Shortlisting

Not all dental recruitment processes use shortlisting. Please ensure that you also read the application information on the specialty you wish to apply to.

In shortlisting, applications are scored according to their content, for example applicants’ experience, achievements, qualifications and so on. The scoring systems used are based upon the nationally-agreed person specification.

To ensure a fair, legal and equitable process when shortlisting takes place, the people completing the shortlisting will not see your personal details when they consider your application.

Verified self-assessment

Some dental specialties use verified self-assessment as part of their shortlisting process.

This requires you to select the appropriate response to a number of questions on the application form. You will then be asked to upload and attach evidence to support your selected response to a separate system at a later date.

You are not required to upload evidence to support your responses with your application form.

Submitting supporting evidence

Evidence to support your responses to the self assessment questions will be uploaded to the Qpercom system.

You will be advised when you can upload and attach your evidence by the lead recruiter for the specialty you have applied for. The lead recruiter will provide guidance on using the system and how your evidence should be organised when you are invited to upload your evidence.

You must have documentary evidence available from the time of application for all achievements for which you score yourself. You should have access to all your documents when you apply to avoid complications later in the process.

You will be advised by the lead recruiter deadline for uploading supporting evidence, together with the format in which they require the evidence to be presented. You should ensure that you present the evidence in the requested format. Failure to do so could result in your evidence being rejected and/or the self-assessment score being reduced.

Failure to submit all evidence by the stated deadline will result in your application form being withdrawn by the recruitment team. It is recommended that you prepare your evidence alongside your application form.

Deadlines for submitting supporting evidence will be provided by the recruitment team. Recruitment administrators will not be able to upload evidence on your behalf and once the deadline for submission has passed, you will be unable to submit evidence. 

Failure to submit all evidence by the stated deadline will result in your application form being withdrawn by the recruitment team. It is therefore recommended that you prepare your evidence when you complete your application form.

Evidence requirements and tips

Panel members will need to verify your evidence in a short time so keep the below in mind when organising your evidence, as poorly organised/presented documents may mean achievements cannot be verified.

• Only evidence supporting each of the claimed achievements should be uploaded. There is no requirement to upload any additional documents or achievements if they are not directly related to the scoring domain where points are being claimed.
• Only sufficient evidence should be provided to justify the scores awarded. Only include enough evidence to demonstrate achievements which justify your selection. For example, if you have completed a national presentation, you should not include evidence for other presentations. If you have written a book, you do not need to upload the whole book, just sufficient pages so interviewers can verify your achievement.
• Evidence of training courses or areas noted in your commitment to specialty section should not be included unless they specifically relate to a scored option.
• You must ensure patient-identifiable data is redacted as this may result in your employing trust being notified.
• Any documentation not in English must be translated for credit to be received.
• Only PDF and image files can be uploaded to the system.
• The maximum file size is 5MB.
• When evidence is loaded, it needs to be attached to the domain(s) to which it pertains. For example, if you have a presentation for which you have been awarded a prize, you can upload the presentation evidence once and attach it to both domains.

Additional guidance will be issued with any request for evidence documentation to be uploaded.

Patient-identifiable data

Information governance regulations state that you must not allow any patient-identifiable data (PID) to be moved away from the designated (usually clinical) area.

As such, you must ensure none of the documentation you use at interview (for example, details of case reports and audits) contain information which could be used to identify patients. This would be a breach of patient confidentiality. This includes hospital or NHS ID numbers.

All such patient-identifiable data must be redacted.

If patient-identifiable data is found, it is likely that your employer, supervisor and region (as relevant) will be notified, in order to take further action.

Evidence verification

Submitted evidence will be verified against the self-assessment criteria for all applicants. Where the evidence submitted does not match the score awarded, the score will be adjusted accordingly.

On completion of the verification process, you will be sent your verified score, together with the verification panel’s feedback explaining any changes to your score. Where you disagree with the score awarded, you can lodge an appeal.

Where your score differs from the assessor score by 10% or more of the overall score, you may be contacted by an assessor, as part of a probity process.

Appeals against scoring must be lodged by the deadline stated in the feedback email.. No additional evidence can be submitted. The appeal should highlight why you feel that the score should be adjusted, based on the evidence that was initially submitted and verified.

Appeals received after the stated deadline will not be considered.

The outcome of the appeal is final and there is no further recourse for dissatisfied applicants. Disagreements over self-assessment scores fall outside the scope of the Medical and Dental Recruitment and Selection (MDRS) Complaints Policy.

Interviews

For specialties which use a shortlisting process, applications that pass the eligibility checks will go ahead to be scored. The top-scoring applicants will be invited to interview or assessment. Typically, more applicants will be invited to interview than the number of posts available.

For some specialties there are a limited number of interview slots available and due to some high competition ratios, not all applicants can be invited to interview.

For more information, go to the interviews page.

Where applicable, details of the scoring scheme will be made available to you.

Feedback

Due to the large volume of applicants, some recruitment offices will only contact you following an application if you are being invited to an interview. However, the lead recruiter will send shortlisting feedback to all applicants within 7 working days of the interview date.

This will consist of:

• your shortlisting score and/or rank
• maximum possible shortlist score
• shortlist score and/or rank required to be invited to interview

Complaints

Where you feel that your application has not been managed correctly and have evidence of a failure in the process, there is a national complaints procedure.

You should contact the specialty recruitment office if you have any concerns about your application or would like to know more about the complaints procedure.