To help out the new starters in psychiatry training to familiarise them with working in the NHS and the training scheme. This will also allow some kind of mentoring and support for the junior psychiatrists in Oxford deanery.

This scheme was piloted by psychiatry trainees in 2009.

Each new core trainee (CT1) is linked up with a more senior third year core trainee (CT3) on a voluntary basis. It is mainly designed to help the new trainee, but should also have benefits for the link trainee e.g. educational leadership and teaching experience.

A central feature of the scheme is that it should be adaptable to the needs of both parties. The Link CT3 should agree to a minimum commitment of 4 sessions, but it may be that the CT1 is happy with fewer than that.

The programme has been running over the last four years in Oxford and with the help of many colleagues we have been able to get very good and helpful feedback about the scheme and the way it works. Most trainees were happy with it and some of them suggested some modifications.

The Link Trainee Scheme is a very helpful programme that is widely accepted by psychiatry trainees both at a junior and senior level.

In a recent feedback, some trainees suggested involving senior registrars in the scheme and we have been piloting this for the academic year 2013-2014.

This scheme has been adopted by other deaneries in Britain.