GMC Accreditation
Meeting the General Medical Council’s (GMC) Implementation Plan
GMC Definitions
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A named educational supervisor is a trainer who is selected and appropriately trained to be responsible for the overall supervision and management of a trainee’s trajectory of learning and educational progress during a placement or series of placements. Every trainee must have a named educational supervisor. The educational supervisor helps the trainee to plan their training and achieve agreed learning outcomes. He or she is responsible for the educational agreement and for bringing together all relevant evidence to form a summative judgement at the end of the placement or series of placements.
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A named clinical supervisor is a trainer who is responsible for overseeing a specified trainee’s clinical work throughout a placement in a clinical or medical environment and is appropriately trained to do so. He or she will provide constructive feedback during that placement. He or she will lead on providing a review of the trainee’s clinical or medical practice throughout the placement that will contribute to the educational supervisor’s report on whether the trainee should progress to the next stage of their training.
Accreditation Review Date
All postgraduate doctors in training should have a named and accredited educational and clinical supervisor. The Trust/LEP should ensure that all trainees employed by the organisation have these named roles in place.
In March 2025 there was an announcement by the GMC advising of amendments to the trainer recognition framework.
From March 2025, there will no longer be an expiry date on a trainer’s accreditation record, meaning they will be listed as a named supervisor on GMC Connect until ourselves ( NHS England South West) or the trainer advise the GMC otherwise. There are no other changes to the recognition and approval process, and the GMC have advised that education organisations will still need to ensure trainers meet the eligibility criteria for recognition and approval in the trainer framework. The only change is removing the recognition and approval period with the GMC. We will continue using our supervisor accreditation database with all the Trusts to ensure accreditation is being maintained. If a supervisor’s accreditation is not maintained with educational CPD over the recognized 5 year period, we will be informing the GMC that they no longer have trainer recognition status.
We want to assure you this does not change NHS England South West’s commitment to patient care and ensuring our trainers are trained to the undertake their role, as recommended by both the GMC and the Academy of Medical Educators professional standards.
Therefore, we will continue to train our trainers to ensure they meet the eligibility criteria for recognition and approval in the trainer framework and advise they must attend to their ongoing professional development as trainers to maintain their accreditation, (Requirement for ES: 2.5 days within 5 years, requirement for Named CS: 1.5 days within 5 years, as recommended by the GMC) focussing on skills development and education, either on one of our many courses (all advertised on MaxCourse) or other similar educational events. Please see website for further details (Peninsula & Severn). Your Trust will also continue to update your CPD record on their accreditation database, so please continue to forward certificates to them.
Continuing Professional Development – Educational Supervisors
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Training should be focused on skills development and education
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Although we provide a suite of CPD training courses, there is the option of Educational Supervisors doing other courses (provided internally and externally) counting towards CPD if they met the criteria above
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The requirement to maintain accreditation for an Educational Supervisor is 1 day of CPD every 2 years (or half a day each year) within a 5-year period. If the required CPD is not undertaken the supervisor would be advised of this and requested to undertake the training in order to maintain their accreditation status
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The educational role should be assessed as part of the individual’s annual appraisal process. CPD requirements and ongoing accreditation should be discussed in this meeting.
Continuing Professional Development – Named Clinical Supervisors
- The requirement to maintain accreditation for a named clinical supervisor is half a day CPD every 2 years within a 5-year period. If the required CPD is not undertaken the supervisor will be advised of this and requested to undertake the training in order to maintain their accreditation status.
Equality and Diversity
- All supervisors must renew their equality and diversity training each 3 years