Applicant Guide

Applicant Guide

NHS England (South West) co-ordinates the national selection process for Ophthalmology at Level One (ST1).

The posts will commence from August 2026 onwards.  When applying you will not need to select particular posts, regions, rotations, etc.; just complete and submit the application.  You will have the opportunity to rank all the posts available nationally at a later stage in the selection process.

Below are all the details you need to know when submitting an application for specialty training.  Please read the whole guide before starting your application, paying particular attention to the additional evidence section.

You will also find information to support you when applying on the Medical Specialty Recruitment website.

Training Posts and Locations

Each Deanery/local office submits its indicative number of vacancies with a brief outline of the programme.  This information can be found under the heading of Job Description which can be accessed from the main page.  Also contained within this information is a local contact and a link to more detailed information. The vacancies are correct at the point of advertisement but may be subject to change. All alterations to the vacancies will be published on the job description section.

Recruitment Timetable

Please see the recruitment timetable for key dates in the selection process.  The timetable can also be viewed under the resources section on the main page. 

Eligibility

When submitting an application, you will need to make sure that you meet all the eligibility criteria by the application closing date (or date of interview/appointment if specifically stated). Eligibility requirements are those requirements listed as “Essential” in the Person Specification.  From 2024 the maximum number of months in Ophthalmology was increased to 30 months in the specialty by date of interview which will be 17 March 2026.

In order to assess if you have the required competences you will need to refer to the person specification.  Further details about eligibility can also be found on the Medical Specialty Recruitment Website. 

It is an applicant’s responsibility to demonstrate that they meet the eligibility criteria. Applications will be assessed against the eligibility criteria both during longlisting and after offers where necessary.

Due to the number of applicants, eligibility checks will take place later in the process and by allowing applicants to progress through the selection process, NHS England does not accept or confirm that applicants meet all eligibility requirements. This includes GMC registration, evidence of achievement of core competencies or equivalent, and requisite length of time in training as per the national Person Specification. This list is not exhaustive and is applicable to all eligibility criteria. Applicants may still be withdrawn from the application process at any stage, including after the interviews have taken place, if the evidence pertaining to an eligibility criterion is found to be unsatisfactory. 

Applying Online through the Oriel Recruitment System

All specialty training applications for 2026 will be managed through a national online application system called “Oriel” which can be accessed through the 'apply now' button at the top of the page.

Account registration: You will need to create an account (account registration) before you can apply to a vacancy. After registration, you will be able to apply and track the progress of your application. The link to register is available in the right-hand corner of the welcome page within Oriel. 

Resource Bank: A document repository is held within Oriel and is accessible without logging in. The resource bank includes all the national forms you will need to apply, along with an applicant user guide that will assist you in using the system at each stage of the recruitment process. You can access the resource bank  by clicking ‘Medical and Public Health Specialties’ on the welcome page. 

Communication: Our primary method of communication during the recruitment process will be to message candidates via Oriel and the messages will appear on your applicant dashboard.  We will also send the correspondence via email; however, delivery of emails cannot be guaranteed as they are being sent externally to Oriel and should not be relied upon.  At key points in the selection process, we will also send a text message.  We recommend that you DO NOT opt out of text messages as the messages will be sent with key information that you will need to action.

Completing an application

Applications open at 10:00 am on Thursday, 23 October 2025 and can be completed and submitted from this date.

The specialty of Ophthalmology can be selected from the vacancy list within Oriel.  The vacancy contains information which will assist you with your application.

Please complete the application fully as incomplete applications will not be accepted.  There are no specialty specific questions within the application form but you will have the opportunity to demonstrate your suitability to ophthalmology later in the selection process.  

When completing your application, we recommend that you do not opt out of receiving text messages as we will send a text message at key stages in the recruitment process.

Additional Evidence

You may also need to complete and submit additional evidence as part of your application form.  Please refer to sections 1 – 6 below to check if you need to submit additional evidence at time of application.  All the forms listed below can also be found within the on the Medical Specialty Training website.

1. Evidence of Foundation Competence

For entry to ST1 specialty training, all applicants are required to provide evidence of achievement of foundation competence within the 3½ years prior to the intended commencement date for the advertised posts.

It is essential that you answer the questions in the application form correctly as this will prompt you to provide the relevant documentation. This is essential to the progression of your application, and the evidence should only be uploaded to Oriel as part of your online application form.

• Currently undertaking a UK Foundation Programme: - Applicants currently undertaking a recognised foundation programme in the UK, which is due to finish in August 2026, will need to confirm the name of their Foundation School but do not need to submit any other evidence at the point of application.  You will be required to provide a Foundation Programme Certificate of Competence (FPCC) to the employer and the NHS England Local Office/Deanery on completion of training and prior to commencement in post 

• Already completed a Foundation Programme: - Applicants who have already completed a UK Foundation Programme will be asked to confirm that they have been awarded an FPCC no earlier than 3½ years prior to the advertised start date for the training programme to which they are applying. A scanned copy of the FPCC MUST be uploaded to the Oriel application.

• Currently on a Specialty Training Programme:- Applicants currently in active clinical or clinical and academic practice in a UK educationally approved training post (CT/ST/LAT or equivalent), holding either a National Training Number (NTN) or Deanery Reference Number (DRN) will be considered as having had their foundation competences assessed on entry to their current post and do not need to demonstrate these again, regardless of when foundation competences were signed off. 

• Previously voluntarily resigned from the specialty of application:- Applicants who have previously resigned voluntarily from the specialty to which they are now reapplying will be considered as having had their Foundation competences assessed previously, providing that they can demonstrate evidence of satisfactory progress in the form of ARCP documentation for the duration of the training undertaken.

• If you have started but not satisfactorily completed a 2-year UK Foundation Programme or a standalone UK Foundation Year 2 post, you can provide a letter written and signed by the Postgraduate Dean where the previous training took place. This letter must use the standard proforma and must include:
• the dates of the previous training
• confirmation of the reasons for the resignation, removal or relinquishing of your post in the Foundation Programme
• confirmation that you have met the requirements and/or demonstrated the competences of foundation training
• confirmation that you have completed a period of remediation, if applicable

• If none of the above applies:-  Applicants who do not fall into any of the above categories will be required to submit a Certificate of Readiness to Enter Specialty Training (CREST) signed by a consultant who has supervised them for at least 3 months (whole time equivalent and continuous period) in the 3½ years prior to the advertised start date for the training programme. The alternative certificate was revised for 2024 and forms from previous years will NOT be accepted.   Applicants must not submit multiple certificates, from different posts to show evidence of achievement of all competences; only one certificate should be submitted.  Round 1 applications and the first national academic round (in England) will be linked meaning that a CREST will only need to be uploaded once, and the outcome will be recorded across all applications within the round/linked rounds.  There is full guidance for both candidates and signatories, and we strongly recommend that you refer to these documents 'Evidence of Foundation Competence' within the Medical Specialty Recruitment website prior to submitting your application.  If you are applying as refugee and unable to complete the certificate, please contact england.sevrecruitment.sw@nhs.net for further details.   

2. Re-application to Specialty Training

Specialty training posts and programmes are not normally available to any doctor who has previously relinquished or been removed from a training post/programme. 

When applying for a post, applicants will be asked if they have previously relinquished or been released or removed from a training programme in any specialty; this is no longer limited to the specialty the applicant is applying to and/or the associated core programme if applying at higher level. 

If the applicant answers yes to this question, they will need to provide full details of the resignation/release/removal from the training programme to the recruiting organisation, by email, at the point of application.  This includes applicants who have resigned from a training programme with satisfactory ARCP outcomes.  This should be provided on the “Support for Reapplication to Specialty Training Form” approved by both the Head of School/Training Programme Director and Postgraduate Dean in the region where the specialty training was previously undertaken. This form is available to download from the specialty training recruitment website.

A new form has to be completed, with appropriate support for application, each recruitment year.  Forms completed in previous recruitment years will not be accepted. 

Applicants requiring this support are advised to start the process early as applications will not be considered without a fully completed and signed form. 

The completed form should be emailed to England.confidential.SW@nhs.net before the closing date of applications.

Please note: Applicants who have previously resigned, relinquished or been removed from a training programme, but are in a training programme (in any specialty) at the time of application do not need to submit a support form.  As they are in a training programme, it is assumed that they have received appropriate support previously. 

3.  Re-application to Switch Location

Applicants currently working in the specialty, holding a National Training Number (NTN), applying to continue their specialty training in another region, will be required to submit a ‘Support for Continuing Specialty Training in Another Region Form’.   A new form must be completed, with appropriate support for application, each recruitment year.  Forms completed in previous recruitment years will not be accepted. 

The form should be completed and signed by the current Head of School/Training Programme Director and submitted at the time of application. 

The form is available to download Support for Continuing Specialty Training in Another Region Form’ from the Medical Specialty Recruitment website.

The completed form should be emailed to england.confidential.sw@nhs.net before the closing date of applications.

If already in specialty training and you are applying for the same specialty again, in open competition, please advise your current Training Programme Director as soon as possible and ideally before an application is submitted.  Submission and approval of post numbers for recruitment happens well in advance of training programmes being advertised.  Being aware of a potential vacancy could assist Training Programme Directors with the management of their training programmes.  Early communication of intention to the Training Programme Director will not affect your application. 

4. Fitness to Practice

Applicants that have answered ‘yes’ to one or more of the questions in the fitness to practice section of the application form will need to submit a Fitness to Practice Declaration Form clearly defining the declaration.  The completed form should be emailed to england.confidential.sw@nhs.net at time of application.

5. Adjustments under the Equality Act 2010

As a national recruiter we are aware of the requirements of the Equality Act 2010 and will make reasonable adjustments to accommodate requests provided these are made known in advance. Adjustments cannot be guaranteed if contact is made late and no adjustments can be made on the day of the assessment.  If you require specific arrangements or adjustments under the Equality Act 2010, please outline the adjustment on page 8 of the application form.

To corroborate your request, you MUST attach independent evidence of your condition and support needs (e.g. an Educational Psychologist report for Dyslexia, correspondence from a medical professional managing your condition) to your application form by time of submission. Please use the ‘Document Upload’ area in your Oriel portal to upload the information.

Nursing mothers are advised to contact us directly via england.sevrecruitment.sw@nhs.net for further advice regarding this requirement.

6. Special Circumstances

A national process has been introduced to assist applicants who need to remain in a specific region for well-founded personal reasons allowing them to be offered a particular region, should they be successful at interview.

Applicants with either a personal medical condition or disability that requires them to remain in a particular region for ongoing care and treatment or applicants who have primary caring responsibilities for someone with a disability are eligible. 

Eligibility will be considered at the time of application and therefore applicants must ensure that they declare this on their application form and submit supporting evidence by email. 

Applicants should follow the process that is published on the special circumstances page of the specialty training recruitment website.

Submitting an Application

Applications can be submitted until 4:00 pm (UK time) on the 20 November 2025.  Late or incomplete applications will not be accepted.

Only one application can be accepted and where multiple applications are submitted, only the first application submitted will be included in the process.  If you fail to provide the appropriate documentation your application will not progress beyond the longlisting checks.

Note:  Alterations cannot be made to an application once it has been submitted.

Tip:  Remember to save and check your application and only press the submit button when you have carried out this process. This will ensure you are submitting the most up to date version of your application.

Longlisting

Applications will be checked for evidence of the essential criteria outlined in the person specification. It is the applicant's responsibility to demonstrate that they meet the eligibility criteria.  Applications that do not demonstrate the criteria or fail to include additional evidence will not continue through the process.   Due to the increase in applications, the longlisting process is likely to be prolonged, and we will update applicants regarding this as the selection process progresses.

The Selection Process

For 2026 the selection process will consist of three components

• Multi-Specialty Recruitment Assessment (MSRA)
• Evidence Folder
• On-line interview/assessment

Multi-Specialty Recruitment Assessment (MSRA)

**** Full details of the MSRA along information to help you prepare for the MSRA can be found on Medical Specialty Recruitment website. ****

All applicants will be invited to attend the MSRA.  Attendance at this assessment is mandatory for applicants to Ophthalmology in 2026 and candidates who fail to attend the assessment will be withdrawn from the selection process. Scores from previous years or rounds cannot be carried forward.

The assessment will be available be undertaken at Pearson Vue Centres and the dates the assessment will be available to take are still to be confirmed.  Invitations to book the assessment will be sent early in December and will be messaged through Oriel.  A text message will also be sent so we recommend that you do not opt out of receiving text messages when you register.

Other specialties will also be using the MSRA within their selection processes and candidates applying to a combination of the specialties will only be required to sit the assessment once.  There will be places for all candidates to sit the assessment, but some centres may have limited availability, with spaces being reserved on a first come first served basis so it is important for you to book your slot as soon as possible.

Evidence Folder 

All candidates will be asked to upload evidence to a specifically designed on-line portal to create a folder of achievements entitled an Evidence Folder. 

Candidates will be able to upload the documentation to the portal, from 16 January to 2 February 2026. 

A list of contents is published under the resources section.  When putting the information together please keep in mind that any one piece of evidence can only be used once and uploaded against only one domain.  The evidence, in each domain, must be provided as a single PDF file, applicants will therefore be required to combine several documents into one PDF if supplying more than one piece of evidence for a single domain.  If applicants fail to follow this guidance, they may score 0 in that domain. Please assemble the documentation clearly, ensuring it is easy to follow and keep in mind when putting the evidence together the assessors will have a limited time to review and score your evidence.  Further guidance will be given to candidates when the portal opens. 

Self-Assessment

New for 2026; candidates will be asked to self-score their achievements and the scoring framework has been published in the resource section of the website.  To allow candidates a similar timeframe as in previous years to gain competences, the deadline to submit the self-score will be the document upload deadline on 2 February 2026.  Prior to submitting an application we would recommend that you review the scoring framework and if your self-scoring is below 19 points to consider if it would be beneficial to delay your application until the next recruitment year.

There will be 8 domains to score and the maximum score that can be achieved is 47 points. A minimum threshold has been set as in previous years and candidates are required to score a minimum of 19 points to continue in the process.  Candidates that self-score themselves below this threshold irrespective of the MSRA score will not progress beyond this stage.  

It is important the scoring accurately represents your achievements.  Any instances of candidates found to be blatantly or persistently trying to gain an unfair advantage by over-claiming scores and/or exaggerating their achievements will lead to a probity investigation. This could lead to an application being deemed not appointable, or, in very serious cases, could be reported as a probity matter to the GMC; however, this is a very rare outcome.

Submitting the self-assessment scores

We will be piloting the method used to collect the scores and candidates will be asked to submit the scores via two different methods:

• A standard proforma should be completed which you should add the scores you awarded yourself and a brief description of the evidence used to support the score.  This will aid the panel when reviewing the evidence.  This document should be uploaded as the first document within your evidence folder.
• A link will also be provided to an online form where we will ask you to enter just the scores but no comments.

Any candidates that fail to submit both components will not progress through the process.

Ranking

Candidates self-scoring a total of 19 points and above will have their score combined with the MSRA score and a rank list will be produced.  The MSRA score and the self-assessment score will be equally weighted.

Applicants that rank within the top 350 will progress to the next stage and their evidence folders will be reviewed and scored.  The candidates not within that range will be held at this stage of the selection process and will not progress. 

All candidates will be updated with the progress of their application at this point in the selection process.

Evidence Folder Review

Each evidence folder will be reviewed by a panel.  The self-scoring will be verified against the evidence uploaded and scored in line with scoring guidance that has been published.  A second ranked list will be produced based on the verified self-assessment score. Those candidates whose verified score is below 20 points will not progress to the next stage.

The scores and the comments recorded as part of the review will be released to candidates on 13 of February 2026. 

Upon receipt of the feedback if you feel your evidence has been overlooked/misinterpreted you can submit an appeal. Instructions for submitting an appeal will be included in the email containing your feedback. You will be given 48 hours to submit your appeal. You will not be able to upload any additional documents during the appeals process; appeals can only be made using the evidence originally submitted.

An appeals panel will review your appeal. Scores awarded by the appeals panel are final and there is no further recourse to appeal even if the appeals panel reduces the original score.

Assessment/Interview

The highest ranking 260 candidates will be invited to join us for the next stage in the selection process which is the interview/assessment.  All other applicants will remain on the reserve list and may be called up to 3 working days before the interviews if we have withdrawals.

The assessment/interview will take place on 16 and 17 of March 2026 and will be virtual so there will be no need to attend in person.  Candidates will be asked to book a slot through Oriel.  The slots are booked on a first come first served basis.

The assessment itself will include two separate interviews/role plays and each one will be up to 10 minutes in length.

There will be 5 minutes reading time before candidates enter each interview room to prepare where the scenario will be shared. Candidates can make notes during this time and take the notes into the interview room to refer to.

Interview 1 - Assessment will be in the form of a medical consultation focusing on clinical knowledge and will involve conversing with an actor playing the role of a patient or carer of a patient. Two assessors will observe the interaction and score each candidate according to set criteria. The assessors will not be seen or heard by the candidate. At times there will be a third quality assurance assessor or lay representative observing the interaction.

Interview 2 – Assessment will be in the form of a medical consultation focusing on a difficult communication or ethical scenario and will involve conversing with an actor playing the role of a patient or carer of a patient. Two assessors will observe the interaction and score each candidate according to set criteria. The assessors will not be seen or heard by the candidate. At times there will a be a third quality assurance assessor or lay representative observing the interaction.

Although the assessments are labelled interview 1 and 2, candidates may start in either one.  The process for each candidate including the initial identity checks, assessment and the debrief will take approximately 45 minutes.

To progress to the offers stage candidates are required to achieve a minimum score of 40% and above in the assessment. Candidates that meet the minimum threshold will have their scores compiled and a ranked list will be produced.

Total Score - Offers

The total score for each candidate, which meets the minimum threshold will be combined as listed below and candidates will be given a rank based on this score.  The score from the MSRA will not be included within the total score.

• Evidence Folder – Maximum score 50 points
• Online Assessment – Maximum score 50 points

The posts will be allocated in rank order based on preference and will be issued through Oriel by no later than 24 March 2026.

Feedback

Feedback will be released in stages during the selection process.  Feedback will be released for the evidence folder on the 13 February 2026 and feedback from the virtual assessment will be released on 19 March 2026.

Expressing a preference - ‘where do you want to train?’

Candidates that have progressed to the offer stage will be asked to rank the training locations in order of preference.  This process will be carried out within Oriel.  An automated message, containing instructions, will be sent to candidates when the preferences open. 

It is intended that the offers process will commence towards the end of March 2025.  At the point of making offers, the preferences will be temporarily suspended.  Following this a matching process will take place and successful candidates will receive their highest ranked preference available.  Candidates whose preferences have been exhausted before their name is reached will not receive an offer and will be notified of this.

Further details about preferencing and the offer process is available within the Specialty Training Website.

References

As part of the national application process candidates will be asked to provide the names of three referees.  References will only be requested once applicants have accepted the offer of a training post.  The purpose of the reference is to confirm employment history and to highlight any concerns.

If no offer is made, or an offer is not accepted, referees will not be contacted.  Please note references will not be required at the interview.

Complaints Policy

If you wish to raise concerns about any part of the recruitment process, please refer to the national complaints policy for guidance.

Questions still remaining

If after reading this guide your question is not answered you can contact the Recruitment Team for questions regarding the recruitment process. 

We often have candidates with questions regarding the scoring of the portfolio and about the content.  To ensure that all candidates receive the same level of information we can only provide the guidance that is published on the website, and no further details can be given to individuals.  With this in mind please do use the support lines for questions about the portfolio.

• Candidate Support Line: 01454 252610
• Email Support: england.sevrecruitment.sw@nhs.net

For questions regarding vacancy numbers and rotation details please contact the relevant local team.  The contact details are available in the Job Description section on the national recruitment website.