KSS Deanery

As many of you will be aware, members of the WPBA Group have been busy working on revising the Educational Supervisors Report – this should make the review process much smoother and more straightforward to complete.

I’ve attached some guidance notes to explain the rationale behind the changes, what the key changes are, and the process to be followed for the review itself. To support this, we have also produced some powerpoint slides which take you through the review, and can be used in deanery training sessions or alternatively be circulated to your Educational Supervisors to help prepare them for the changes.

These documents will also be added to the current release notes section on the website very shortly
(http://www.rcgp-curriculum.org.uk/nmrcgp/wpba/the_eportfolio/current_rel...)

These are now available from the downloads section of the Programme Director Page from the GP website:
http://www.kssdeanery.org/general-practice/programme-directors

They are the first 3 items entitled:
RCGP ePortfolio V5 Pre release notes
RCGP Guidance for the new ESR - July10
RCGP Version 5 0 ESR Guidance

Please note, if any Reviews are completed and signed off before 6pm on 23 July, they will appear in the system in the old four page review format. If a Review is only partially completed (and saved) at this time, then the data entered so far will be copied into the new ESR, and to complete and submit the ESR, the Educational Supervisor will need to ensure that all the required fields are completed (many are now mandatory). Once completed, the Review will appear in the new format.

If you have any questions, please contact Jamie Meecham (jmeecham@rcgp.org.uk).

IMPORTANT: As stated above, Educational Supervisors can sign off a report on a GPStR as satisfactory only if all the appropriate assessments have been done and entered.

RCGP move: The RCGP will be moving out of the Princes Gate building to temporary office space at Bow Churchyard in London in August. As a result the ePortfolio will be out of action for a while as the following message describes.
ePortfolio Downtime – 6pm, Friday 23 July to 11am, Monday 26 July 2010

As some of you may already be aware, the College has to carry out some essential maintenance work to its IT system in preparation for the move from Princes Gate to interim accommodation. Some of this work will necessitate the temporary shut down of all College IT systems, including the trainee ePortfolio.

We have taken every step possible to try to ensure that ePortfolio suspension is planned for a period which will have minimum impact on trainees, trainers and deaneries, and we have managed to delay it until after the busiest period for Reviews and ARCP Panels. It will therefore take place on the weekend of 23 – 26 July, and the ePortfolio will not be available from 6pm on the Friday, until 11am on the Monday morning. We have incorporated the upgrade to Version 5.0 of the ePortfolio into this downtime so as to avoid two separate instances of downtime.

We will put up a message on the ePortfolio login page to inform users about the downtime and to encourage them to complete all entries as early as possible. Hopefully this will give users sufficient notice to minimise the impact of the suspension of the ePortfolio.

We acknowledge that it is unfortunate that the timing of the College move in August, and therefore all the essential preparatory IT work leading up to it, clashes with the end of training and the ARCP Panels, but this work is unavoidable and has to take place before we move offices.

We are very sorry for this disruption, and are happy to work with you in any way we can to help minimise the effect on trainees, their supervisors and Deaneries. We would also greatly appreciate any assistance you can give us in re-emphasising the need to all users to complete ePortfolio entries as early as possible.

Best wishes

Dr Bill Reith
Chairman, Postgraduate
Training Board

AKT dates
The RCGP has just published the next list of AKT dates

Apply via College website: 1 - 13 Dec 2010 8 -18 March 2011 7 - 19 Sept 2011
Book with Pearson VUE: 3 - 17 Dec 2010 10 - 25 March 2011 9 - 23 Sept 2011
Main date for AKT: 26 Jan 2011 4 May 2011 26 Oct 2011
Results & feedback: 23 Feb 2011 25 May 2011 23 Nov 2011