Changes to the Curriculum since 2007

Why has it changed?

If a medical curriculum is to remain relevant it has to be a living thing, capable of change in response to changes in medicine and to changes in medical education. The first attempt at writing the GP curriculum was remarkable, given the enormous challenge of trying, from scratch, to describe general practice. Since its development in 2005 the RCGP curriculum has been under constant review and the curriculum has been changed in response to that review process. The content remains sound, but we now know more about how the curriculum is being used and how it could be revised in ways that will help learners to understand and educators to teach.

What has changed?

The main changes have been to the way the curriculum is put together, rationalising and combining statements where appropriate. The learning outcomes are unchanged but some have been reworded to improve clarity and others moved to more appropriate places. The explanatory information provided has been updated in order to help you better understand the learning outcomes. Some of the educational nomenclature has been changed to make it more user friendly and some new material added in response to national developments, e.g. the medical leadership framework has been incorporated into the core statement. Rather than duplicating material in different parts of the curriculum, a system of cross-referencing will be used.

Go to Curriculum Structure page

When will it change?

The amended curriculum will only apply to those starting their training programme on or after August 2012. If you started your specialty training prior to that date the older version will apply for the duration of your training. As stated above the learning outcomes are largely unchanged,

The revised curriculum statements are available on the RCGP curriculum website.

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