A letter from the College Registrar to members about our new job planning guidance

You told the College about the challenges you faced when agreeing achievable job plans – and we've updated our guidance to take into account the issues you have raised.

RCPsych Registrar Professor Owen Bowden-Jones CBE explains the changes:

Dear colleagues,

I am writing to share updated guidance from the College regarding job planning for psychiatrists, which was last updated in 2017.

This guidance was developed in response to feedback from College members about the challenges they can face when agreeing achievable job plans. Psychiatrists work across a wide range of specialties, services and settings, and the requirements of their roles can vary considerably. The guidance therefore does not set out a single model for every psychiatrist. Instead, it provides a practical starting point for ensuring that all the necessary components of a role are properly considered and reflected within the job plan.

The guidance is intended for all psychiatrists across the UK, and it includes general guidance alongside sections covering different psychiatric specialties and areas of practice. This allows employers and psychiatrists to focus on the information most relevant to the role being developed or reviewed.

A psychiatrist’s work extends beyond direct patient contact. Job plans may also need to account for clinical leadership, training and supervision, research, quality improvement, remote working, reflective practice, mentoring and professional development.

Recognising this wider work is important to supporting effective psychiatric services. Psychiatrists need enough time to understand a patient’s diagnosis, wider needs, wishes and circumstances, and to agree suitable care and treatment.

Workloads will differ according to the specialty, setting, patient complexity, clinical risk, service model and support available from the wider multidisciplinary team. For this reason, the guidance does not recommend a single number of patients that every psychiatrist should work with. However, some specialty sections provide more detailed guidance to support local discussions.

You can read the guidance and find the section relevant to the role you are recruiting for here: Job planning for psychiatrists (CR245). I hope this document will be a useful resource for those involved in developing, approving and reviewing psychiatric roles.

The guidance will be published online as a living document. This will allow the College to review and update it as services, legislation, technology and workforce models change, as well as respond to feedback from psychiatrists and employers.

Please share it with colleagues responsible for medical staffing, recruitment, job descriptions and job planning within your organisation.

We would welcome feedback on any areas that could be considered as part of future updates. Please email workforce@rcpsych.ac.uk.

Best wishes,

Professor Owen Bowden-Jones CBE
College Registrar

This article was included in our October 2026 eNewsletter.