Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the (a) adequacy of the UK Foundation Programme allocation process and (b) potential impact of changes to the UK Foundation Programme allocation process on levels of satisfaction among applicants in 2023.

The allocation process for the UK Foundation Programme this year was changed to a Preference Informed Allocation method. This new process saw applicants being given a computer-generated rank and the removal of the requirement to sit the Situational Judgement Test. The move to the new system aimed to address concerns about the previous system, including that was it was perceived as unfair and stressful for applicants, and that there was lack of standardisation within and across schools. This change was based on extensive stakeholder engagement by the four statutory education bodies in the United Kingdom.

When confirming the move to the new system last year, Health Education England, now part of NHS England, set out that once implemented it would be kept under constant review to make sure it is working well for applicants.

All 9,702 eligible applicants for the 2024 Foundation Programme were allocated to a Foundation School, with 75% of those applicants getting their first preference. This is an improvement on last year when 8,655 applicants were placed and 71% got their first preference.