Special circumstances

Special circumstances guidance for Dental Specialty Training (DST) applicants

If you have a requirement to complete your training in a particular location, you may wish to be considered for special circumstances.

You must fall into one of the following eligibility criteria and meet the requirements of your training programme to be pre-allocated into post.

Applying for special circumstances

If you wish to be considered for special circumstances pre-allocation, you should ensure that you state this on your application form. 

You must then submit the relevant special circumstances application and supporting evidence by email as a single scanned document by the application deadline. Requests received in any other way will not be accepted. 

For Criterion 1 and Criterion 2 requests, completed forms and evidence should be sent to [email protected].

For Criterion 3 requests, completed forms and evidence should be sent to [email protected].

Required supporting evience

You will need to provide the required supporting evidence for the criertia to which you are applying.

For all criteria you must also provide information on where the required location is and an acceptable travelling distance. If the required location is not the same as your current address, please explain why you need to be placed in a different area and provide proof of the address you need to be placed within a reasonable distance of. For example, a utility bill or bank statement dated within the last 3 months.

Criterion 1 – Primary carer of someone with a disability

Written statement confirming your role as primary carer

The letter should be on headed paper from a general practitioner or social services professional. It should confirm your role as primary carer for this person, together with confirmation of the disability and be dated within 6 months of the application deadline.

The examples below are taken from real special circumstances applications.

Care Plan

Care plan on headed paper from a General Practitioner (GP) or social services professional, dated within 6 months of the application deadline. Where an official care plan is not available, details of caring responsibilities and activities should be provided, attested by the GP of the person who is being cared for.

The examples below are provided to help you understand the requirements of a care plan, based on evidence submitted by applicants in previous recruitment rounds.

Alternatively, you can provide an Educational Health and Care Plan (EHCP) for the child being cared for or, where this is unavailable, confirmation that an assessment has taken place and that the development of the EHCP is in progress.

You must also provide proof of address. For example, a driving licence or a utility bill dated within 3 months of the application date.

Alternative evidence

It has been recognised by the Medical and Dental Recruitment and Selection (MDRS) special circumstances team that obtaining documentation from primary care services is becoming more challenging. Where possible, you should provide a written statement confirming your role as primary carer and a care plan. In light of increasing difficulty obtaining documentation to support primary carer status, a countersigned copy of the MDRS Special Circumstances – Supporting Evidence for Primary Carer form will be considered as part of the special circumstances application in the event that you have not been able to obtain a care plan or written status confirming your role as a primary carer.

The MDRS Special Circumstances – Supporting Evidence for Primary Carer form must be completed in full and countersigned by a professional from the list below. The counter signatory must have a relevant professional relationship with the person you are the primary carer for.

Examples of recognised professions include:

• Chiropodist
• Dentist
• Nurse
• Optician
• Pharmacist
• Social worker
• Headteacher
• Doctor – (either General Practitioner or treating doctor)
• Allied Health Professional
• Midwife

Primary Carer where the person who is being cared for is your child

If you are a Primary Carer where the person who is being cared for is your child, in addition to the completion of the MDRS Special Circumstances – Supporting Evidence for Primary Carer form please also provide the following evidence.

• The full version of the birth certificate (detailing parent(s) name(s)) for the child who you are the primary carer for. This is to confirm that you are the parent of the child they have detailed. The birth certificate must also include the full name of the child. The short version of the birth certificate which contains only the child’s details will not be accepted.
• For legal guardians, a copy of the legal document that confirms your status for the child named in the birth certificate. If you are a legal guardian then you may submit the short version of the birth certificate.
• Letter of referral for further assessment from General Practitioner.

Criterion 2 – Medical condition or disability

Report written by the current medical specialist treating your condition or Occupational Health physician

The report must be provided on headed paper and must be current, that is written for the purpose of this application. Older medical evidence will not be accepted as there is no way of the panel confirming that this is still the current situation.

The written report must contain all of the following information.

• Description of current medical condition or disability.
• Description of ongoing treatment and frequency – What treatment is required? Where is this delivered? How often is the applicant required to attend hospital?
• Explanation of the reasons why the follow up treatment cannot be delivered elsewhere in the UK.
• The impact transferring care elsewhere would have on the applicant.

It must also include where the applicant lives in adapted housing that could not be easily replicated elsewhere, confirmation of this from the GP or local council in written form, dated within 6 months of the application deadline. You must also provide proof of address. For example, a driving licence or a utility bill dated within 3 months of the application date.

If any of this information is missing, the your special circumstances application will be rejected.

Criterion 3

You must be able to provide all of the following.

• Criterion 3 Request for Special Circumstances form.
• The full version of the birth certificate (detailing parent(s) name(s)) for each child. This is to confirm that you are the parent of the child(ren) you have detailed. The birth certificate must also include the full name of the child. The short version of the birth certificate which contains only the child’s details will not be accepted.
• For legal guardians, a copy of the legal document that confirms your status for the child named in the birth certificate. If you are a legal guardian then you may submit the short version of the birth certificate.
• Statement confirming that you have significant caring responsibilities for the child(ren). This statement must be signed by someone who is in a position to confirm they have known you for at least 6 months and have a professional working relationship with you and your child(ren) and can confirm that you have a significant caring responsibility for a child or children under 18. This statement must be dated within 6 months of the application date. The signatory must:
  • be over 18
  • have a relevant professional working relationship with you and your child(ren), for example Midwife, GP/Doctor, Head teacher, Social Worker
  • not be related to the applicant by birth or marriage
  • not be in a personal relationship with you
  • not live at the same address as you
• Proof of current address. For example, a driving licence or a utility bill dated within the last 3 months or council tax bill dated within the last 12 months of the application date.

This criterion is based on childcare. Pregnancy is not part of this criterion. If your sole circumstance is that you or your partner is currently pregnant, you will not be regarded as eligible.

It is expected that you and your child(ren) will remain at your current address and application for pre-allocation will be to programmes local to that address. If the request for pre-allocation is not local to your current address, relevant evidence must be supplied as to why caring arrangements could not continue as present.

If you and your child(ren) do not normally reside together, this should be referred to on the application form, and information supplied as to why the caring responsibilities remain equally significant.

Joint application

Joint applications will be permitted in the following circumstances.

• Shared caring responsibilities - where you and another applicant in the same recruitment round share caring responsibilities for the same individual.
• Fertility treatment - where you and another applicant who in a relationship are undergoing fertility treatment and are applying in the same recruitment round.

If you and another applicant in the same recruitment round share caring responsibilities for the same individual

If you and another applicant in the same recruitment round share caring responsibilities for the same individual, you will need to provide all of the following.

• Criterion 1 joint application request for Special Circumstances form.
• Valid written statement on headed paper from a general practitioner or social services professional, dated within the last 6 months of the application date, confirming both applicants as primary carers for this person, together with confirmation of the disability. Documents that refer to carer or caring responsibilities will not be accepted. Primary caring responsibilities where conditions are not classed as disabilities under the Equality Act 2010 will not be considered.
• Valid care plan on headed paper from a general practitioner or social services professional, dated within the last 6 months of the application date. Where an official care plan is not available, details of caring responsibilities and activities should be provided, attested by the general practitioner of the individual you are providing care for.
• Proof of current address. For example, a driving licence or a utility bill dated within the last 3 months of the application date.

If you and another applicant who in a relationship are undergoing fertility treatment and are applying in the same recruitment round

If you and another applicant who in a relationship are undergoing fertility treatment and are applying in the same recruitment round, you will need to provide all of the following.

• Criterion 2 joint application request for Special Circumstances form.
• A report written by the current medical specialist offering the treatment, on headed paper, date in the last 6 months of the application date.
• Proof of current address. For example, a driving licence or utility bill dated within the last 3 months of the application date.

Outcomes

Special circumstances applications will be reviewed by a national eligibility panel and a decision on whether the application has been successful will be communicated. 

If you are unhappy with the decision of the national eligibility panel, you are permitted to submit an appeal to the national appeals panel. Appeals must be based on new evidence being submitted. The decision of the national appeals panel will be final. 

Allocation  

If approved as having special circumstances, you will be pre-allocated into the region of your choice, subject to the following criteria being met.

• You are deemed appointable at interview/selection centre. 

• You ranked highly enough to receive an offer. For example, if there are 10 posts available, applicant will need to rank in the top 10.

• The region you wish to be allocated to can fulfil all requirements of the curriculum for the specialty for which you have applied.

You will also be considered to have ranked highly enough, where there are applicants ranked above yourself who would not be eligible to receive an offer due to limited preference choices and preferred posts being unavailable. 

Where Locum Appointment for Training posts are being appointed through the vacancy, you must rank higher than the lowest ranked National Training Number (NTN) offer in order to be pre-allocated on the basis of approved special circumstances. 

If all of these conditions are met, you will be pre-allocated into your preferred region, before the main offers algorithm is run. You are pre-allocated to a region only. You are not guaranteed your preferred programme/post within that region. You will be offered the highest ranked post within that region that you would have been offered had the normal offers process run. If you would not have been offered a post in the preferred region, you will be pre-allocated one of your ranked programmes within that region. 

If you do not rank highly enough to be offered a post in the first round of offers, you will be placed on a reserve list, pending more posts becoming available or offers being declined. There is no guarantee of matching special circumstances applicants to preferred locations after the first round of offers has been completed. An applicant without special circumstances who has accepted a post in the preferred location of an applicant with special circumstances will not be displaced to allow allocation of the applicant with approved special circumstances. 

When ranking preferences and have approved special circumstances, you must ensure that you only rank programmes/posts that you are willing to accept and undertake. You will be allocated based on these preferences. If it is not possible to pre-allocate an applicant with special circumstances, they will have opportunities throughout the recruitment process to amend their preferences, should they wish to be considered for appointment in another region.   

When selecting post preferences, you must ensure that you meet the eligibility for those posts.