Blogs > Postgraduate Qualifications
CESR specialty specific guidance for Endocrinology and Diabetes
- February 18, 2022
The indicative period of training for a CCT in Endocrinology and Diabetes Mellitus is six years full time training and it is very unlikely than an applicant would achieve the competencies required for a CCT in a shorter period of time. Therefore, applicants need to demonstrate with evidence that they have achieved the relevant competencies.
This article will outline the documents that can be used for your CESR application.
Evidence Breakdown
Types of evidence are divided into four different domains. The GMC recommend that you apportion the evidence you provide with your application as below:
Domain 1: 75%
Domain 2: 20%
Domains 3 and 4: 5%
It is important to note that you will not be able to compensate for shortfalls in your evidence of training and experience in a particular area of the curriculum by providing extra evidence in other areas.
It is the experience with respect to the specialty of Endocrinology and Diabetes that the following areas are where unsuccessful applications usually provide inadequate or poor evidence: -
• logbooks: often not presented in a clear and easily interpreted manner.
• applicants do not provide evidence to cover the full breadth of the CCT curriculum. If you have not covered a specific area of the curriculum it is advisable to postpone an application until you have been able to gain this experience
• applicants do not provide evidence to cover the full depth of the CCT curriculum. Many applicants have completed the generality of the specialty to the intermediate level, but have not provided evidence to support that they have the appropriate experience in at least one of the specialty areas to the final level (a requirement of the CCT curriculum)
• audit: little evidence is supplied to confirm that an applicant has participated in audit
• training, assessing: These areas may not form part of your role; however it is essential that evidence is supplied that confirms that you have the skills even if you have not had the opportunity to put them into practice. This may be best demonstrated by attendance at a course and the training or supervision of more junior colleagues
• management: It is recognised that applicants may not have experience of managing a department, however alternative forms of management could be demonstrated i.e., rota management, meeting/event management, budget management.
Types of evidence
Domain 1 - Knowledge, skills and performance:
-Primary medical qualification (PMQ)
-Specialist medical qualification(s)
- Curriculum or syllabus (if undertaken outside the UK)
- Specialist registration outside the UK
- Honours and prizes
- Other relevant qualifications and certificates
- Appraisals and assessments
- RITAs, ARCPs and training assessments
- 360˚ and multi-source feedback
- Awards and discretionary points letters
- Personal development plans (PDP)
- Logbooks
- Consolidation, cumulative data sheets, summary lists and annual caseload statistics
- Medical reports
- Case histories
- Referral letters discussing patient handling
- Patient lists
- Departmental (or trust) workload statistics and annual caseload statistics
- Rotas, timetables and job plans
- Courses relevant to curriculum
- Portfolios (electronic or revalidation)
- Employment letters and contracts of employment
- Job descriptions
- Job plans
- Research papers, grants, patent designs
- Publications within specialty field
- Presentations, poster presentations
- CPD record certificates, certificates of attendance, workshops and at local, national and international meetings or conferences
- CPD registration points from UK Medical Royal College (or equivalent body overseas)
- Membership of professional bodies and organisations
- Teaching timetables
- Lectures
- Feedback or evaluation forms from those taught
- Letters from colleagues
- Attendance at teaching or appraisal courses
- Participation in assessment or appraisal and appointments processes
Domain 2 – Safety and quality
- Audits undertaken by applicant
- Reflective diaries
- Service Improvement and clinical governance meetings
-Evidence to support awareness and following Health and Safety requirements.
This can be demonstrated by:
• declaration of health on your application form
• attendance at appropriate course
• involvement in infection control (membership of committees etc)
• logbook information on infections
• audit on infections and subsequent changes in activity
Domain 3 – Communication, partnership and teamwork
Communication with colleague
- Patient communications
- Working in multidisciplinary teams evidence
- Management and leadership experience
- Chairing meetings and leading projects
Domain 4 – Maintaining trust
-Honesty and integrity
You can demonstrate this with:
• the declarations on your application form
• statements from your referees
• appraisal forms
• having no restrictions on your registration (UK based doctors)
• Certificate of Good Standing (overseas based doctors).
-Equality and human rights (including disability, human rights, race, religion and ethnicity awareness and equal opportunities)
You can demonstrate this with:
• evidence of attendance at relevant courses (please provide details of course content)
• feedback from patients and colleagues
• statements from your referees
• testimonials.
-Data protection
You can demonstrate this with:
• attendance at relevant courses (please provide details of course content)
• feedback from patients and colleagues
• your application and evidence being appropriately anonymised.
Submitting your evidence
It is important that you anonymise your evidence before you submit it to us. You must remove:
• All patient identifying details
• Details of patients’ relatives
• Details of colleagues that you have assessed, written a reference for, or who have been involved in a complaint you have submitted.
This includes:
• Names (first and last)
• Addresses
• Contact details such as phone numbers or email addresses
• NHS numbers
• Other individual patient numbers
• GMC numbers
The following details don’t need to be anonymised:
• Gender
• Date of birth It is your responsibility to make sure that your evidence has been anonymised. Evidence which has not been anonymised will be returned to you. More information can be found on their website.
- Testimonials and letters from colleagues
- Thank you letters, cards from colleagues and patients
-Complaints and responses to complaints
Our top tips for a smooth CESR application process
- Understand the time and effort that is required to make a successful application. You are asked to provide evidence that you have fulfilled all the learning outcomes defined in the curriculum. Doctors who have gone through the formal training programme will normally have taken around eight years to gain these outcomes, so it is not something you can gather overnight.
- Recognise that you will need others to support you in the application process. Think about who can help, explain to them what help you need and ask if they can support you
- CESR places most emphasis on evidence gathered in the last five years. If you are providing evidence from before this time, think about what you can do now to show that you still have these capabilities. For example, if you still have contacts in that unit you could ask if they would be prepared for you to go back and have some workplace-based assessments in that area. The Trust would probably want you to have an honorary contract for this.
- Choose the referees for your structured reports carefully. The GMC provides guidance on who should give structured reports, but you should also think about who values you enough to put in the time and effort to ensure that their report provides the information you need.
- Make sure you understand which evidence needs to be verified and that you follow the correct verification procedure, to ensure that all your evidence is accepted and does not need to be resubmitted. If in doubt, the GMC can advise on what needs to be verified and what types of verification can be accepted
- Take care to arrange your evidence following the order it is set out in this guidance, so it is easier for assessors to find the evidence they need for each of the sections.
- Finally: keep going and don’t lose heart! There will probably be a point in the middle where the task feels huge. When this happens, allow yourself a couple of weeks off CESR then look at it afresh.
How we can help
Many of the positions we have in general medicine subspecialities are able to support you with your CESR application. If you would like to speak to our team about these opportunities do send your CV to [email protected]ing.com.
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References
Gmc-uk.org. 2022. [online] Available at:
