Foundation Programme evidence requirements: what F1 and F2 doctors need for ARCP

The Foundation Programme publishes exactly what evidence an ARCP panel expects from F1 and F2 doctors. This guide walks through the national checklist item by item, explains the curriculum structure behind it (3 HLOs, 13 FPCs), and covers how evidence mapping works in Horus and Turas.

Last reviewed - requirement claims in this guide were checked against the cited official sources on that date. Published by Clerkfolio.

The curriculum behind the checklist

Foundation training runs on the UK Foundation Programme Curriculum (the 2021 curriculum, refreshed in a 2026 revision). Everything the ARCP panel asks for exists to show you have met that curriculum, so it helps to know its shape before listing the paperwork.

The curriculum is organised into three Higher Level Outcomes (HLOs), each subdivided into Foundation Professional Capabilities (FPCs) - 13 in total:

Official requirements

The 3 HLOs and 13 FPCs

  • HLO 1: An accountable, capable and compassionate doctor - FPC 1 Clinical assessment, FPC 2 Clinical prioritisation, FPC 3 Holistic planning, FPC 4 Communication and care, FPC 5 Continuity of care.
  • HLO 2: A valuable member of the healthcare workforce - FPC 6 Sharing the vision, FPC 7 Fitness to practise, FPC 8 Upholding values, FPC 9 Quality improvement, FPC 10 Teaching the teacher.
  • HLO 3: A professional, responsible for their own practice and portfolio development - FPC 11 Ethics and law, FPC 12 Continuing professional development, FPC 13 Understanding medicine.

Your job across the year is to accumulate portfolio evidence that, mapped against those 13 capabilities, demonstrates the minimum expected performance for your year of training. The panel reads the mapping, not a pile of unsorted documents.

The national ARCP checklist, item by item

The UK Foundation Programme publishes an ARCP checklist that panels work from. The requirements below are national; your foundation school can add local requirements on top (approved by the UKFP Board), so treat this as the floor, not the whole picture.

Registration and time in training

Official requirements

Registration, duration and absence

  • F1: provisional registration and a licence to practise with the GMC. F2: full registration and a licence to practise.
  • 12 months of whole-time-equivalent training per year of the programme.
  • No more than 20 days of absence (on days you would normally be at work) in each 12-month period - beyond that, your progression date is normally reviewed.

Supervisor reports

Official requirements

Supervision evidence

  • An educational supervisor (ES) end-of-year report - the single most important summary document the panel reads.
  • ES end-of-placement reports for every placement except the last of the year (the end-of-year report covers that one).
  • Clinical supervisor (CS) reports for all placements.
  • At least one CS report per training year must make use of Placement Supervision Group (PSG) feedback - the structured feedback collected from the senior team you worked with.

Feedback and observed practice

Official requirements

TAB, PSG and SLEs

  • At least one Team Assessment of Behaviour (TAB) per training year - multi-source feedback from a spread of colleagues.
  • At least one Placement Supervision Group report per training year.
  • Supervised Learning Events (SLEs) showing direct observation of a sufficient variety of clinical encounters across the curriculum, including physical health, mental health and social health presentations.

The national checklist deliberately asks for a "sufficient variety" of SLEs rather than one fixed number for everything; foundation schools often publish their own expected counts per placement. The SLE forms available in the e-portfolios include the mini-clinical evaluation exercise (mini-CEX), case-based discussion (CBD), direct observation of procedural skills (DOPS) and developing the clinical teacher (DCT), plus the F1 core procedures list.

Exams, engagement and everything else

Official requirements

Remaining national items

  • F1: successful completion of the Prescribing Safety Assessment (PSA), within the two years before the programme or during it.
  • Evidence of engagement with the programme: personal learning log, reflective entries and ongoing portfolio development.
  • Completion of any additional requirements set by NHS England, NES, HEIW or NIMDTA for your school - commonly things like mandatory teaching attendance or life-support certification; the specifics are local, so check your foundation school's guidance.

How evidence mapping works in Horus and Turas

Foundation doctors in England use the Horus ePortfolio (an NHS England product); Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland use the Turas Training Portfolio (NHS Education for Scotland). Both hold the same nationally agreed core content and both work by mapping: you link a portfolio item (an SLE, a reflection, a certificate) to the capabilities it evidences.

Official requirements

Mapping limits under the 2021 curriculum

  • A portfolio item can be mapped to a maximum of 3 FPCs.
  • A maximum of 10 portfolio items can be mapped to each FPC.

The 10-item cap is a quality signal, not a target: the system is telling you that panels want a curated, representative set per capability rather than everything you can find. The 3-FPC cap means you cannot stretch one strong piece of evidence across the whole curriculum - variety is unavoidable by design.

Clerkfolio suggestion

Clerkfolio suggestion: log evidence the week it happens

Most missing ARCP evidence was real work that never got written down: the teaching session with no record, the audit presentation with no slides saved, the feedback conversation with no note. A short entry made the same week - what happened, when, your role, any document attached - preserves the details you will not remember in month ten. Clerkfolio's categories mirror the kinds of evidence foundation portfolios need (teaching, QIP, procedures, reflections), and its ARCP view lets you link each entry to foundation capabilities so you can see per-capability coverage at a glance. It complements Horus and Turas; official sign-off always happens in your deanery's system.

Sources and jurisdiction

Clerkfolio is independent and is not affiliated with the NHS, the GMC, the UKFPO, or any Royal College. This guide is general information, not advice about your individual training situation - always check the current official guidance and your own foundation school or deanery requirements.

One portfolio for your entire career

Clerkfolio is a portfolio app for UK medical students and doctors. Log achievements, teaching, audits and reflections once, keep the evidence when you change trust, deanery or nation, and map the same entries to specialty applications and ARCP capabilities when you need them. See features and pricing.

Related guides

ARCP preparation

The ARCP is the annual, evidence-based review that decides whether you progress through UK postgraduate training. This guide explains how the process works for foundation doctors, what the panel actually looks at, and how to have your portfolio ready well before the deadline.

Documenting teaching

Teaching you deliver only counts if it is documented. This guide covers what counts as teaching, what to record for each session, the Developing the Clinical Teacher SLE, and how to collect feedback so a one-off session becomes durable portfolio evidence.

Documenting an audit or QIP

Quality improvement is a named foundation capability and a staple of specialty application frameworks, but a project only becomes portfolio evidence if each stage is written down. This guide covers audit vs QIP, the improvement cycle, and exactly what to document as you go.

Reflective practice

Reflection is a required thread through foundation training and beyond, and it is governed by clear joint guidance from the GMC, AoMRC, COPMeD and the Medical Schools Council. This guide summarises what that guidance says, how to anonymise properly, and how to write reflections that are actually worth re-reading.