minutes in length and the whole process should last 35 minutes overall, to cover Communications, Career Motivation, Clinical Reasoning and Reflective Practice.

The number of eligible applicants (after longlisting) has exceeded the interview capacity available across our virtual interview centres in recent years by a good number, so application scores will be used as a shortlisting tool to determine invites to interview against overall capacity. Interview capacity will likely be in the region of 700 places, though this may be subject to change.

Appointability will then be determined using the interview scores, with a final appointability threshold of 55% or more.

±·´Ç³Ù±ð:ÌýWe can confirm that there is no plan to reintroduce the Multi-Specialty Recruitment Assessment (MSRA) into the paediatric recruitment process.

National round 1 paediatric recruitment timelines for 2023-24

Timelines for Paediatric National Recruitment for ST1 entry posts, starting in August/September 2024 are as follows:

*Applicants who have been successfully shortlisted will also receive the 'Applicant Declaration' form along with their invite to interview. This must be completed and returned when the interview booking window closes.

The also provides general information on national recruitment, including full national timelines and 2024 specific guidance documents.

Guidance

Full guidance on each part of the recruitment process is in the ST1 Applicant Guide. You should also refer to the ST1 application scoring criteria and person specification. These can all be downloaded below.

Our live Q&A event took place on 1 November 2023 and a recording will be posted to our Youtube channel for anyone not able to tune in on the day, week commencing 6 November 2023. The session included information on both the application and interview process.

Interview dates for 2024

ST1 paediatric interviews take place virtually, managed by the local teams, on the following dates:

N.B. These dates may be subject to change, in case of any major issues.

A reminder that the interview booking window opens on Monday 22 January and closes on Wednesday 24 January March 2024.

Indicative post numbers for 2024 and Preferencing

The table below will soon list the initial, indicative ST1 post numbers for all UK regions that are advertising in the current recruitment round, for posts starting in August/September 2024. Please note that these are indicative post numbers and may change before the preferencing window opens in February 2024:

These indicative numbers will provide the upper end limits of the eventual post numbers that will be available for preferencing later in the process. 

A separate preferencing window will be opened from 9 February 2024, after longlisting has been completed. Applicants will then be able to rank their choices on the Oriel system. The final post numbers for each region will have been confirmed by this point and will also be published here, as soon as they are available.

The final post numbers, including the number that were filled for each region in 2023 are available in the pdf that can be found at the bottom of this page.

Note: Preferencing will not take place during the application window.

Past application numbers and competition ratio

Some regions do prove more popular than others. However, applicants can preference any or all of the preferences for any or all regions, so it is not possible to give an accurate competition ratio by region.

Both overall application numbers, and consequently also competition ratios, saw a considerable increase for the 2023 national recruitment round 1 and no post were therefore put into the national round 1 re-advert round for the second year in succession.

1231 applications were made to ST1 in 2023, for a total of 506 posts. The final fill rate at ST1 was 95.85%, with 485 of those posts filled, at the end of the overall Round 1 process.

Paediatric specialty training webinar and Q&A - 1 November 2023

The webinar was hosted by the RCPCH Medical Recruitment team in advance of the 2024 round, for anyone planning to apply to ST1 or ST3. It was presented by Dr Blanche Lumb, RCPCH Trainee Representative for Recruitment, Dr Simon Broughton, RCPCH Officer for Recruitment, Eloise Rodgers, RCPCH Medical Recruitment Coordinator and James Clark, RCPCH Head of Medical Recruitment. The audience is guided through all parts of the recruitment process and provided tips on what makes a successful application, including completing your application form and how to start preparing for the interview. 

Contact

For any queries, please contact england.paedsnro@nhs.net