GP Fellowships
GP fellowships are intended to meet current and future Primary Care workforce needs, supported locally by Training Hubs within their Integrated Care Systems (ICSs.)
The investment in Primary Care set out in the GP Forward View includes funding for post-CCT Fellowships. These are innovative posts available for GPs in their first 5-10 years after qualification.
The post-CCT fellowships deliver benefits to the Fellows, patients, local health systems and the wider NHS and support the development of new ways of working.
NHS England in conjunction with Lincolnshire Training Hub also offers a New to Practice Fellowship. This two-year programme of support is available to all newly-qualified GPs working substantively in general practice.
For more information on the GP fellowships available, please see below. For information on nurse fellowships, please see the Career Start pages.
The Trailblazer scheme allows motivated, qualified GPs, to work in practices in areas of socio-economic deprivation. The aim is to develop the skills, knowledge, experience, and resilience to stay working in these challenging, but incredibly rewarding, environments and to help practices in under-doctored areas to recruit and retain GPs.
The scheme started in 2018 in Yorkshire and the Humber and was closely modelled on the Deep End pioneer scheme in Scotland. In 2020, the scheme was expanded to other parts of England, including the Midlands.
The scheme is supported by a programme of education and support provided by Fairhealth. Fairhealth is a registered charity that has been developed and maintained by front line primary care professionals since its inception.
Fairhealth run a monthly programme that brings together GPs on Trailblazer and other deprivation and health equity focused fellowships.
In additional to the education programme provided by Fairhealth, the scheme is complimented by regional peer-support and learning.
Our current Trailblazer fellows are Dr Nicholas Bigwood, Dr Melanie Morris and Dr Afshan Syed.
New-to-practice GP fellowships
The General Practice Fellowship is an NHS England funded 2-year programme of support for newly qualified GPs beginning careers in General Practice.
NHS-E and HEE have confirmed funding for entry onto the scheme until 2023. (The scheme is different from all previous GP fellowship schemes, some of which continue to run in parallel.)
Lincolnshire Training Hub is delivering the General Practice Fellowship scheme to help practices attract, support and retain tomorrow’s clinical team to meet patients’ needs.
Please click the button below to read our 2023 New to Practice Fellowship and Supporting Mentors Scheme report.
Who is it for?
The General Practice Fellowship scheme is open to any newly qualified GP who:
- qualified within the last 12 months (rolling and this can be extended up to 18 months in cases of maternity leave, sick leave etc)
- is employed in a Lincolnshire Practice in a substantive salaried or partnership post
Application and funding is via the employing practice (there is no funding direct to fellows).
Aims
The scheme:
- Aims to encourage newly qualified GPs to take up substantive posts in Lincolnshire practices
- Assists with their transition from training to fully embedded roles
- Supports practices in recruiting and meeting the learning needs of their newly qualified GPs
- Includes a financial contribution to practices to allow newly qualified GPs to engage with education, mentoring and peer networking
- Up to 4 sessions a month protected time to engage in learning and development, portfolio working, and supportive conversations and activities
- A named mentor from the training hub providing guidance on the different aspects of the fellowship programme
- Using fellowship time to attend clinical and educational supervisor courses
- Using fellowship time to attend mentoring and coaching training
- Monthly online talks delivered by experienced clinicians on a broad range of topics. Past topics have included Introduction to the LMC and PCNs, Quality Improvement, Video Group Clinics, Personalised Care, How to Give and Receive Feedback Well, Wellbeing, Leadership, Deprescribing, Health Inequalities and Conflict Resolution. Recordings of previous talks are available here: Interprofessional Education – Lincolnshire Training Hub
Why should my practice get involved?
The new NHS contract committed to a universal two year offering for all new GPs of a supported start to their clinical careers, with time for learning and peer education and support programmes. The General Practice Fellowship is the first step towards this and provides a structured induction, support and educational programme for up to 24 months from starting, to help attract, recruit and retain GPs.
Benefits to Practice
- A Salaried GP/Partner rather than a locum
- Financial grant to practice for backfill to support time to learn and in-practice mentor support for each new to practice professional
- Support with recruitment
- Improved retention in first 2 years of work
- Grow your own future GPs – in house professional development to meet your organisation’s needs
There is no funding direct to fellows. Practices will receive a financial grant contribution for protected fellowship time to allow each fellow to engage with education, mentoring and peer networking.
Payment will be annually in advance. Once a signed MOU is in place, you will be able to submit an invoice for the first year of the fellowship to the Training Hub.
New-to-Practice Fellowship QAs
GPs who are within 1-year post qualification. The 1-year deadline can be increased in cases of sick leave, maternity leave etc.
The above applies to salaried staff as well as partners but not locum staff.
The funding is for 1 session (4h 10mins) per week for a FTE (37.5h) fellow. The funding and the fellowship working time will be adjusted pro-rata. The fellowship is a 2-year programme.
Numerous different activities can take place during the fellowship time. These include but are not limited to
- Fellows will have allocated time for support and networking which will include mentorship, supervision and coaching time. It may also include participating in the Lincolnshire First Five group or developing their own peer support network.
- Fellows will have allocated time for learning and development during this time. This may range from attending a ‘becoming a GP partner course’ to becoming a coach or mentor or an educational supervisor by completing Nottingham Trent University’s New Trainers Course.
- Fellows will also have allocated time to work for leadership organisations in primary care such as Primary Care Networks (PCNs).
This fellowship programme is not intended to develop clinical skills. But if you had an area of interest such as mental health for example, there would be time in the programme for you to find work that you could do in that area but from a leadership perspective rather than a clinical perspective. An example of this may be surveying the learning needs of specialists, GPs in mental health and then finding creative ways to address those learning needs.
Your mentor or supervisor will be someone assigned by Lincolnshire Training Hub rather than someone from your GP practice.
The GP practice will pay the fellows and will also need to consider the flexibility that would be required with working arrangements e.g. fellows may wish to combine sessions from multiple weeks to attend a 2-day course.
Yes. The Lincolnshire Training Hub is also able to help access funded courses even though the courses are not specifically funded by the fellowship programme.
Application is via the employing practice only. Please click the link below if you are a GP practice within Lincolnshire or an eligible participant and you are interested in signing up. Eligible participants in the programme:
- A GP who qualified in the last 12 months (employed in a substantive salaried or partnership post). The 12 months can be extended up to 18 months in special cases such as maternity leave, sick leave etc
- A practice nurse who completed their training within the last 12 months. The 12 months can be extended up to 18 months in special cases such as maternity leave, sick leave etc
If you don’t yet have an eligible clinician but would like to apply for the scheme in principle, you should still complete an application form (leaving out the Fellows details), so that we can add you to our list of participating practices and pass your details to any prospective Fellows who contact us.
On receipt, we will verify the application and contact you to arrange a discussion with staff from Lincolnshire Training Hub to discuss taking things forward which will include signing a memorandum of understanding.
(Please note if we are oversubscribed we reserve the right to allocate on the greatest workforce need.)
You can join the programme any time within one year of your qualification. We recommend getting in touch with us as soon as possible in order to avoid missing opportunities that might come up as some courses/training opportunities only happen at certain times of the year and their application deadlines will be even earlier.
Directory of Useful Contacts for GP Fellows
We have started a directory of useful contacts for GP fellows, including providers of relevant training courses. This is very much a work in progress and the list will be updated at regular intervals. If you have any contacts you feel it would be useful to add, please send to ruth.pollock@nhs.net
New to Practice Fellowship/Career Start talks
For recordings of previous New to Practice Fellowship/Career Start talks, please click button below:
Project Presentations from Current and Previous Fellows
We hope that these presentations will provide a source of inspiration for new and existing fellows.
New to Practice Fellowships
Presentation by Dr Philip Fadahunsi
Digital Fellowships
Presentation by Dr Katie Massey
Trailblazer Fellowships
Presentation by Dr Nneka Anaegbu
Leadership Fellowships
Dr Rebecca Kenyon
