After the inappropriate disciplining and suspension of Dr Hadiz Bawa-Gharba in 2018, new guidance was issued to trainee doctors that the thoughts they recorded in their reflective portfolios (kept as a formal part assessment) could be used in court. This paper addresses that crisis.

Encouraging Results? During their postgraduate medical education, doctors learn to manage the complexity, uncertainty, and breadth of clinical decision-making in their everyday, real-life practice. This kind of education has much more in common with what is known as ‘radical’, ‘critical’, or ‘emancipatory’ education than it does with instructional training, and one of the key philosophers and practitioners in that area is A S Neill, founder of the world-famous Summerhill School. When the schools’ regulation body Ofsted threatened Summerhill with closure because its approach was different from the mainstream, I was one of many educationists who came to their defence.

Conference speaking is always great fun: you never know what interesting questions the audience might raise. This conference paper was for the South-West Postgraduate Medical Deanery’s annual conference in 2012.

As both an alumnus and a former member of staff at the University of Warwick, I was delighted to support and develop this innovative use of Samuel Beckett’s work to explore issues affecting people experiencing chronic or acute decline of brain functioning and the work of those who support them.

A Festschrift for Professor Dame Barbara Clayton: Dame Barbara chaired the Standing Council for Postgraduate Medical and Dental Education [SCOPME] for many years. In the 1990s, SCOPME brought together stakeholders to develop and innovate new educational practices in areas such as multiprofessional working and learning, assessment and appraisal, and improving practice-based teaching. I contributed to their work and was honoured to be asked to speak at the celebration of Dame Barbara’s life in 2011.