Ranking, offers and post offers

Dental Foundation Training (DFT) applicant guide

You will be notified on the status of your Dental Foundation Training (DFT) application via Oriel.

Appointability

You will be notified by the end of January 2025 about this. 

National Ranking

The scores will be centrally collated to produce a single national ranking based upon the scores from the SJT.

Your total score is made up of 100% of your score equalling your mark on the SJT.

In the event of tied ranks, there are a number of pilot questions included in the SJT which are not used to determine your SJT score but will be used for the purposes of breaking ties.

The pilot questions do not lengthen the duration of the SJT test.

If the pilot questions do not then break the ties, the scores across the 4 domains assessed in the SJT will be used to break ties.

Case study

Case study: Tied ranks

Luisa and Farid both had a total weighted SJT score of 82.5.

However, Luisa answered 5 out of 6 pilot questions correctly whereas Farid answered 6 out of 6 pilot questions correctly.

This means that Farid would rank above Louisa in the overall national ranking as he answered more pilot questions correctly.

You will receive your offer rank and total SJT score on the day offers are released.

Offer process

You will be notified on the status of your application (successful or unsuccessful) via your Oriel account by the end of January 2025.

If you are deemed successful this does not guarantee that you will receive a DFT post.

Should you be unsuccessful in obtaining your BDS by 24 June 2025 you will be withdrawn from the recruitment process.

Upgrades will be available until 5 June 2024 4pm

Your allocation to a DFT scheme will depend on the ranking you achieve as a result of your Situational Judgement Test (SJT) performance and the preferences that you submit on Oriel.

The first ranked applicant will be offered their first preferenced scheme and so on.

See the case study below for more details.

Once the offer match been released you will be either:

  • Notified via oriel that an offer to a DFT scheme has been made
  • A notification that all current vacancies have been filled and you are on the reserve list

Offers of training placements are conditional, and will be made to those who gain Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) or equivalent by (to be confirmed) 2025.

Your allocation to a DFT scheme will depend on the ranking you achieve as a result of your Situational Judgement Test (SJT) performance and the preferences that you submit on Oriel. The first ranked applicant will  be offered their first preferenced scheme and so on.

Making a decision on your offer

To accept or decline an offer, click on the appropriate button from the Offer/Actions section of the offer summary.

When you click on Accept you will be taken to a confirmation screen.

You must ensure that you tick the confirmation check box before you click the confirm button in order to confirm your response. 

A green confirmation message box is displayed at the top of the screen when you have successfully submitted your response. 

You will be given 48 hours in which to accept, accept with upgrades, or reject an offer by logging in to Oriel and going to the offer tab of your dashboard.

If you fail to accept during this 48 hour period, you will be deemed to have rejected the offer made and the system will automatically expire the offer.

Should you be unsuccessful in obtaining your BDS by 24 June 2025 you will be withdrawn from the recruitment process.

The Oriel message you receive once you have been made an offer is your official confirmation of an offer to Dental Foundation Training.

Any documentation required to support external processes (e.g. Mortgage) will need to be discussed with the lead employer/region where your offer is in.

Once an offer is accepted it cannot be changed to a training placement to another NHSE Local Office/Deanery or scheme unless you opt in to upgrades in the first offer phase.

Once upgrade deadline has passed, there will be no opportunity to change offers or swap offers with applicants.

Upgrades

Upgrading of schemes is only available until the upgrade deadline 5 June 2024 4pm. After this date, no further upgrades will be offered.

You must accept your offer before you can opt in to upgrades.  

Once you have accepted the offer, you can only amend your preferences if you opt in for upgrades. This option is available as a button on the offer page. 

Once you have opted into upgrades, you will be able to see your preferences at the bottom of that page, and you can then amend them accordingly.

You cannot remove the scheme you have been offered at this stage, and you should only rank schemes higher than your offered scheme rank if you definitely want to go to them as upgrades are automatic and you cannot revert to your original offer if an upgrade is made.

The programme preference you have received as an offer is displayed at the bottom of this screen. Above this are all other programme preferences that you have ranked more highly than your offered programme preference.

Important: Upgrades

If you opt in to upgrades, and an upgrade becomes available, you do not have an option to decline the upgrade.

Upgrades occur automatically and replace your initial offer which cannot be reinstated.

Reject an offer

If you reject an offer, you will not be included in any further offer matching in the recruitment round.

Any offer that is declined or that expires will be reoffered in 48-hour iterations to the next eligible appointable applicants, in rank order and according to saved preferences.

If you are therefore initially placed on the reserve list – it is advisable to check your email and Oriel account every 24 hours as offers will be ongoing throughout (to be confirmed) 2025.

Reserve list

Whilst we aim to offer as many posts as possible in our matches, on occasion applicants will rank a small number of preferences and these are no longer available to match to an offer.

Any offer that is declined or that expires will be reoffered to the next eligible appointable applicants, in rank order and according to saved preferences.

If you are therefore initially placed on the reserve list - it is advisable to check your email and Oriel account every 24 hours as offers will be ongoing.

We also recommend to expand your preferences choices as wide as possible.

Case study

Case Study: How Dental Foundation offers will work

Colin’s top 5 preference schemes were: NHSE North East - North Scheme, NHSE North East -South Scheme, NHSE North East - Central Scheme, NHSE North West - Blackburn Scheme and NHSE North West - Lancaster Scheme.

He was ranked 1025 - meaning that 1024 applicants were ranked higher than him.

When it was Colin’s turn to be allocated, all the vacancies within NHSE North East - North Scheme, NHSE North East - South Scheme, NHSE North East - Central Scheme and NHSE North West - Blackburn Scheme had been filled with higher ranking applicants.

There was still a vacancy within the NHSE - North West - Lancaster Scheme therefore Colin was sent an offer for this scheme.

Information:

The above case study demonstrates the importance of the preferences that you make. It is advised to preference as many schemes as you are prepared to train in – if you limit the number of schemes, you preference, this could limit your possibility of being offered a training placement.

If you limit your preferences and you do not rank highly enough to be offered any of them, you will not be offered a training post – even if you are eligible to receive an offer based on your score and rank.

In this case you are considered to have pre-emptively declined an offer of a post as the only vacancies left are in schemes that you are not prepared to train in.

This is indicated by placing the scheme in the ‘Not wanted’ column on Oriel.

Preferencing out

You can rank high enough to receive an offer but due to the limited schemes you have selected during preferencing will mean you have not received an offer and your Oriel status is Interview Complete.

You will continue to be included in offer matches, and we advise that you widen your scheme preference choices when preferences are open to increase the opportunities of receiving a match.  

Post offer processes

See information below for deferrals, less than full-time training and post offer details for Dental Foundation Training recruitment 2025-26.

Deferrals

Deferrals of 12 months after the proposed DFT post start date can only be approved on the basis of statutory reasons. These include:

  • maternity, paternity or adoption leave
  • periods of personal ill health

Please ensure you inform the region where you have accepted an offer of your intention to defer as soon as they make initial contact.

Less than full-time training

If you are applying to enter Dental Foundation Training but are unable to train full time, you may be able to apply for less than full-time training (LTFT), provided you can show that training on a full-time basis would not be practical for you for well-founded reasons.

  • well-founded reasons may include, for example: 
  • disability
  • ill health
  • caring responsibilities
  • religious commitments
  • unique opportunities for personal or professional development

Less than full time training must meet the same requirements as full-time training, except that there will be fewer hours of work per week.

Please note that you will need to secure a full-time post in open competition before you can make an application to work LTFT.

You should apply for eligibility through your current NHSE local office/deanery ahead of this and indicate your desire to work less than full time on your application form.

If you are, or will be, on a Skilled Worker visa, your pro rata salary must meet the minimum salary threshold for this visa type.

Please contact the region you have accepted an offer in if you are planning to apply for LTFT training, so the region can review your request and advise further.

Post offer - post upgrade deadline

Once the upgrade deadline has passed (see recruitment timeline) you are unable to change regions/schemes.

You will not be made any further offers and the offer that you have been given will be the final offer.

You should speak to the region where you have recieved an offer in for any support you may need however this will not mean any change in region/schemes.

We do not facilitate any swaps or changing of schemes with applicants in the process for Dental Foundating Training.

Attendance of Dental Foundation study days and Local allocation process

See information below for attendance of study days and Local allocation process details for Dental Foundation Training recruitment 2025-26.

Attendance of 2025-26 Dental Foundation study days

If your application is successful, you will be expected to participate in all study day courses and equivalent prescribed virtual or on-line activities, as set out in the published 2025-26 programme.

Attendance at all of the Dental Foundation study days is mandatory for all Foundation Dentists.

The study days will run consistently from 1 September 2025.

You must be available to attend all commissioned study days provided during this time and therefore should not plan annual or other leave during this training period.

Consent of absence will only be considered in exceptional circumstances, subject to the agreement of the Postgraduate Dental Dean, following a written request at least 6 weeks in advance.

Any study days missed will be expected to be made up with suitable equivalent training/education (approved by the relevant Postgraduate Dental Dean for Dental Foundation Training) in your own time and, where necessary, at your own cost.

Local allocation process

All preferences will be to scheme level.   

For September 2025 start dates, allocation to a practice will take place after upgrade deadline which is on 5 June 2025 4pm.

Allocation to a training practice within a DFT scheme will be managed locally by the Local Office/Deanery/Nation hosting the scheme and does not constitute part of the England, Wales and Northern Ireland national recruitment process.

Once all offers have been accepted the list of successful applicants, with their ranking within each scheme, will be sent to the NHS England Local Office/Deanery hosting that scheme.

This ranking may then be used to inform the local allocation process of a training post at an individual dental practice.

The allocation of practices may be made on the basis of your ranking and your preferences.

If accepted a post in London and KSS schemes

You will receive an alert on your dashboard alert list, labelled ‘Allocation acknowledgment pending’.

Allocations are linked to an accepted offer, and therefore you must access your Offers tab to view and acknowledge this information.

Within the Offers tab, an offer for which there is a pending allocation is displayed with a yellow Allocation pending banner. 

Click on the offer to view the information, and then Click ‘Acknowledge allocation’ to confirm that you have read this information. 

Note, acknowledging your allocation allows the administrator to see that you have viewed this information. As you have already been offered, and accepted a job offer, failure to acknowledge the allocations has no impact on your job offer.

Enquiries

Any further enquiries should be made via the Applicant Support Portal.

Page last reviewed: 9 August 2023
Next review due: 9 August 2024