Recently, resident doctors in England voted to accept a deal from the Government on pay and conditions. This included the payment of postgraduate examination fees (backdated to April 2026) and training ePortfolio fees (from April 2027). The BMA is working with the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) to implement this deal.
The Faculty of Public Health is currently in communication with DHSC and NHS England to understand if the exam and portfolio fee payments will also apply to Agenda for Change (AfC) public health registrars. Along with the Specialty Registrars’ Committee (SRC), FPH is working hard to ensure this does not become a parity issue and is pressing for this to be applied to all registrars in the training scheme. These conversations are ongoing and registrars and others will be updated when there is more information.
In the meantime, the Faculty recommends continuing to sit examinations when the time is right – as the payment of these fees is being backdated under the resident doctor deal, so should this also be applied to AfC Registrars there would be no financial benefit in delaying.
The Faculty recognises that this period of uncertainty may be concerning and appreciates the pressures associated with training and examinations. FPH hopes that this update offers some reassurance while further clarification is sought.
