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Study Leave Applications


Welcome to the Severn Postgraduate School of Surgery Study Leave page. The study leave administration process is changing from the 1st of April 2009 with responsibility moving from the trusts to the individual Schools. Therefore study leave applications from the 1st of April onwards will now have to be submitted to your School primary contact. This person should also be your first point of contact should you have any queries (see details below):

Mr Simon Davis 


Deanery House

Vantage Business Park

Old Gloucester Road

Hambrook

Bristol

BS16 1GW

Tel:  01454 252 673 

Email: simon.davis@southwest.nhs.uk 

 

We strongly advise you to read the new Study Leave Policy for Trainees document located on the Severn Deanery Website. You can also download the necessary forms to make an application and expenses claim for study leave from this page as well as look at the study leave flow chart (much improved): http://www.severndeanery.nhs.uk/study_leave_policy_process.shtml 

 

New Information Regarding Study Leave

New arrangements for study leave funding have been under review for some time, and they have now been finalised. This brief outline is to put you in the picture and to draw your attention to the Postgraduate School of Surgery policy.

BACKGROUND

For some time now there have been problems with the allocation of funds for study leave. Without going into too much detail, study leave funding for trainees has previously been allocated from the Strategic Health Authority to the Trusts who then hold the budget for trainees in their hospital. However the Deanery was keen to have a process that is:

1. fair for all the trainees

2. ensures that the funding will be made available to trainees

3. is budgeted in a way to allow us to get much better value for money by block buying courses and delivering them locally wherever possible.

THE CHANGE

From the beginning of April (the new financial year) the Severn Postgraduate School of Surgery will hold the budget for all of the trainees who are members of this School.

WHAT THIS MEANS FOR YOU

ST3 onwards.

If you are ST3 or above, initially this will mean no change other than a change in the way study leave is applied for and granted. The £550 study leave grant/trainee allocated each year will be linked to a particular post. If you hold this post for a year, then the complete sum will be made available to you subject to approval for the course. However, if you are not going to be in post for the whole year e.g. on an Out of Programme Experience, or you finish you programme halfway through the year, then the sum allocated to you will be on a pro rata basis. i.e. half if you are leaving the programme halfway through the year etc. The remaining sum will be made available to the trainee who occupies your post when you leave.

 

At some future point we are going to be looking to cap some of this grant for certain specialties and certain grades to purchase on your behalf selected mandatory courses for the same reasons outlined in the section below (see CT1/2).

CT1/2

If you are in this category of training, the Postgraduate School will retain the budget on your behalf and will aim to purchase most, and hopefully all but I cannot promise this, the mandatory courses you will need in your time in Core training. These will be bulk purchased to obtain a good price and delivered locally to avoid spending a substantial portion of your grant on train fares to London. The reality is that in the current financial environment we will never obtain additional funding until we can demonstrate maximum value from the funding we already obtain. I am sure you can see that this is self evident.

No-one will be disadvantaged. This year we have obtained significant additional funding to enable us to move to the new arrangements and to set up processes whereby we start to deliver high quality courses locally. Mr Robert Longman is Chair of the Postgraduate School of Surgery Skills and Courses Committee and is working on new skills courses in collaboration with your Programme Directors and the University Department of Anatomy. There are some very exciting possibilities in store but more on this over the next year.

YOUR REACTION

I am hoping that you understand the reason for these changes, and that they are brought about with the intention of starting to develop over the next few years a coherent set of high quality locally delivered courses. There is a little extra paperwork (which we could all do without!) but I hope you understand that this is public money and that the financial processes now required to demonstrate transparency have become more stringent.

 

Kind regards,

 

Richard Canter

 

Professor Richard Canter

Associate Dean and Head of the Severn Postgraduate School of Surgery

 



 
 
 
Last updated at 12:41, 13 July 2009