A guide to the Training Programme Directors (TPDs)
Who's who and what do they do?
Dr Jonathan Round is the Head of School
Dr Anne Opute and Dr Ruth Shephard are the Deputy Heads of School. They also have TPD roles as listed below.
Scroll down for a full list of TPD names and contact details
All TPDs have generic parts of their job such as helping at recruitment, ARCPs and School meetings. They also have specific additional area(s) of responsibility. They are all Paediatricians working in Teaching and District General Hospitals and aim to give you the best possible training experience.
Programme Management TPDs organise post allocation taking into account trainee educational and other needs. They are highlighted in red. Every trainee has a Programme Management TPD. They should be the person you go to for advice about anything that may lead to changes in the training programme such as wanting to change a post/ maternity or sick leave/ Out of Programme/ concerns that you are not able to discuss with your Educational Supervisor or RCPCH Tutor.
WANT TO DISCUSS YOUR TRAINING WITH OUR TPDS?
Do you have a question about your training? Perhaps life and/ or your plans have changed and you want to explore your options. Maybe things aren’t working out as you hoped and need to know what can be done. Being a doctor, a paediatrician, training in a way you are happy with and fitting this all in with the rest of life isn’t simple. And because ours is a regulated profession, there are rules that can complicated things, rules that are not always intuitive.
The LSP holds trainee contact meetings, where you can meet with the head or one of the deputy heads of school and a TPD. These meetings take place very frequently and are for anyone, at any stage of training. They are not just for those who may need some support. Topics discussed at recent meetings have included including returning to clinical work after statutory leave/research, OOP plans, career interests, issues with exams or progression, research aspirations and work/life balance. The meetings are informal and virtual (we use Zoom these days) and afterwards we’ll send a summary of our discussion.
We hope they are useful and allow you to go away and think through the options. There are an amazing range of different resources available in LSP, London, the Trusts and your individual training centres. We may highlight something you didn’t know about.
If you’re interested contact the Paediatric Team via the Portal and request a meeting via the Workforce enquiry form: https://lasepgmdesupport.hee.nhs.uk/support/tickets/new?form_7=true
