Updated GP Curriculum from 1 Aug 2025
From 1 August 2025 a refreshed RCGP curriculum will replace the 2019 version. Here is a summary of what this entails, with key points highlighted.
The College describes the update as an evolution rather than a revolution: the overall structure of training, the three‐year time-frame and the assessment package (WPBA, AKT and SCA exam) stay exactly the same, so registrars and trainers do not need to re-map evidence or re-sit exams.
Instead, the update tightens the wording of capabilities, streamlines the Topic Guides and, crucially, brings current realities such as COVID-19, climate change, digital consultations and widening access into the core learning outcomes.
Why was an update necessary?
The 2019 curriculum pre-dated the pandemic, rapid telehealth expansion and the NHS Net-Zero agenda. Over the past five years general practice, as all other industries worldwide has undergone massive changes in every respect. RCGP therefore set out to reflect these changes “while minimising the impact on GP registrars and educators”.
That commitment explains why exams, evidence requirements and e-Portfolio functionality remain untouched. There is a slight increase in the SCA exam fees to £1,205 from £1,800 but this is mainly attributed to inflationary pressures.
The RCGP has made available three new documents for GP trainees to famliarise themselves with:
- Being a GP
- Topic Guides
- Super condensed topic guides (more on this later)
Definition of a GP
There is a slight update in what a GP is, according to the new RCGP documents.
A GP is therefore defined as follows:
a doctor who is a consultant in general practice with distinct expertise in whole-person care, risk-management and continuity, delivered at the heart of communities and through multidisciplinary teams.
This sentence now appears in every public-facing curriculum document, underlining the College’s ambition to reinforce the value of medical generalism.
The five capability areas are unchanged …
The curriculum still organises learning around the familiar spokes of the “Being a GP” wheel:
- Knowing yourself and relating to others
- Applying clinical knowledge and skill
- Managing complex and long-term care
- Working well in organisations and systems of care
- Caring for the whole person, the wider community and the environment (but note the new green emphasis)
Each area is populated by 13 specific capabilities that map directly to the GMC generic professional capabilities.
However, several capability titles have been modernised.
A tidy-up of language makes the descriptors shorter, action-oriented and more inclusive. Here is how they compare:
| 2019 wording | 2025 wording | Rationale (RCGP) |
|---|---|---|
| Maintaining an ethical approach | An ethical approach | Simpler phrasing |
| Communication and consultation | Communicating and consulting | Active verb |
| Making decisions | Decision-making and diagnosis | Highlights diagnostic process |
| Managing medical complexity | Medical complexity | Removes duplicate verb |
| Working with colleagues and in teams | Team-working | Reflects multiprofessional reality |
| Community orientation | Community health and environmental sustainability | Explicit climate focus |
| Practising holistically, promoting health and safeguarding | Holistic practice, health promotion and safeguarding | Concise but comprehensive |
All other capability names are unchanged. Evidence uploaded to Fourteen Fish under the old names will still count; e-Portfolio tags will be relabelled automatically in August.
Fresh learning outcomes
Within each capability the progression-point descriptors have been rewritten, merging ST1 and ST2 expectations into a single list to reflect the increasingly flexible way programmes are delivered. The descriptors now reference:
- virtual, hybrid and in-person consulting modalities;
- the GP’s carbon footprint (e.g. prescribing choices, resource stewardship);
- health equity, accessibility and disability inclusion;
- personalised, co-produced care plans;
- critical appraisal of diverse types of knowledge—including lived experience and qualitative research.
These themes are echoed in the Topic Guides, which supply case vignettes, reflective questions and links to quality-improvement activities.
Continuity of care, quality and safety
The updated Continuity and Quality of Care, Safety and Prescribing guide synthesises an expanding evidence base: relationship continuity reduces mortality, admissions and complaints; practices should therefore measure continuity and design appointment systems that protect personal lists.
What does it mean for SCA candidates?
So what does this mean in practice for GP trainees, whether ST1, ST2 or ST3?
- Assessment blueprint unchanged – the SCA will still test the 12 capabilities; there are no new station formats.
- Language matters – expect examiners to use the new terminology and be familiar with this.
- Planetary health and inclusion scenarios – remote consulting, environmental prescribing or accessibility-related adjustments are now centre-stage; practise articulating them in your day to day basis and keep an eye out on such details for the examination.
- Reflective questions in Topic Guides – integrate these into your study group; they mirror SCA examiner probes (“How would you adapt this for a deaf patient?”).
- Super-condensed guides – These are a brilliant new addition and they are a rapid way to cross-check blind spots the few days before the exam. These are available on the RCGP website here.
Bottom line
The 2025 curriculum asks future GPs to be expert generalists who are digitally fluent, environmentally responsible and culturally competent while still providing person-centred continuity of care. For SCA exam candidates the content you must know has broadened, but the way you demonstrate it remains familiar: safe, empathic, evidence-based consultations that show you can navigate complexity for the patient in front of you—and for the planet beyond.
