Study Leave
Being in a Specialty Post: Study Leave
KSS Deanery produces study leave guidelines.
In summary the arrangements are as follows:
specialist registrars, specialty registrars, F2 doctors and dental post-registration house officers are entitled to up to a maximum of 30 days in a year (the year being calculated from the date of commencement of appointment or rotation). Leave to sit necessary examinations is allowable but does not count against the annual study leave entitlement.
Trainees in locum specialty posts, those in FTSTAs and LATs exceeding three months are entitled to study leave pro rata. There is no entitlement to study leave for LAS.
Specialty trainees’ attendance at KSS Deanery half-day or day release courses including “Regional Teach-ins” will normally count as up to 20 days out of the 30 days entitlement per annum. GPStRs who have half-days or full days organised for the GP specialty training programme by programme directors, will have up to15 days of this time counted against their study leave allowance. Leave for private study is limited to a maximum of 5 working days within a month of an examination. LTFT trainees are entitled to periods of study leave, with funding, pro rata to their sessional commitments.
The decision to approve study leave or not, and the degree of financial support, rests with the local Clinical Tutor, advised as appropriate by college tutors, GP programme directors and STCs or specialty schools. Clinical tutors will also take note of the views of clinical directors (or equivalent). Each Specialty School/STC has a specialty study leave adviser (SSLA) responsible for advising on the education and training relevance of all study leave. Discussions regarding study leave should form part of the regular appraisal and annual assessment/review processes.
All applications must be submitted on the appropriate form available from the Clinical Tutor at least 6 weeks before the leave is required. Applicants should not take study leave in the first two weeks of the start of any new appointment. Before any study leave is approved the trainee must have an agreed personal development plan, usually developed at the first appraisal with their educational supervisor.
Overseas study leave will be funded only for Specialist Registrars, and then only in exceptional circumstances. (For example, when an SpR/StR is presenting personally a report on research in which he or she has been principal investigator). When an appropriate course is available in KSS Deanery or London Deanery, approval for similar courses elsewhere will not be supported by travel or accommodation funding.
Common purposes of study leave:
a) attendance at courses to assist with preparation for examinations, e.g. acquisition of the necessary theoretical knowledge base;
b) to take agreed professional and academic examinations (notcounted against the annual allowance);
c) attendance at courses to assist with the acquisition of an appropriate knowledge base or clinical skill not easily acquired in the clinical setting;
d) attendance at specialty association meetings either as a delegate or to present papers.
The SSLA and the trainee should be aware of the total indicative budget for the duration of training, based on the current annual notional per capita funding support available. Study leave for the training grades is supported within cash limits from a unit budget delegated to Clinical Tutors by KSS Deanery. Any individual trainee in KSS Deanery will not normally receive the equivalent of more than £860 overall per annum.
StRs/SpRs will be expected to produce a short report for the SSLA and the clinical tutors following study leave. Any applicant who considers that his or her request for study leave or expenses is refused unreasonably has the right of appeal to KSS Deanery.