Workplace Based Assessment (WPBA) builds up a qualitative picture of your performance in training. The evidence you collect in your Trainee ePortfolio is reviewed at six-monthly intervals by the educational supervisor.
Purpose of the Educational Supervisors Review (ESR)
ESRs provide feedback on your overall progress and identify areas where you need more focused training.
Reviews are informed by the evidence you collect through the WPBA tools, along with ‘naturally occurring evidence’ from elsewhere in the Trainee ePortfolio (for example, the Learning Log).
You’ll then agree a learning plan, and the outcome of the review will be recorded in your Trainee ePortfolio. The educational supervisor decides whether your progress is satisfactory, unsatisfactory or needs to be referred to the ARCP panel.
Towards the end of training there’s a final review, and the educational supervisor makes a recommendation to your deanery ARCP panel regarding your overall competence. The ARCP panel makes the final judgement on whether you’re competent for licensing, based on the evidence in the ESR and your Trainee ePortfolio as a whole.
Timing of ESR
An ESR is conducted every six calendar months, whether you’re training full-time or not. Reviews are carried out even if they do not coincide exactly with the end of posts. This ensures regular feedback and engagement with the evidence in the Trainee ePortfolio, and means that the ARCP panel has a recent ESR to inform their decision making.
The dates of ARCP panels determine the dates by which ESR's must be completed.
Dates of ESR for Trainees Due ARCP
ESR must be completed no less than 2 weeks before your ARCP panel date (and not more than 8 weeks before your ARCP panel date)
Dates of ESR for Trainees NOT Due ARCP
Trainees not due ARCP may still be called to panel if the Educational Supervisor requests it. In order that trainees can be seen by a panel ESRs must be completed by:
Winter ESR - Mid December
Summer ESR - End of June
Review meetings usually take between one and two hours, followed by a write-up in the ePortfolio.
A generic e-mail will be sent to all trainees via e-portfolio with details of when the next ARCP is to be held and by which date they should have had their ESR. (Please ensure that both you and the Educational Supervisor have signed and submitted the ESR, otherwise it will not progress to the ARCP process.)
Competence progression in ESR
For the six-monthly reviews, you’ll first conduct a self-assessment of your progress on the 12 competences. You’re then be assessed by the educational supervisor.
Quality of evidence is more important than quantity. In the early stages of training, it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to provide evidence of readiness to practise. But the review will form the basis of a learning plan, highlighting where you’re doing well and where more support is needed.
By the end of ST3, the educational supervisor will be looking to establish fitness to practise through several sets of evidence in each competence area, collected from a range of settings and through different tools. Each portfolio will look slightly different, but it should provide a rich picture built up over three years.
Curriculum coverage in the ESR
While it’s not the main focus of ESR, you’ll have opportunities to consider breadth of curriculum coverage as well as progress in the competences. When reviewing your Trainee ePortfolio, you and your educational supervisor can monitor how far you’re covering the range of knowledge described in the curriculum, in preparation for the Applied Knowledge Test (AKT) and clinical practice.