About the Course

NHS England Workforce, Training and Education Directorate (WT&E) provides a fully funded GP supervisor course for GPs who want to become a GP educational supervisor (GP trainer) or clinical placement supervisor for health care placements in primary care in London.

This GP Supervisor Course has replaced the former ISLA Course and GP Educational Supervision Course.

This interactive course runs over 11 weeks (3 hours contact per week) on a virtual platform and has approximately 45 hours' time commitment (33 hours contact plus preparation).

Eligibility and suitability

To be eligible to apply, participants will need to provide evidence of:

• Being in a substantive GP post in London (Salaried GP or partner working a minimum of 4 clinical sessions a week).

• At least 2 years post CCT (or equivalent).

• Capacity to attend all online sessions.

• Capacity and support to train Foundation Doctors and/or GP specialty trainees within 1 year of completion.

• Engagement with your local clinical and educational supervisor workshop.

To meet the eligibility criteria for this funded course, course delegates are required to commit to attending all eleven sessions of the cohort that they have booked.  The courses are booked to capacity.  If you are not able to commit to attending all sessions of the cohort that you are planning, you are advised to cancel your place and rebook when you can commit to all the sessions of a later cohort.

For more details about the pathway to becoming a GP educator or if you are unsure as to where you need to undertake this course please visit the GP School page  https://london.hee.nhs.uk/gp for more information 

Overview

The purpose of this course is to prepare you for your role as an educator in primary care:

• We explore core educational principles that form the foundations of how we learn and how we relate to each other professionally in the myriad of interconnecting contexts and networks that we find ourselves in.

• We consider the relational, psychological, and sociocultural aspects of learning from an interactional perspective.

• We explore the principles underpinning reflective practice, supervision, assessments, supporting learners and supporting educators in primary care to enable a high-quality learning culture and environment.

• We prepare you for your role as a “supervisor”, a facilitator of learning for doctors and other professionals in clinical practice.

• We use the context of the GP Speciality Trainee trajectory in London GP training as the terrain to navigate our journey together.

Through your engagement and commitment to each other on this course by the end we expect that you will be prepared to take up the role of clinical or educational supervisor in General Practice.

Intended Learning outcomes  (mapped to GMC criteria for trainer recognition)

By the end of this course participants should be able to:

•    Explain the importance of the educational supervisory relationship in the primary care context, the associated roles and responsibilities including ensuring safe and effective patient care (GMC 1)

•    Create an education curriculum to welcome a new learner into a safe professional learning environment (GMC 2)

•    Facilitate learning for a learner (GMC 3)

•    Observe and provide feedback for a learner (GMC 3)

•    Apply workplace-based assessments as set out by the RCGP (GMC 4)

•    Support and monitor educational progress including recognising and managing learners in need of support (GMC 5 & 6)

•    Reflect upon your own learning journey using the criteria and standards set out by the GMC and the RCGP (GMC 7)

•    Recognise your learning needs for your own continued development as an educator (GMC 7).

Venue

Virtual on Zoom (ensure you have good internet connectivity on laptop or desktop and are in a stationary confidential space protected from predictable interruptions for the duration of the 3 hours contact time).

Registration process

Registration for future GP supervisor courses is now overseen by ICS Training Hubs, so you are in the right place.

Once you have registered with your Training Hub via this form , new potential GP educators are encouraged to contact their local GP vocational training scheme (VTS) and attend their local multi-professional educator group.

Please note application for the February 2025 to June 2025 cohort are now closed, any applications now submitted will be held and submitted for the next course in take - dates yet to be confirmed. 

Course intakes

There are two course intakes each year for new GP supervisors in London.

• September to January. Places confirmed by 2nd week of June - please note application for these places is completed, any applications now submitted will be held and submitted for the next course in take

• February to June. Places confirmed by 2nd week of November.

South West London GPs can register their interest at any time for the forthcoming Cohort by filling out this form. They will be added to a list to confirm places when the next course is made available.

Should there be significant interest, NHS England and Training Hubs will work together to identify the availability of additional course dates.

Please note training places are prioritised in areas of low educator capacity where there is a need to support the growth of the local workforce. These areas are defined annually by NHS England as part of a heat map to analyse London GP Workforce needs.

For further clarification of the full process please see the below document.

​Questions

If you have any questions about this process or wish to contact the South West London Training Hub please do so by email office.swlth@nhs.net