Less than full-time Training
A comprehensive guide is available for download on the right.
The Application Process / Procedure
If you are interested in Less than full-time training the first step is to approach the Less than full-time Training Department at the Yorkshire & the Humber Postgraduate Deanery (West Yorkshire Locality Office). Contact numbers can be found to the right of this page and also on the Less than Full-time Training Guidelines. (Please see Associated Documents).
Be prepared to be asked some simple questions about your personal situation. This is not intended to be a trial! It is simply to make sure that you are going to be put in contact with the right department.
Careers advice is also available from the Associate Dean and it may be more appropriate to meet with this remit in mind.
You will then be asked to complete the appropriate form ie Less than Full-time Training or Careers Enquiry. Please see Associated Documents on the right.
You will be offered an appointment to meet the Associate Dean at Yorkshire & the Humber Postgraduate Deanery (West Yorkshire Locality Office). You will be asked to confirm that you are able to attend for the appointment and in the event that you need to cancel, please let us know as soon as possible as spaces are limited.
At least two weeks before attending for the appointment please send an up to date copy of your CV and a letter explaining your personal circumstances. This will enable the Associate Dean to make any preliminary enquiries before you attend which may be helpful.
The meeting with the Associate Dean normally lasts approximately one hour. It provides an opportunity to discuss less than full-time training, particularly the pros and cons and whether it will suit your individual requirements.
If you are deemed eligible for less than full-time training then the Deanery will then undertake to help you seek a suitable placement.
If you are not currently employed it may well be that you need to seek a substantive post full-time and then convert to less than full-time training. We are happy to give advice about application forms and interview technique.
Doctors on rotations may if they wish speak with their Training Programme Director prior to contacting the Deanery.
Following the initial interview at the Deanery The Associate Dean will contact the Training Programme Director to establish whether a doctor can be accommodated as a less than full-time trainee on the programme.
In the first instance, we ask Training Programme Directors whether trainees can be accommodated in a slot share with another trainee or in a full-time slot working reduced sessions. If neither of these two options are possible we would then explore the possibility of a supernumerary placement. and in that case it is important to establish that there are educational resources within a programme to train an additional Specialist Registrar/Specialty Trainee.
Once the approval of the Training Programme Director has been granted (there is not normally a problem with this unless a specialty is particularly over subscribed with less than full-time trainees), then the next step is to secure funding for the basic salary. Unfortunately the Less than Full-time Training Budget is generally insufficient to meet demand at any one point and therefore there may be some wait whilst funding is secured.
On the whole we are able to accommodate most less than full-time trainees in a timely fashion and although this may involve a brief period remaining in full-time training, most doctors feel that it is still very much worth it in the long term.
Once funding for the basic salary has been agreed the Deanery will liaise with the Training Programme Director regarding a placement in a particular Trust or hospital.
Once a placement has been found then the less than full-time trainee will need to make contact with his or her potential Educational Supervisor. At that stage it is important to work out a time-table including out of hours work.
After establishing a time-table, the time-table must be taken to Medical Personnel at the appropriate Trust so the hours of work can be calculated. This will allow the pay band for the basic salary to be established as well as the intensity supplement for out of hours work.
Listed below are sample copies of the forms which you will be sent at the beginning of this process. As you will see these require signatures from a number of people along the way and without these signatures your application for less than full-time training cannot be processed.
Sample Forms:
The final step is for the forms to be returned to the Deanery.
If the less than full-time training placement is for a Specialty Trainee or an inter-Deanery Transfer the Deanery will then ask the appropriate Trust to issue a contract for the new less than full-time training time-table and a start date can be confirmed.
If the less than full-time training placement is for an existing SpR then the completed paperwork will be passed to Medical Personnel at the Yorkshire Deanery who will make the appropriate contractual arrangements.