Applying for paediatric specialty training at ST1 - guidance

Update: 6 March 2026

Following the ratification of the Medical Prioritisation Bill, which received Royal Assent on 5 March 2026, MDRS (medical and dental recruitment and selection) have advised of a change to the date when initial offers will be released for ST1 posts in this recruitment round. As such, applicants should expect to see these initial offers released by 31 March 2026.

See College statement on the Medical Prioritisation Bill

National recruitment timeline for 2026-27

For ST1 entry posts starting in August/September 2026:

*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 HEE Medical Specialty Recruitment website also provides general information on national recruitment, including full national timelines and specific guidance documents.

National recruitment process for 2026-27

Paediatric recruitment 2026-27 will follow the same process as in 2025-26.

Recruitment is for ST1 entry posts starting in August/September 2026.

The recruitment process involves shortlisting - based on part of the application - which determines those applicants invited to interview. Interviews are held virtually.

Please ensure that you read the new guidance for 2026-27, as some wording has been updated, to provide further clarity to applicants. In particular, please take note of the new shortlisting guidance, where some minor changes have been made, as follows:

1. The two clinical sections ('Skills' and 'Experience') have been refined, to allow greater distinction and clarity
2. The additional qualifications section has been removed entirely

A glossary has been added to the shortlisting guidance document, giving further explanation of terms and what evidence is needed to meet various parts of the scoring criteria. The scoring sections are listed below.

Shortlisting

The format for shortlisting follows that which was introduced in the 2025-26 recruitment round, adapted to include a shorter, more defined entry method for applicants, with no long "white-space" answers. In short, this means:

• All "written" answers input into the Oriel application form are limited to a maximum of 50 words per section
• Some items may be entered via drop-down boxes
• Applicants are asked to identify the best examples of skills/attributes/experience from their career against the scoring criteria
• There is be no 'Supporting statement'

Scoring sections:

• Transferable clinical capabilities
• Personal achievements and reflection
• Quality Improvement Project/Audit
• Academic achievements
• Teaching

You can download the shortlisting guidance below. 

Interviews

Applicants will be invited to interview, based on their shortlisting score. 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 it is important to study the shortlisting criteria thoroughly and ensure you can achieve as high a score as possible. Interview capacity was lower than hoped in 2025-26 but we hope that an increase of at least 100 interview slots will be available in the 2026-27 round.

The interview format is as follows:

• A virtual interview, consisting of a two-station multi-scenario format performed online via the Qpercom platform.
• Each station will be 20 minutes in length and the whole process should last 45 minutes overall, to cover Communications, Career Motivation, Clinical Reasoning and Reflective Practice.

Appointability will then be determined using the interview scores, with a final appointability threshold of 55% or more. Any applicant who meets or exceeds the appointability threshold will be in with a chance of receiving an offer, however this is not guaranteed, as offers are made based on a combination of score ranking and preferencing. Full details of the offers process are available in the applicant guide below and on the NHSE Medical Specialty Recruitment webpages (link provided below).

Guidance

Full guidance on each part of the recruitment process are available in the ST1 Applicant Guide - all applicants are advised to read through this carefully. You should also refer to the ST1 shortlisting scoring criteria and person specification. These resources are all available to download below.

The RCPCH Medical Recruitment team will be running a webinar on Thursday 23 October 2025, that will cover all details of paediatric specialty recruitment, for both ST1 and ST3. For access to this webinar, please view the related webpage: Applying to ST1 or ST3 in Paediatrics - Webinar | RCPCH

A recording of the webinar will be posted here, as soon as possible after the event has taken place.

Interview dates for 2026-27 recruitment

ST1 paediatric interviews take place virtually, managed by the local teams.

*All interviews are virtual, so location does not have any bearing on what dates you may want to go for, if you are invited. However, in order to share the administrative burden, the running of the dates is split between the five NHSE, NES and NIMDTA regional offices in the table above.

Post numbers for 2026-27 recruitment

The table below shows the indicative ST1 post numbers for all UK regions that are advertised in the 2026 recruitment round, for posts starting in August/September 2026.

N.B. Post numbers are currently given as a minimum and maximum range for each region - exact numbers will be finalised in time for preferencing to open in January 2026.

Events

Applying to ST1 or ST3 in paediatrics Webinar - 23 October 2025

On 23 October 2025, the RCPCH Medical Recruitment Team hosted a webinar to guide applicants through the recruitment process for ST1 and ST3 entry to UK paediatric training. The session covered key updates and changes for the 2026/27 recruitment round, followed by a live Q&A to address attendee questions.

Past application numbers and competition ratio

Some regions do prove more popular than others. However, applicants can choose 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, have seen considerable increases over the past 3 years.

2780 applications were made to ST1 in 2025-26 (up from 1583 in 2024-25), for a total of 476 posts - a competition ratio of 5.63. The final fill rate at ST1 was 99.57%, with 474 of those posts filled, at the end of the overall Round 1 process. A full list of competition ratios and fill rates for previous years, can be found on the NHSE Medical Specialty Recruitment webpages.

Contacts and links

For any queries, please contact the Paediatric National Recruitment Office.

For further general information on Medical Specialty Recruitment, including competition ratios and fill rates, please access the NHSE Medical Specialty Recruitment webpages via the link below.