Foundation Programme 2027: pre-allocation now follows your medical school, not your home address

Applications open on 23 September 2026 and close at midday on 7 October, so you get two weeks. Several things have changed since last year, and one of them could decide which end of the country you spend F1 in.

Pre-allocation: where you can ask to go

Pre-allocation is the process for applicants who need to be in a particular part of the UK for reasons that are nothing to do with preference. There are five criteria and two have changed: Criterion 1, being a parent or legal guardian, and Criterion 3, a health condition or disability. Both used to follow your address. You applied for the foundation school local to where you live, and under Criterion 3 you could ask for a different one if you supplied evidence about where your treatment had to happen. From 2027 both follow your medical school, and that evidenced route is gone.

So if you study in London and your children live in Newcastle, that route to the North East has closed. The exception is if you applied through the Eligibility route, or you have already qualified and your medical school is renominating you. In that case it goes to the foundation school where you are already living, which for most people in that position is the same thing.

Criterion 2, primary carer, and Criterion 5, widening participation, already work this way. That changed for 2026 and has not changed again. Criterion 4, extraordinary circumstances, is untouched.

Proof of address

If you are applying for pre-allocation you have to prove where you live, and four things dropped off the accepted list for 2027: TV licences, tenancy agreements, council tax closing or final bills, and GP patient summary records.

A council or social housing tenancy agreement still counts, but private and student lets do not, so if you rent from a letting agent or through your university that document will not work for you. A GP patient summary doesn't count now but a letter from your practice confirming you are registered there is fine.

What does count is a utility bill, a bank or building society statement, an annual council tax bill, an annual mortgage statement, an HMRC self assessment or tax letter, an electoral register confirmation, a student finance letter, or a benefits award letter. Some of those have to be dated within three months of the deadline and others within twelve, so check which yours is.

Two more pre-allocation changes

• If you are applying under Criterion 1 and the name on your application does not match the name on your child's birth certificate, you now need to send proof of the name change as well, so a deed poll or a marriage certificate.
• Every supporting signatory, on every criterion, has to be based in the UK. The logic is that you have to be living in the UK to be eligible at all, so whoever vouches for your circumstances should be here too.

The helpdesk stops answering 24 hours before the deadline

From midday on 6 October the UKFPO helpdesk stops answering application queries. That covers Oriel registration, re-nomination requests, problems submitting the form, preferencing, pre-allocation and references. The one thing they will still do is unlock your Oriel account. They have done this because the number of last-minute queries has grown each year and they cannot get through them in time.

Foundation Priority Programmes have no separate process

FPP used to be its own application with its own offers. As of 2026 it is not, and 2027 keeps it that way. There is no separate FPP vacancy on Oriel and no separate offers round. The programmes go into the main allocation instead, and you are matched to them through Preference Informed Allocation, or PIA, after you have been allocated to a foundation school.

This comes from the Medical Training (Prioritisation) Act 2026, which got Royal Assent on 5 March 2026 and requires training posts to go to UK graduates and a defined priority group first: people with a primary medical qualification from Ireland, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway or Switzerland.

You will find out your PIA rank

At the end of the process the UKFPO will release the computer-generated PIA rank to everyone still allocated to a foundation school. Until now the number that decided your allocation was never shown to you. If you were withdrawn after allocation, or never allocated, you will not get it automatically, but you can email the UKFPO and ask.

Re-applying: you have to resign first

The 2027 person specification now says that if you are re-applying you must have resigned from your allocated foundation programme, and you must not be in post as a foundation doctor when you submit. That includes people who deferred the start of their programme for statutory reasons and people on statutory leave.

So you resign first, then you apply, and you will not know whether the second attempt worked before you have given up the first. The UKFPO has a re-applying after starting F1 page covering how that works.