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Higher Trainees

Higher Trainees

Information for Higher Trainees

london landscape

Whilst working in ELFT, Higher Trainees will gain unique management experience, with the aim of becoming excellent clinicians. 

Trainees will be attached to a number of different Speciality Schemes. Here you find more information on each of the schemes in the Trust.

Barts and The Royal London Higher Professional Training Scheme in General Adult and Old Age Psychiatry covers much of East London and The City and mostly involves 2 trusts, East London NHS Foundation Trust and North East London NHS Foundation Trust. Roughly 2/3rd of the posts are in ELFT (City & Hackney, Newham, and Tower Hamlets) and 1/3rd in NELFT (Waltham Forest, Redbridge, Barking & Dagenham and Havering).

The scheme provides comprehensive training in general adult psychiatry and the psychiatry of old age, with opportunities for placements and special interest sessions in most sub-specialties. The geographical area covered is both ethnically and socio-economically diverse.

Each site has an active postgraduate teaching programme. A monthly multidisciplinary academic programme is held at the Robin Brook Centre, St Bart’s Hospital, usually on the first Wednesday of the month. On the 2nd Wednesday afternoon of the month there is an educational meeting arranged by & for the ST4-6 body and this is currently held at St Bart’s Hospital. 

There are numerous opportunities for both undergraduate (Barts and The London medical students) and postgraduate teaching. Training in the delivery of teaching is also locally available.

Information on NELFT's Higher Training posts can be found here.

Training Programme Director for the scheme is Dr Sheraz Ahmad. To contact the training admin please email elft.higher-training@nhs.net

For more information, please see

The North London higher training scheme in Learning Disability (Intellectual Disability) covers North East and North West London. The scheme has 11 training posts in 5 NHS Trusts in a mixture of community, inpatient and forensic settings. With regards to the East London Jobs, 4 are in ELFT and 1 post is in NELFT.

Psychiatry of Learning Disability (also called Psychiatry of Intellectual Disability) is a rewarding, fascinating and challenging psychiatric speciality.  Our trainees learn to assess and treat complex mental and behaviour disorders in people with a learning disability.

It is a speciality which truly draws together the biological, psychological and social factors which underpin mental illness. We work with patients, families, carers and the wider community to deliver holistic and personalised care.

During training you can develop specialist expertise in neurodevelopmental disorders such as Autism and ADHD. You can learn how genetic syndromes influence an individual’s mental health. You can become an expert in the use of pharmacological and psychological treatments for mental and behaviour disorders. We also work closely with colleagues in mainstream mental health services to ensure our service users receive the best possible care.

There is an active postgraduate teaching programme. A monthly multidisciplinary whole day academic programme is held on the 2nd Monday of every month with a range of external speakers, case discussions, journal club, research and quality improvement presentations.

We provide ample opportunities to develop special interests in areas such as forensic psychiatry, epilepsy, child psychiatry and dementia.

Our scheme has a strong academic links to University College London and Professor Angela Hassiotis. 

We are very keen to support trainees to achieve a good work life balance. We actively support less than full time training and patterns of flexible working.

We also encourage our trainees to take time out of programme (OOP) to develop skills. In recent years, our trainees have taken time out of training to work for Health Education England, to complete a higher research degree at University College London or to travel abroad to learn how services are delivered in other countries.

The GMC trainee survey indicates high levels of satisfaction from trainees on our schemes.

Our trainees have developed a short film which illustrates their experience of higher training in London. Please have a look HERE 

For information about our specialist curriculum please click HERE

If you are interested in learning more about the speciality or perhaps experiencing a taster day with one of our consultant supervisors, please do get in touch.

ID programme prospectus

The contact details of the Training Programme Directors are:

Dr Eileen Mc Namara (North London)

Dr Nicole Eady (North London)

More information to follow...

More information to follow...

The Luton and Bedfordshire Training Programme Director is Dr Sen Kallumpuram

The General Adult Higher Training scheme in Bedfordshire and Luton is delivered via a small, friendly scheme with many opportunities to develop your clinical and academic skills.

The scheme covers the whole of Bedfordshire and Luton, offering a wide range of posts from acute psychiatric wards in towns to community clinics covering more rural communities

For more information on the scheme please access the HEEoE website HERE