1

Disability or ill health

This may include ongoing medical procedures such as fertility treatment.

A letter from GP/ Occupational Health Consultant/ Medical Specialist which includes:

• Nature of disability/health requirements for LTFT Training

It must be on letter-header paper or be from an official email address which can be validated. The letter should be dated within the past 3 months.

2

Caring responsibilities

Trainees (men and women) with caring responsibilities (e.g. for children, or for an ill/disabled partner, relative or other dependant)

1. Trainee to confirm the anticipated or actual date of birth of their youngest child on the online application form. (No need to continue to re-apply upon each period of maternity leave, eligibility is automatic until their youngest child is 18 years old - TBC

2. A letter from their GP or Medical Specialist involved in the care of their partner / relative / dependent which includes:

• Level of care anticipated that they will need to provide

It must be on letter-header paper or be from an official email address which can be validated, dated within the last three months. - TBC

3

Welfare and wellbeing

There may be reasons not directly related to disability or ill health where trainees may benefit from a reduced working pattern. This could have a beneficial effect on their health and wellbeing (e.g. reducing potential burnout).

Applications relating to personal choice and/or individual professional or lifestyle needs will be considered by the TPD. Whilst these applications are not subject to judgement, agreement is dependent upon service considerations.

4

Religious commitment

A trainee has a religious commitment that involves training for a particular role and requires a specific time commitment resulting in the need to work less than full time.

How is the nature of request captured?

5

Flexibility for training / career development / opportunity e.g. development of a broad career portfolio

A trainee is offered a unique opportunity for their own personal/professional development, and this will affect their ability to train full time (e.g. training for national/international sporting events, or a short-term extraordinary responsibility such as membership of a national committee or continuing medical research as a bridge to progression in integrated academic training).

Flexibility for training and career development with the option to train less than full time with flexibility that might enable development of a broad career portfolio.

Applications relating to personal choice and/or individual professional or lifestyle needs will be considered by the TPD. Whilst these applications are not subject to judgement, agreement is dependent upon service considerations.

6

Flexibility for non-training career development / opportunity e.g. non-medical activity requiring specific time commitment

A trainee is offered non-medical professional development (e.g. management courses, law courses or fine arts courses) that requires a specific time commitment resulting in the need to work less than full time.

Applications relating to unique opportunities should be supplemented with written details of the unique opportunity, together with relevant letters of support.

7

Other

How is the nature of request captured?

How is the nature of request captured?

1

Revised CCT end date is asked on the form, however, there are no Local Office resources available to support the trainee apart from the Royal Colleges guidance and calculator. This has to be manually verified before inputting to TIS.

Revised CCT Date recently removed from the form after workshop.

2

Given the new policy to extend flexible training, there has been a large number of applications and it has meant that the categories no longer exist. This in turn has made the triaging of applications almost ad-hoc and unmanageable when it comes to prioritising the processing as and when the applications are received based on the reasons. E.g. there is no Local process to prioritise the processing of Childcare/Disability/Health reasons applications over wellbeing ones.

3

It can take significantly more time where applications are submitted with less than 12 weeks notice to process due to approval required from Trust in Y&H process. This may require chasing the Trust who are also operating within their own constraints.

4

Y&H uses Tracker spreadsheets in order to support the processing of applications. Currently a Local and a National spreadsheet that have to be completed manually. This is an admin burden and prone-to-error practice.

5

There isn’t always an opportunity in the Y&H process for trainees to be discussing with the Trust directly regarding their ability to accommodate for LTFT for a rotation, as the trainee may not be at the specific Trust they are going to be rotating yet where they intend to train as LTFT.

6

Y&H has a extensively documented process with Trainee, Associate Dean and Postgraduate Dean involved, preparing cases statements, with timescales made aware to the parties involved. However, in practice, this has not yet happened as there have been no rejections yet.