Standards, guidance and curricula

From medical school to postgraduate education, we set the standards and expected outcomes for medical education and training in the UK. We regulate all stages of doctors' professional development, including training for qualified doctors who want to specialise. 

Back
Standards and outcomes

Standards and outcomes

We set the standards expected of medical training organisations. We also set the outcomes students and doctors in training should achieve. Our five publications set out in detail what these standards and outcomes are.

Doctors in training learning on an educational dummy
Promoting excellence
This document sets out the standards for the delivery of medical education and training. These standards have patient safety, quality of care, and fairness at their heart.
Two doctors reviewing some notes in a hospital
Excellence by design
Excellence by design sets out the requirements for curricula. Royal colleges and faculties follow these when developing, or amending curricula.
Two doctors consulting with a patient in a hospital bed
Generic professional capabilities framework
Training in skills like communication, leadership and patient safety is vital to patient care. This framework explains how these skills can be included in postgraduate curricula.
Three students talking
Outcomes for graduates, plus supplementary guidance
Medical students must meet the necessary standards to apply for provisional registration. Outcomes for graduates sets out the knowledge, skills and behaviours that new UK medical graduates must be able to show.
An icon representing standards and outcomes
Outcomes for provisionally registered doctors with a licence to practise
Before applying for full registration, provisionally registered doctors must meet a high standard. This document sets out the outcomes expected of them.
Guidance

Guidance

To help you apply our standards in practice we produce guidance. This guidance outlines how our standards and outcomes can be met and looks at over a dozen areas in more detail. 

Students discussing their work in a group
Achieving good medical practice
This guidance outlines the standards expected of medical students – both inside and outside medical school. It references our ethical guidance Good medical practice.
A doctor reviewing paperwork
Continuing professional development (CPD)
Doctors must keep their knowledge and skills up to date throughout their working life and maintain and improve their performance. Continuing professional development is a key way to meet these professional standards.
An icon representing guidance
Designing and maintaining postgraduate assessment programmes
This guidance is supplementary to our curriculum standards, Excellence by design, and gives advice for those making decisions about how programmes of assessment are designed and maintained.
Three female doctors reviewing notes
Equality and diversity guidance for curricula and assessment systems
This guide is for medical royal colleges and faculties. It explains the principles for the equality and diversity evidence we need to approve changes to curricula, examinations and assessment systems.
A medical student in a wheelchair studying at a computer
Welcomed and valued
This guidance provides advice for medical schools and postgraduate educators on how to support disabled learners, and those with long term health conditions. It replaces our previous guidance, Gateways to the professions.
View all our guidance
Position statements

Position statements

Sometimes we are asked for help in interpreting our guidance. Our section on position statements looks at areas where we've been asked to provide more help. The latest five statements are listed below.

A globe icon
Guidance on UK medical education delivered outside the UK
This guidance outlines our expectations of medical schools that want to provide UK medical education outside the UK.
A stop hand-gesture icon
First, do no harm
This statement is about how the safety of patients is at the core of our new standards for education and training. This includes the expectation that training should take place in an open and honest learning culture.
A struck-out clock icon
Time out of training
Guidance to postgraduate deaneries, medical royal colleges/faculties and trainees on the management of absences from training and their effect on a trainee’s certificate of completion of training (CCT) date.
A clock icon
Less than full time training
This statement sets conditions for training for doctors who are working towards a certificate of completion of training.
View all our position statements
Medical education projects

Medical education projects

Medicine never stops changing and improving, so education and training must keep up. Our projects tackle any subject which may impact on education now and in the future. The latest five projects we've been working on are listed below.

A differential attainment icon
Differential attainment
Differential attainment is what we call the gap between attainment levels of different groups of doctors. It's an indicator that training and medical education may not be fair. Find out more about the work we are doing about this.
A doctor discussing some paperwork in a corridor
Survey of specialty and associate specialist SAS and locally employed LE doctors
We’ve launched our first survey of specialty and associate specialists (SAS) and locally employed doctors (LEDs), which will be open until Wednesday 12 June to complete. Through this survey, we aim to gather a rich and robust source of data, so we can widen our understanding of this critical part of the medical workforce.
Promoting flexibility in postgraduate training
In 2016 we began a review of flexibility in postgraduate medical training, working with stakeholders to find solutions to current barriers to flexibility.
A credentialing icon
Credentialing
We are considering a new process called credentialing to recognise doctors’ capabilities in particular practice areas. The main purpose of this new framework will be to protect patients and make sure that future healthcare developments are safe and effective.
View all our projects
Royal college curricula

Curricula

We make sure that royal colleges meet the standards we set to deliver high quality training. We approve the curricula they create for 65 specialties and 32 sub-specialties.

See all the curricula

How we quality assure

We’re responsible for assuring the quality of education and training. Our quality assurance framework is how we check the use of our standards and guidance. 
Find out how we quality assure