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| FAQs for employers |
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Accessing the Website
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Best practise guidelines for the recruitment of pre-registration trainee pharmacists in the NHS
The NHS Regional Pre-registration Training Managers have developed guidelines for the best practice for recruitment of pharmacy students into NHS pre-registration training posts in England & Wales. These guidelines outline the expectations of students and employers. Both parties are expected to comply with these guidelines.
Students best practice guidelines are that they will:
- Confirm with their nominated employment / character referees that they are a) willing and b) permitted by company policy to provide a reference before completing their application
- Properly research opportunities and organisations and concentrate on those organisations in which they have a genuine interest when making applications
- Be prompt, courteous and honest in all dealings with employers and notify them immediately if they decide not to proceed with their applications at any stage
- When attending interviews at employer's premises, seek only repayment of reasonable expenses incurred
- Abide by the NHS deadline for accepting or rejecting a conditional offer of a post (see Guidance for students on what to do if they are made a conditional offer of a pre-registration training position for further information). The deadline is 7th October 2011 for the first round recruitment
- Recognise that both the conditional offer of a post and its acceptance (whether verbal or written) form a legally binding contract. Verbal and written acceptance must be honoured other than in the most exceptional circumstances i.e. those which are beyond their control or which they could justify as being professionally acceptable (see information on employment offers and contracts)
- After receiving a conditional offer of employment, be honest with employers about their preferred aspect of practice for pre-registration training, other applications made or other employment offers received
- Only accept offers of employment if conditions and terms of employment have been explained and are acceptable
- Once a conditional offer has been accepted, decline all other offers and inform all other potential employers to whom they have applied that they have made a commitment elsewhere
Employers best practise guidelines are that they will:
- Make available material to give students an objective picture of their organisations and to provide information about specific pre-registration training opportunities
- Offer equality of opportunity and avoid in their literature or application forms for employment any reference that might be construed as discrimination
- Inform students whether or not they are to be invited for interview
- Make clear to applicants whether and what expenses will be paid for attendance at interviews
- Agree referees with the candidate and not seek references from a person not so designated without the candidate's agreement
- Notify the result of an interview promptly to a student
- Indicate clearly to the candidate the condition(s) on which an offer is made (see information on employment offers and contracts)
- Explain clearly the terms and conditions of service in offer letters
- Recognise that both the offer of a post and its acceptance form a legally binding contract. This applies to both conditional offers and formal offers
- Not pressure students to accept an offer prior to the date set by the NHS Regional Pre-registration Training Managers
- When students have other possibilities to consider, inform them if the offer can be held open and for how long
- Not give an impression that any commitment to work after the pre-registration period is enforceable in law
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Equal opportunities
Recruitment and immigration status
It is unlawful to treat persons less favourably in employment practices on grounds of their race, nationality, colour, national or ethnic origins. Recruitment practices that reject all job applicants because they do not have British, EU or EEA nationality or refuse to consider any non EEA job applicants who may need immigration sponsorship pose a risk of direct race discrimination.
The Code of Practice on Racial Equality in Employment 2005 and the Code of Practice on the Avoidance of Discrimination in Employment issued by the Border and Immigration Agency, both advise that the assessment of a candidate’s right to work in the UK and immigration sponsorship should be addressed at the end of the short-listing and selection process. It should not be used to exclude them from short-listing or selection. All applications should be considered on merit regardless of immigration status. Blanket recruitment policies that effectively screen out non-EEA candidates at an early stage will put employing organisations at risk of an indirect and direct discrimination challenge by applicants.
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Disabled applicants
The Equality Act 2010 defines a disabled person as someone who has a physical or mental impairment that has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on his or her ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities.
Since December 2006, there has been a legal duty on all public sector organisations to promote equality of opportunity for disabled people and significant public authorities have had to publish a 'Disability Equality Scheme'. Each NHS organisation should have one of these - check with your HR department locally.
Disabled applicants are entitled to ask for reasonable adjustments to be made at any stage of the recruitment process. All applicants have been asked to notify the hospitals if they are disabled and require any reasonable adjustments to enable them to attend the interview.
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Guaranteed Interview Scheme
The Guaranteed Interview Scheme (GIS) is a commitment is to guarantee an interview to anyone with a disability (as defined in the Equality Act 2010) who meets the minimum criteria for the job. All disabled applicants through NHS Jobs are offered the Guaranteed Interview Scheme and the National Recruitment Scheme offers this in line with NHS Jobs / NHS employers. Each hospital entry on the website contains an attached Person Specification for the post of pre-registration trainee pharmacist at that hospital. This Person Specification states the criteria against which applications will be short-listed. Some Person Specifications have essential and desirable criteria listed and the minimum criteria are that listed in the essential part of the Person Specification.
Disabled students wishing to apply under the GIS will need to will need to tick the 'yes' box on the online CV in answer to the GIS question. They will also need to provide evidence in their application of how they meet the essential criteria listed on the Person Specification for the hospital they are applying to. There is no obligation for a disabled student to apply under the GIS if they do not wish to.
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Equal opportunities
The Equality Act (2010) is a single Act of Parliament, requiring equal treatment in access to employment (as well as private and public services) regardless of age, disability, gender, gender reassignment, marriage, maternity or pregnancy, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation.
The public sector Equality Duty (which came into force on 6 April 2011) is part of the Equality Act 2010. The duty replaces the three separate duties that require public bodies to take into account gender, race and disability equality both as employers and when making policy decisions and delivering services. The new public sector Equality Duty standardises this requirement and also extends it to fully cover age, religion or belief, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity and gender reassignment. The duty requires public authorities to have regard to the need to tackle discrimination and promote equal opportunities. When designing and delivering their services, they should consider how they can make them fair for everyone.
The National Recruitment Scheme collects equality monitoring data at the application, short-listing and appointment stages of recruitment for monitoring purposes.
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Equality monitoring reports
As Public Sector Employers, NHS organisations are required to collect details about an applicant's age, gender, ethnicity, religion / belief, sexual orientation and disability at all 3 stages of the recruitment process (application, short listing and appointment). This data is collected in the final part of the CV which is an equality monitoring form. You will not be able to see this page of the students’ CVs but you will be able to see collated and anonymised equality reports after the recruitment cycle has been completed. Please forward these reports to your local HR department.
In order to generate the equality monitoring reports, the recruitment panel assigns codes to students at the short-listing and appointment stages of recruitment. Information about this coding is available to the recruitment panel members when they log on to the Pharmalife website to review their applications.
Click here for more information on equality monitoring
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Open days
We are holding an open day at our hospital. How can we advertise this?
There is a facility to advertise open days on the website www.pharmacytraining.nhs.uk. To advertise these open days contact nhsprereg@pharmalife.co.uk
You will need to provide the following information:
- Name of hospital and region
- Code of hospital e.g. G6
- Where to go for the open day
- Date of the open day
- Name, email and telephone number of the person to contact at the hospital
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Advertising unfilled places
How do I advertise unfilled places for the second round of recruitment?
Pharmalife contacts hospitals in early October to identify the list of remaining vacancies for advertising in the second round or recruitment. You will need to provide the following information:
- Name of hospital and region
- Code of hospital e.g. G6
- Number of unfilled places to be advertised in the second round
Hospitals should only advertise places that are definitely vacant. If there is any doubt the place should NOT be advertised – Places can be advertised at a later date using the Pharmalife mailing list that is sent to students seeking a placement after the second round (see below).
How do I advertise unfilled places after the second round of recruitment has closed?
Vacancies that arise after the second round has closed can be advertised on the home page of the Pharmalife website. Students who have not secured a pre-registration placement after the second round can register with Pharmalife to be informed of any vacancies. To advertise these vacancies contact nhsprereg@pharmalife.co.uk You will need to provide the following information:
- Name of hospital and region
- Code of hospital e.g. G6
- Number of unfilled places
- Name, email and telephone number of the person to contact at the hospital
- Closing date for applications
- Dates of interviews (if known)
Pharmalife will post this information on the home page of the website with a link to the hospital profile. Students will apply by CV directly to your hospital. They will not fill in the online application form.
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Application
Functions of the NRS at the application stage of recruitment are as follows:
- To produce information on NHS pre-registration training in England & Wales both online and in the form of a booklet distributed to all 3rd year pharmacy students in the UK
- To advertise NHS pre-registration trainee pharmacist places in England and Wales online on the www.pharmacytraining.nhs.uk website (Click here for a flowchart outlining the process for advertising pre-registration training places)
- To provide an online application system for pharmacy students applying for NHS pre-registration training places in England & Wales
- To gather academic references for MPharm students up until an agreed deadline
- To distribute application forms to hospitals and NHS regional co-ordinators
- To provide an interactive function on the Pharmalife website to enable hospitals and NHS regional co-ordinators to generate equality monitoring reports for the application stage of recruitment
- To provide information on students and their hospital choices to Schools of Pharmacy
- To provide recruitment related information on the website www.pharmacytraining.nhs.uk
- To respond to queries about the NRS process from students, employers and Schools of Pharmacy
- To take appropriate action if any applications are found to be fraudulent, plagiarised or duplicated
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Short-listing
The NHS Pharmacy Education & Development Committee pre-registration specialist group has written and agreed guidance for short-listing for pre-registration trainee pharmacist recruitment. These guidelines are updated annually and should be used in conjunction with local trust recruitment and selection policies and National guidance produced by NHS Employers.
For a copy of the short-listing guidelines please click here
Functions of the NRS at the short-listing stage of recruitment are as follows:
- To provide short-listing guidelines for use by hospitals and regional co-ordinators
- To provide online codes to be used by the short-lister which to enable students to check their application status online (i.e. check whether they have been invited for interview or not)
- To generate an automatic email to the student to inform them if they have NOT been offered an interview
- To generate an automatic email to the student to inform them if they have been invited for an interview. N.B. The hospital is responsible for contacting the student to inform them of date, time and venue of the interview
- To distribute academic references for short-listed MPharm students to hospitals (where a reference is available)
- To provide an interactive function on the Pharmalife website to enable hospitals and NHS regional co-ordinators to
generate equality monitoring for the short-listing stage of recruitment
See also equal opportunities section which contains important information related to short-listing of applicants
APPLICATION STATUS CODES USED DURING SHORT-LISTING
All of the students can log onto the website to check the status of their application. They are all assigned a code 'Under Consideration' as a default. There is a choice of 3 codes which are to be used AT THE SHORT-LISTING STAGE:
- 'Under Consideration'
- 'Invited for Interview'
- 'NOT Invited for Interview'
In some regions the regional co-ordinator assigns these codes and in some regions this is done by the hospitals. When you log on to the Pharmalife website and click on Manage Applications, there will be information on whether the hospitals or the regional co-ordinator assigns the codes for your region. If you are responsible for assigning the codes, you can find instructions on the website telling you what to do.
Please note that the codes play a vital part in collection and reporting of equality monitoring data. If you are responsible for assigning codes, please ensure that you have coded all applicants and nobody is left with a status 'Under Consideration' by 7th October 2011 (first round of recruitment) and 30th November 2011 (second round).
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Interview
The interviews should be carried out in accordance with local trust or regional policies.
If you are using selection tests in the interviews (including prescription/ drug chart exercises) then students must be informed about these tests prior to the interviews in order to comply with the Equality Act 2010. This is because disabled applicants are entitled to request extra time to complete these tests e.g. due to dyslexia.
The interviews should take place in September for the first round of recruitment and November for the second round. Please ensure that you stick to this nationally agreed timetable for interviews. Late interviews can cause anxiety for students in deciding whether to accept an alternative offer or hang on for a late interview. Late interviews can also result in an employer having difficulty recruiting as often the students you want to interview have already accepted another offer.
After the interview, the employer should contact candidates by phone, email or letter to inform them of the outcome of their interview. There are no codes for communicating the outcomes of interviews to students.
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Appointment
Responsibility for the appointment of successful candidates is outside the remit and scope of activity of the NRS. Local trust recruitment and selection policies and National guidance produced by NHS Employers should be followed once the application forms have been sent to the hospitals.
Functions of the NRS at the appointment stage of recruitment are as follows:
- To respond to queries from students, employers and Schools of Pharmacy. These queries often relate to immigration for non UK/non EEA students.
- To provide online codes to be used by the hospitals to indicate which students accepted pre-registration training positions. These codes are used for equality monitoring purposes only.
- To provide an interactive function on the Pharmalife website to enable hospitals and NHS regional co-ordinators to generate equality monitoring for the appointment stage of recruitment
Please note that the codes play a vital part in collection and reporting of equality monitoring data. If you are responsible for assigning codes, please ensure that you have coded all applicants who were offered a place and accepted it as ‘Appointed’ by 14th October 2011 (first round of recruitment) and 12th December 2011 (second round).
Click here for information on the recruitment process for pre-registration training places from advertising to appointment
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Employment offers / contracts
For the first round of recruitment students are given until 7th October 2011 to accept or reject an offer (see Guidance for students on what to do if they are offered a pre-registration training position). Offers made after the 7th October in the first round are made to candidates on the hospitals reserve list i.e. when the first choice candidate has declined an offer. Therefore, if an offer is made after 7th October 2011, the employer may ask the student to give them a definite decision within 24 hours of them making the offer.
For the second round of recruitment the employer may ask the student to give them a definite decision within 24 hours of them making the offer.
What information should be included in offers and contracts of employment?
Employers are expected to ensure that any offers and contracts of employment clearly specify the terms and conditions of the employment offer / contract. After the interviews the recruiting manager identifies the successful candidate and a conditional offer is made. We recommend that you contact your local HR department for advice before making a conditional offer as procedures do vary from hospital to hospital. The conditional offer is usually verbal and the manager should clearly explain the conditions of the offer to the student. The conditions will usually include the following:
- Satisfactory written references
- Satisfactory disclosure from the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB)
- Employers should ensure that all their employment contracts for positions which are eligible for a CRB check include a statement which requires staff to disclose any criminal convictions, reprimands, cautions and warnings which may subsequently occur whilst they are in their employment or which occur in the time between the CRB check and starting employment
- Successful completion of the MPharm degree or OSPAP programme
- Whether the employment offer is deferred or withdrawn if the candidate fails to successfully complete the MPharm degree or OSPAP programme
- Whether the employment offer is deferred or withdrawn if the candidate defers sitting final exams
- For non UK / EEA applicants: Specify that the offer is subject to obtaining a visa for working in the UK.
(Unless they already have a suitable visa to cover the duration on their pre-registration training or settlement status).
- Work Health Assessment * conducted by Occupational Health to see whether the successful candidate has any health problems that could affect their ability to undertake the duties of the post that they have been offered or place them at any risk in the workplace. Occupational Health may recommend adjustments or assistance as a result of this assessment to enable the successful candidate to do their job
* NHS Employers suggest that hospitals should ask the successful candidate to answer yes or no to the following statements after making a conditional offer of a post:
“I am not aware of any health conditions or disability which might impair my ability to undertake effectively the duties of the position which I have been offered."
Or
“I do have a health condition or disability which might affect my work and which might require special adjustments to my work or at my place of work."
If the answer to the second question were positive then the individual would be referred directly to Occupational Health (OH) to identify adjustments or assistance needed to enable them to do their job. Instead of using the above question, some hospitals ask all successful candidates to complete a Work Health Assessment questionnaire.
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Criminal convictions
The Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) provides access to information across England and Wales about criminal convictions and other police records to help employers make an informed decision when recruiting staff. CRB checks are a mandatory requirement in the NHS for all staff who, as part of their appointment, have regular, direct contact with patients in the course of their normal duties. Further information on CRB checks can be obtained from the following website http://www.crb.gov.uk/ and for Scotland www.disclosurescotland.co.uk
There are 2 levels of CRB disclosure, Standard and Enhanced. New requirements for CRB checks came into effect in April 2010 and pre-registration trainee pharmacists appointed after this date will need an Enhanced CRB check. Click here for more information.
On the application form for NHS pre-registration training, applicants are asked to declare if they have any “spent” or “unspent” criminal convictions or bind-overs, or any cautions, warnings or reprimands. As the post involves access to patients in the course of normal duties it will be exempt from the provisions of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act by virtue of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975. Therefore applicants are NOT entitled to withhold any information about convictions, cautions, warnings and reprimands which for other purposes are "spent" under the provisions of the Act.
We advise students to contact potential employers if they think something may come up on a CRB check. If you are contacted by any students to discuss CRB issues we recommend that you liaise with your HR department. The HR department should be able to advise you on whether the offence would prevent employment or not.
It is the responsibility of the employer to undertake the CRB check after making a provisional offer of a place and all offers of employment are subject to satisfactory CRB checks. The decision rests with the employer as to whether to employ a person whose CRB check reveals a conviction or other relevant information. The information provided should be carefully considered in the light of all the relevant circumstances and judged on a case-by-case basis. The hospital Human Resources department should be able to provide advice. Offers of employment may be withdrawn if the CRB check is unsatisfactory or if the applicant fails to reveal information relating to any convictions.
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Guidance for students on what to do if they are offered a pre-registration training position
Guidance for students on what to do if they are made a conditional offer of a pre-registration training position
The NHS timetable for recruitment of pre-registration trainee pharmacists in England and Wales may differ from recruitment timetables in community pharmacy. This could cause a dilemma for students if they are offered a pre-registration training place before being able to attend interviews with other organisations. To help students, the NHS Regional Pre-registration Training Managers have made an agreement on accepting or rejecting offers. This guidance should be read in conjunction with the Best Practise Guidelines for the recruitment of pre-registration trainee pharmacists in the NHS and information on employment offers and contracts.
Please note – The NHS honours this agreement and we expect students to do so too. Standards of honesty and trust are expected of all pharmacy students as described in the Student Code of Conduct
When does a student have to make my decision on whether to accept or reject a conditional offer?
For the first round of recruitment:
- Students must notify the employer of their decision to accept or refuse an offer of a pre-registration training position on, or preferably before, 7th October 2011
- Employers should not pressurise students to accept an offer prior to 7th October 2011 as this is in neither parties best interests. However if the student is happy with the offer they can accept it prior to 7th October 2011 and refuse all other offers immediately
Offers made after the 7th October in the first round are made to candidates on the hospitals reserve list i.e. when the first choice candidate has declined an offer. Therefore, if an offer is made after 7th October 2011, the employer may ask the student to give them a definite decision within 24 hours of them making the offer.
For the second round of recruitment:
The employer may ask the student to give them a definite decision within 24 hours of them making the offer.
What does a student do if they receive a conditional offer but it isn't from their preferred employer?
For the first round of recruitment:
Holding onto an offer is defined as neither accepting the offer nor refusing it. Students may hold onto one offer whilst they are awaiting the outcome of an interview with a preferred employer but should reject one offer if they are made a second offer, so they only ever keep one ‘in hand’. This process can continue until they have heard from all their options, then they should make their final decision. They should inform the employer if they do not wish to accept the
offer as soon as possible so that the position can be offered to somebody else.
For the second round of recruitment:
The employer may ask the student to give them a definite decision within 24 hours of them making the offer in the second round of recruitment. Therefore our advice to students is to accept the first post they are offered in the second round even if it isn’t their first choice rather than run the risk of not obtaining a pre-registration placement at all. The second round is not the time to be choosy, it is the time to secure a training place. All the hospitals pre-registration training programmes are accredited as meeting the General Pharmaceutical Council’s standards and will provide training to enable trainees to meet the performance standards and support for the registration assessment (exam).
What does a student do if they receive two or more conditional offers?
- If a student receives two or more offers, they should think very carefully before accepting one of them. By accepting an offer either verbally or in writing, they are entering into a legally binding contract. Once a student accepts an offer they are expected to honour their acceptance
- Students should not hold onto more than one offer at any time whilst making a decision. If they hold onto multiple offers they deprive other students of receiving an offer of employment.
If you are aware of any NHS hospitals in England or Wales pressuring students to accept an offer prior to 7th October 2011 please inform Helen Middleton, Lead for the NHS National Recruitment Scheme for pre-registration trainee pharmacists (England & Wales) helen.middleton@chelwest.nhs.uk 020 7763 6585
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NHS Employment Check Standards
NHS Employment Check Standards are mandatory checks that employers must carry out in the appointment, and ongoing employment, of all individuals in the NHS. Employers will need to evidence of their compliance with NHS Employment Check Standards as part of the Healthcare Commission's Annual Health Check. The NHS Employment Check Standards cover:
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Factors that could delay the start of pre-registration training
What do I do if one of the students who we have offered a place to fails their MPharm or OSPAP examinations?
The General Pharmaceutical council (GPhC) will not allow students to enter the pre-registration training scheme unless they have passed their MPharm or Overseas Pharmacist Assessment Programme (OSPAP) examinations and been legitimately awarded their qualification. (Legitimately awarded means that the student has passed their MPharm or OSPAP and paid all fees; if fees are unpaid the MPharm or OSPAP is withheld i.e. not legitimately awarded). Students on a sandwich course must have successfully completed all parts of the MPharm that precede pre-registration before they can enter pre-registration training.
The offer letter should state the terms and conditions of the offer and some offers are dependant on the student passing the MPharm or OSPAP at the 1st attempt. If you are considering withdrawing the offer you should discuss the matter with your Human Resources department. If the offer letter states that the position will be held open, failed or deferred university examinations may mean a delay to the start date or postponement of pre-registration training until the following year. We would recommend that you offer the student a place for the following year’s intake of trainees, if they defer their exams due to ill health or bereavement, however the final decision rests with the employer and you may have a valid reason why you don’t wish to do this.
Both the tutor and the student are responsible for notifying the pre-registration division at the GPhC in writing (or by e-mail) of delays to the start date of the training and any other changes in training details. The employer will need to discuss any changes to training arrangements with the NHS regional pre-registration co-ordinator as there will be implications for funding.
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Eligibility to Sit the Registration assessment
What is the cut off date for starting pre-registration training in order to sit the registration assessment?
There are 2 sittings of the registration assessment (formerly known as registration examination) each year in June and September. Eligibility for entry to either sitting of the registration assessment is subject to the submission of a satisfactory progress report by the pre-registration tutor at the 39 week stage and having completed a minimum of 45 weeks of pre-registration training by the registration assessment date. It is therefore possible to calculate the date by which trainees must have commenced training in order to be eligible for sitting the registration assessment (see table below).
| Year of sitting |
Deadline to commence training to sit the Summer registration assessment |
Deadline to commence training to sit the Autumn registration assessment |
Registration Assessment dates |
| 2012 |
19 August 2011 |
18 November 2011 |
Summer: 29 June 2012
Autumn: 23 September 2012
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| 2013 |
17 August 2012 |
16 November 2012 |
Summer: 28 June 2013
Autumn: 27 September 2013
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