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Application form is in Word format with the same form completed for all Dental, Medical, Public Health and Foundation. There have been few cases where for Dental the form from the Dental Gold Guide with the minimum dataset has been submitted.
Application Numbers
Reason | Application numbers |
i. Trainees with a disability or illness | 50 |
ii. Trainees with caring responsibilities | 195 |
iii. Welfare and wellbeing | 161 |
iv. Unique opportunities | 16 |
v. Religious commitment | 0 |
vi. Non-medical development | 3 |
vii. Flexibility for training & career development | 28 |
vii. Other | 40 |
TOTAL | 493 |
LTFT Reasons
All employees have a legal right to request flexible working – not just parents and carers. Therefore, all doctors in training can apply for LTFT training and section 3.123 of the Gold Guide provides a list of illustrative examples for requesting LTFT training.
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As-Is Processes for South West
In trying to map the current LTFT end-to-end process we came up with 4 main stages in the order in which they would occur namely:
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Trainee Commencing their training on LTFT basis
South West have mentioned that the process is likely to change following a re-structuring of the schools and discussion currently in progress on certain areas around approval roles in the LTFT process.
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Pain Points in the process
No. | Pain Point / Area to improve | Comment |
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1 | There is no SLA to process applications neither internally nor published to trainees when an application has been submitted. Trainee doesn’t have an indication of where their application are with the processing and receiving an outcome. | |
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 when it comes to prioritising the processing as and when the applications are received for specialty. E.g. there is no Local process to prioritise the processing of Childcare/Disability/Health reasons applications over wellbeing ones. | |
3 | SW uses different forms for 1) Change of percentage 2) New Application 3) Notification of Appeal. All these forms can be difficult to manage when submitted to HEE via emails. When submitted to HEE they go to personal email addresses of Specialty Education Programme managers which can be difficult to triage as to what the purpose of the email was from the trainees. | |
4 | The role of Education Specialty Programme Managers in HEE is unclear in the approval process. For Caring responsibilities, currently they only rely on the TPS TPD having ticked the box on the form which is an assumption that LTFT will be accommodated by the Employing Trust and therefore is an “approval” by default. | |
5 | There hasn’t been any rejections and unclear on the implementation of this part of the process. No real guidance on approval responsibilities and process. | |
6 | SW has a 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. | |
7 | For specialty and Dental, there is no monitoring of applications through reports. GP only, uses a tracker spreadsheet. | |
8 | There is no tangible data on the number of applications received apart from referring to TIS. | |
9 | There is a gap between Trainee and Trust and Trainee and HEE in the application process in the sense that application may have been submitted (e.g. for Disability) where supporting evidences are still being awaited for but the trainee has already started in the Trust as LTFT and NHS SW becoming aware of this until later. What constitutes an approval, isn’t defined. | |
10 | An LTFT trainee may have more ARCPs than a full time doctor in training. It becomes a challenge in specialty school in deciding on the progression date/point. |
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GP Team calculates the CCT using Royal Colleges Calculator and inputs this to TIS. Specialty Team do not calculate this at this stage but left until ARCP panel to be worked out and inputted to TIS.
TPD LTFT Process Questions
No | Stage of Process | Question | Responses / Comment |
|---|---|---|---|
1 | Discussion/Pre-approval Stage | What's your involvement in the Less Than Full Time application process? |
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2 | Discussion/Pre-approval Stage | Which specialties do you cover in regard to discussions with trainees on LTFT? (GP, Specialty, Medicine, Foundation, PH) (GP, Specialty, Medicine, Foundation, PH) |
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3 | Discussion/Pre-approval Stage | Do you get contacted by trainees who wish to change their LTFT arrangement, e.g. increasing or decreasing % WTE or returning FT? |
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4 | Discussion/Pre-approval Stage | Do you have any involvement in slot-sharing arrangements discussion and with who? |
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5 | Discussion/Pre-approval Stage | Do you have any involvement in Supernumerary post arrangements discussion and with who? |
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6 | Discussion/Pre-approval Stage | Do you have joint conversations with Head of School / Educational Supervisor on LTFT applications? | |
7 | Discussion/Pre-approval Stage | At what point in the process do you have the discussion with the trust? |
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8 | Discussion/Pre-approval Stage | How do you receive the application form to complete and sign? Is it from the trainee by email? Or brought to the face-to-face meeting and completed by hand? |
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9 | Discussion/Pre-approval Stage | How do you come to a decision that the programme the trainee is on can be accommodated on an LTFT basis and the percentage WTE required to fulfil the requirements of the programme? |
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10 | Processing/Approval | Once application has been approved by HEE / AD and trainee made aware, are you notified? | |
11 | Processing/Approval | Once approved, do you get involved in the implementation of the LTFT, e.g. negotiation of Rota? |
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12 | Processing/Rejection/Appeal | What's your involvement if an application is rejected by the AD? (re-classification of reason/criteria discussion with the trainee and meeting with HOS. e.g. Health and Disability) |
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13 | Processing/Rejection/Appeal | According to GMC Gold Guide we understand that "3.124 All well-founded reasons will be considered. However, support to progress the application may be dependent on the capacity of the programme and available resources as well as compliance with relevant legislation relating to CCT requirements (paragraphs 3.118 and 3.119)."
| May not need to ask - See UR Question
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Documents
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