The Scottish Foundation School - Specialised Foundation Programmes - August 2025
The Scottish Foundation School offers Foundation Programmes (FP) and Specialised Foundation Programme (SFP) opportunities.
SFP is offered in 5 Groups (4 regions of Scotland), 54 Programmes (rotations/posts) across these regions and in conjunction with Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow and St Andrews universities.
The SFP programmes offer the opportunity to develop skills in research and medical education/teaching alongside core Foundation training.
During the F2 year of SFP, there may be either the opportunity for a dedicated 4-month placement or a longitudinal placement (e.g. time each week for the whole of F2 year).
Scottish Foundation School SFP
East Region – 6 posts (E07)
All posts are either Research or Teaching themed, based in Tayside.
All East posts offer a 4-month block in F2 in your preferred academic area. This is a 2-year fixed rotation.
North Region - 12 posts (N11)
Research (6) (medical 3 and surgical 3) and Medical Education (6) are the themed rotations based in the first year either in Aberdeen or Inverness and year 2 in various locations across the North region.
The 12 North posts offer a 4-month block in F2 in your preferred academic area. This is a 2-year fixed rotation.
South-East Region – 15 posts (S12) and 3 posts (S18 - year 2 Fife based)
The 15 posts in S12 are in Lothian and are all research themed. These include 9 posts that have an allocated 4-month F2 block and 6 that are longitudinal with a half day/ week for the F2 year. Your allocated programme in F2 will take consideration of your stated preferences and the process of year 2 allocations will take place in December and January.
There are 3 posts (S18) based in Fife for the F2 year with a fixed rotation through Emergency Medicine, General (Internal) Medicine and General Practice with a day/ week for the whole of F2 to be used for the foundation doctors chosen project.
West Region - 18 posts (W32)
All posts are Research themed and based in West hospital locations or combined West hospital locations.
All posts in the West are longitudinal posts and offer one day /week dedicated research time throughout the F2 year. This is a 2-year-fixed rotation.
Allocation Process – August 2025
The allocation to the Scottish Foundation School will be conducted via the standard UK Preference Information Allocation (PIA) process for August 2025 intake. Once applicants have received the confirmation of allocation to Scotland in Spring 2025, there will be an opportunity to preference the Specialist Foundation Programme (SFP).
Those who are interested in a SFP group will be asked to complete a SFP preference form. This will include ranking of the SFP Groups in order of preference and white space questions focusing on your reason for applying to SFP.
Further information regarding the forms will be available in due course on the Foundation School website /foundation/foundation-training-in-scotland.aspx and in the Foundation School Welcome email.
In addition, the Scottish Foundation School will host a webinar for all allocated applicants to inform of the detailed process of the 2-stage ranking process to Groups (regions) and Programmes (rotations/posts). Interviews will no longer be part of the SFP allocation process.
The SFP preference form will be scored by clinical academics in Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow universities.
Stage 1 - Applicants will be allocated to a Group (region) based on the clinical academics score for the SFP preference questions. Applicants will not know if they have been successful at receiving SFP Group until notification of Group allocation via Oriel and you need to continue to rank all other Groups in Scotland.
Stage 2 - Allocation to a Programme (rotation) will be via Oriel and PIA. Applicants will not know which programme in their allocated Group they if they have been allocated to until release of allocations by the UKFPO.
For all enquiries, please email the Foundation School: sfas@nes.scot.nhs.uk
Please see the UKFPO website for more information on the SFP process across the UK - https://foundationprogramme.nhs.uk/programmes/2-year-foundation-programme/specialised-foundation-programme/