Resources

Eligibility

Fellowship of the College is awarded as a mark of distinction and recognition of contributions to psychiatry. Because it is a College award, candidates and citators are asked to demonstrate and evidence significant contributions to the core purposes of the Royal College of Psychiatrists:

• Setting standards and promoting excellence in mental health care.
• Leading, representing and supporting psychiatrists.
• Working with service users, carers and their organisations.

Candidates are invited also to document their contributions to the College's stated aim of patient centred practice through: Professionalism, innovation and research, lifelong learning, fairness and inclusion, ethical practice and multi-disciplinary working. If successful, Fellows are entitled to use the designation ‘FRCPsych’ once they have paid the prescribed registration fee.

Nominees for the Fellowship must be subscribing Members of the College at the time when nominations are submitted. Sponsors will be notified if this is not the case.

Nominations are considered annually by College committees.

All Members who have achieved 10 years in Membership as at 1 January 2024 are encouraged to consider applying for Fellowship for the 2024 round. The deadline for submission is 30 June 2024.

All applications received will be submitted to the Nominations Committee for consideration. The outcome of the decisions made by the Nominations Committee will be sent to the applicants in October / November.

For more information on how to apply for Fellowship, please view our webpage on Fellowship.

If you have any further questions about Fellowship please contact the Membership Services team on MembershipServices@rcpsych.ac.uk or 020 8618 4098/4086.

Sponsors

Nominations for the College Fellowship must be supported by two Sponsors, both of whom must be subscribing Members of the College.

Sponsors must not be members of the Education, Training & Standards Committee at the time of submitting their nomination.

All information relating to the creation and approval of consultant and non consultant job descriptions, including exemplars, guides and checklist can be found on our job description page.

The College run MHA Section 12(2) and Approved Clinician courses throughout the year and include induction and refresher courses.  The format of these courses are eLearning modules with recorded presentations, interactive learning exercises and end of module tests, along with a live online Q&A session with our expert panel

Our online courses are approved by the Department of Health and Social Care's National Reference Group representing all four National Approvals Panels in England

For more information on all our MHA courses, please visit our webpage.

Statutory responsibility for administrating the approvals function in the South of England is the England South Approvals Panel.

The Approval Panel has psychiatric and GP membership from across the South of England.

Every application receives individual consideration in light of the criteria set by the Panel.

A list of contact details for Approval Panels is available to download. 

Here you can find useful information for retired, or soon to be retired, members of the Division.

Useful links:

• BMA financial advice
• When you retire from Professional Practice you may be entitled to pay a lower subscription fee. See the retirement declaration form for further eligibility details.
• Psychiatrists' Support Service provides a confidential support and advice service for members, trainee members and associates of the Royal College of Psychiatrists
• CPD and revalidation information
• For an opportunity to contribute towards the history and development of Psychiatry you can help with the conservation and repair of the Colleges antiquarian book collection by donating to the Adopt-a-Book scheme
• Information on Legacies and Donations to the Royal College of Psychiatrists

The College can support Members and Fellows through the revalidation process.