The ARCP Online

An Annual Review of Competence Progression (ARCP) can be conducted entirely on Portfolio Online including:

• Registering ARCP panel members to a school
• Scheduling an ARCP
• Assigning ARCP reviewers to panels
• Reviewing a trainee's portfolio for ARCP
• Completing an ARCP Outcome Form
• Signing off an ARCP
• Releasing an outcome to a trainee
• Acknowledgement of an outcome by a trainee

Step-by-step instructions along with screenshots on how to do all ARCP related tasks can be found in our ARCP step-by-step guides.

We have automated a number things to help those involved in the process such as:

• Notifying the trainee that an ARCP has been scheduled and prompting them to update their profile.
• Setting a review period following the scheduling of an ARCP based on a trainee's previous ARCP date or level.
• Including the appropriate folders & reviews within the set review period on the ARCP Outcome Form
• Pre-populating the ARCP form with data already in the system.
• Scheduling and revoking ARCP reviewers' read access to a trainee's portfolio.
• Providing an overview of all ongoing ARCPs in a school in terms of their status and by calendar view.
• Notification of any missing required fields on the ARCP Outcome Form.

Registering ARCP Reviewers to a School

The first time a school uses Portfolio Online to conduct ARCPs, deanery administrators should add ARCP reviewers to their school.

When doing this, it is important that deanery administrators check with ARCP reviewers to see if they are already registered with the system, and if so, what their primary email address is. The primary email address is the email address used to log in to the system and is the one a deanery administrator should use to register reviewers. This ensures no duplicate accounts are created.

Deanery administrators can continue to add or delete ARCP reviewers to their respective schools as necessary. ARCP reviewers can review a trainee's portfolio for the purpose of ARCP on the date of the review and two weeks prior.

Instructions along with screenshots on how to add ARCP reviewers can be found in our article: Add an ARCP Reviewer to your school.

Scheduling an ARCP

Each ARCP in the system represents an instance of ARCP in the real world. An ARCP can be scheduled by a deanery administrator on a trainee as soon as the review date is known. To find out how to do this, follow our step-by-step guide Schedule an ARCP for an Individual Trainee.

Once an ARCP has been scheduled, we will automatically prompt the trainee to ensure their profile is up to date prior to an ARCP Outcome Form being created. Trainees should have a folder for each level of training in their portfolio e.g. CT1, CT2 etc. These folders will have a start and end date specifying the time period they cover. Trainees can see which folders will be included in an ARCP once the ARCP has been scheduled and make amendments if necessary.

With the trainee profile up to date, the system can compare the ARCP review period with the folders to see which folders should be considered during this review. If a folder overlaps the ARCP review period, the system will use information contained in that folder to pre-fill some of the questions and an accurate form will be created.

Assigning an ARCP Reviewer to a Panel

It is possible to assign reviewers to specific dates so that ARCP outcome forms can be pre-filled with the correct details of who was involved in a particular review. When assigning ARCP reviewers to a panel date, deanery administrators can select reviewers from a list. If a reviewer is not shown then, it means they are not registered with the school. To find out how to assign a reviewer to a school see our guide: Assign an ARCP Reviewer to a Panel.

If a reviewer has been assigned to a date, then the reviewer's dashboard will show a list of trainees who have an ARCP on the specified date.

If a reviewer has not been added to a specific date, then their dashboard will show that there are reviews scheduled on that date, but that they have not been assigned to review any trainees on that date. This gives the reviewer the opportunity to raise this with a deanery administrator if they feel this is not correct.

Relevant ARCP Outcome Forms will then be pre-populated with the names of the assigned reviewers. This data can later be edited on a trainee's ARCP Outcome Form if there are any changes. Reviewers can be checked or unchecked in the section 'List all Panel Members' on the form if there are any changes to reviewers in attendance at the time of a particular trainee’s review. For reviewers who have not been registered with a Portfolio Online user account (e.g. Lay Representatives), their details can be manually entered into a free text area on the ARCP Outcome Form.

Registered reviewers of a school get automatic access to all trainees' portfolios in the same school. Deanery Administrators are not therefore required to add reviewers to a specific date to grant them access a trainee's portfolio.

Completing an ARCP Outcome Form

An ARCP Outcome Form can be created at any time once an ARCP has been scheduled. This gives deanery administrators the opportunity to draft forms prior to the review date to save time on the day of an ARCP review. It also provides an opportunity to identify any issues beforehand and to allow these to be rectified. For example, if a trainee has incomplete information or incorrectly marked-up folder dates. 

If there is a significant amount of information missing, the form may be discarded and the deanery administrator can refer back to the trainee. Once the trainee has resolved any issues with their portfolio, a new form can be generated.

Forms can be created, modified and deleted by anyone involved in the ARCP process, up until such time as it is submitted and signed off. As with all forms in the system, each revision is stored and attributable to a user account.

Submission of a completed ARCP Outcome Form can happen on the ARCP review date or thereafter. The system will check to see that a form is valid and if so will mark it as submitted. If not, any required fields that need completing will be highlighted.

The form can be submitted by either the deanery administrator or any of the panel members. For a step-by-step guide to completing an ARCP Outcome Form, see our article: Complete an ARCP Outcome Form.

Signing off an ARCP

Once an ARCP Outcome Form has been submitted it needs to be signed off. This can be done by any of the reviewers or the head of school and should be accessed directly from the account of the person signing off the form. Deanery administrators cannot sign of an ARCP Outcome Form.

When the completed form is reopened, the system will display an area in which sign-off can take place. The person signing off the form selects the capacity in which the sign-off is being made.

The system then shows that the sign-off has been successful. This prevents any further changes to the outcome form. The account holder has the option to remove the sign-off, should the form need to be changed in any way.

For step-by-step instructions on signing off an ARCP, see our article: Sign off an ARCP Outcome Form.

Can an ARCP reviewer sign-off an ARCP Outcome Form after the date of the review?

Releasing an Outcome to a Trainee

Once an ARCP Outcome Form has been signed off, the deanery administrator can release the outcome to the trainee. This is the last opportunity the deanery has to ensure that all the information is correct on the ARCP Outcome Form before it goes into a trainee's portfolio.

For step-by-step instructions on releasing an ARCP, see our article: Release an ARCP Outcome Form to a trainee.

Acknowledging an ARCP Outcome

Once an ARCP outcome has been released, trainees can acknowledge this by signing it off from their own account. This will automatically create an ARCP Outcome Form activity in their portfolio. The review can then be seen by others involved in the trainee's training.

Signing off an ARCP indicates that a trainee understands the recommendations arising from the review. It does not imply that they accept or agree with them. The trainee can still have the recommendation reviewed as well as the right of appeal for outcomes 3, 4 and 7.3 as delineated in The Gold Guide, Section 7.

Trainees can find step-by-step instructions on acknowledging an ARCP, in our article: Acknowledge an ARCP Outcome.

A visualisation of the different stages of conducting an ARCP online using Portfolio Online along with a key to the different roles in the process can be found in our article The ARCP Timeline & Roles.