Round 2 & clearing FAQs

Yes! A second round will start in April 2012, details of the timeline can be found on the Calendar page of this website. Not all deaneries will participate in round 2, this will depend on the progress of round 1 and whether any posts remain unfilled.

The Calendar page of this website has more detailed information on the timeline for round 2 but in short applications will be open from 09:00 on 3 April until 13:00 on 17 April 2012. Intevriews will take place in May with most offering completed by early June.  

Essentially, a complete repeat of the first recruitment round (round 1 begins in November 2011); candidates complete and submit an application form, attend interview and then receive offers as before. An updated applicants' guide for round 2 will be available to download from this website in approximately mid-March to overview the process.

As deaneries make their offers in round 1 during February/March they will either fill all their posts, or use up all their appointable candidates. Once they know which one applies to them, and therefore whether they need to participate in round 2, we will publish this information on the Post numbers page of this website. This will include information on whether they are participating and the number of posts available.

This will be updated throughout March as and when deaneries declare their round 2 status. Final confirmation of round 2 participation will be on 29 March 2012.

Please note that in some cases deaneries will not be able to confirm the exact number of posts available, as offers from round 1 may still be continuing, but a minimum number of posts will be confirmed.

Yes - the two recruitment rounds are entirely independent of each other; so it would not matter whether or not you had previously applied in the first round.

if you applied in round 1 you would not need to register again and can apply using your previous login details. However, you would need to complete and submit a new application form, although please note that much of the information from your first application will be transferred across. Then, if eligible and invited, you would need to attend another interview; any assessment carried out on any applications made in round 1 will be disregarded entirely in round 2.

No. As the 'recruitment' (ie academic) year is a little tight, there is some overlap between the end of round 1 and the beginning of round 2.

This means that deaneries/UoAs may still be recycling offers (ie where one candidate declines an offer, and the deanery/UoA then make this offer to their next candidate) from round 1 even after applications have opened for round 2.

As noted above, rounds 1 and 2 are entirely independent of each other, so it is not a problem to apply to round 2 even while a deanery/UoA may still be considering your round 1 application. However, if you do receive a later offer from round 1, please withdraw your round 2 application as soon as possible.

Yes - as the number of available posts, the number of deaneries/UoAs, and the number of potential candidates will all be lower in round 2, the second round can progress more quickly overall than round 1.

As the second round of CT1 recruitment draws to a close, any candidates who have applied in round 2, have not yet accepted a CT1 post offer, and meet the qualifying criteria for clearing, will be offered the chance to have their application transferred for consideration at alternative deaneries/UoAs where CT1 post vacancies remain.

All such candidates will be contacted by the RCP-SRO and made aware of any remaining vacant CT1 posts across England, Northern Ireland and Wales; and then invited to put these remaining posts into preference order.

All candidates who wish to take part in clearing will then be ranked in order based on the score awarded to them during the main round, and the highest-scoring candidate will then be offered her/his first preference post; the next candidate will then be offered her/his first preference, and so on. If any candidates have preferenced a post which has already been taken up by a higher-scoring candidate, they will then be offered their second preference; and so on.

This cannot be confirmed at present - as with round 2, whether clearing takes place at all will depend on the numbers of remaining appointable candidates and vacant posts, and this cannot be predicted at this point.

However, if it does transpire that clearing can go ahead, it will take place as round 2 proper draws to a close - likely to be late June/early July 2012.