1. Home
  2. Resources

Training Charter

Training & Quality team
This Charter outlines what the College expects from every training unit in the UK, across key domains. We hope that training units will strive to achieve these aims and that the Charter will be a hallmark of high quality local training. References from the General Medical Council (GMC) and Gold Guide have been given.

First published: March 2019

Last updated by members of the RCPCH Trainee Committee: July 2024 and RCPCH: September 2024

1. Educational supervision

  • The College expects trainees to have a trained Educational Supervisor, who has adequate time in their job plan to provide such supervision and who is up to date with the latest curriculum and ePortfolio guidance. (R2.15) (S4.1, S4.2, R4.2)1
  • The College expects trainees to get meaningful feedback on their performance, delivered in an appropriate manner. (R1.8, R3.13)
  • The College expects trainees to have access to free, high quality and personalised career guidance, either locally or by signposting them to resources at a regional level. (2.56ix)2

2. Teaching

  • The College expects trainees to be released to attend relevant local and regional teaching, leaving staffing at weekend levels to cover the clinical work where necessary. Attendance at teaching must be audited and an effective plan for resolution or mitigation must be in place if poor attendance is common or recurring. (R1.16)
  • The College expects trainees to have high quality, relevant and varied teaching locally and that this should be bleep-free for all trainees (except in the case of emergencies). (R1.16)

3. Rotas

  • The College expects trainees to be provided with their rota at least six weeks before they start their job and that the rota is always provided six weeks into the future.3  4
  • The College expects trainees to be facilitated in taking annual leave and study leave provided six weeks’ notice has been given and adequate cover is available. (R3.12)
  • The College expects trainees to be supported to undertake accurate exception reporting or hours monitoring (if they are on the 2016 or 2002 contract terms and conditions respectively).
  • The College expects trainees to have time built into their rota for supporting professional activities (SPA) as per the guidance in section 6 of the Charter.

4. Fatigue, rest facilities and breaks

  • The College expects trainees to have intelligent rota design to take account for adequate rest and recovery during and between shifts, in line with their contracts and British Medical Association (BMA) recommendations.5  
  • The College expects trainees to receive education on healthy lifestyle, sleep and risks of fatigue as part of their inductions and education programmes.
  • The College expects training units to provide appropriate rest facilities for trainees working resident on-call night shifts, in line with BMA fatigue and facilities recommendations, and to facilitate interim measures whilst undertaking changes within the department.
  • The College expects that those who are working long, late or night shifts have access to adequate rest facilities following their work if they do not feel safe to travel home. Colleagues should take a duty of care to ensure their co-workers are both safe to work and to travel.
  • The College expects a positive culture towards taking contractual rests and breaks during shifts, including night shifts, and should be encouraged to raise non-adherence with their supervisors.
  • The College expects trainees to be able to have access to hot food and hydration on all shifts that they are expected to work

5. Less than full time (LTFT) training

  • The College expects that LTFT trainees will have the same balance of daytime and out of hours working as full time trainees. (3.115i) 
  • The College expects trainees to be provided with timetables for educational opportunities in sufficient time to allow LTFT trainees to plan their work pattern to maximise exposure to teaching and training. (R3.10, R5.9)

6. Training environment

  • The College expects training units will foster a positive working environment for them to work alongside the multi-professional team. (S1.2)
  • The College expects trainees to be listened to, valued and respected. The College expects trainees to be taken seriously when reporting incidents of bullying and that any incidents reported will be actioned quickly and appropriately allowing trainees to participate fully in decisions made about them. The College expects  clear anti-bullying policies to be embedded in hospital life and to be widely and actively promoted to all educational and clinical supervisors.
  • The College expects trainees to be given opportunities to reflect in a supported environment and access psychological support as necessary. (R3.2)
  • The College expects that when a suitable opportunity to undertake a Supervised Learning Event is identified, that this is facilitated and completed on the electronic Portfolio in a timely fashion. (R5.11)
  • The College expects training units to hold and minute regular Core-Specialty level postgaduate doctor in training meetings, support regular PGDiT doctor meetings and involve trainees in monitoring and improving educational quality within the department. (R2.6) The training unit will be accountable to deliver on the recommendations made in the meetings.
  • The College expects trainees to have adequate time within their work schedule to complete all mandatory requirements of training including activity which is not direct patient care for example QI (quality improvement), audit, leadership, ePortfolio. If this needs to be complete outside of rostered hours, trainees must be encouraged to exception report or request hours monitoring (if they are on the 2016 or 2002 contract terms and conditions respectively). It is recommended that the time allocated for these supporting professional activities (SPA) is a minimum of 8 hours a month for trainees on a tier 1 rota, and 16 hours a month for trainees on a tier 2 rota (pro rata for LTFT trainees). This is in addition to departmental teaching and clinical admin time.

7. Training programmes

  • The College expects that training units, in conjunction with the Heads of School and Training Programme Directors, will ensure that they have access to a breadth of different training environments and opportunities across each level of training, which trainees can use to evidence each curriculum domain in RCPCH Progress+. (R1.15, S3.1)
External links
GMC Promoting Excellence