TOOT Self-declaration for accurate Assessment & CCT
It is really helpful if you self-declare any absence days on ePortfolio, which is at the bottom of the ePortfolio page if you scroll down:
When the RCGP come to pre-check your ePortfolio around the time of your Final ARCP ready for CCT, one of their priorities is to ensure your minimum training time has been met.
They look for:
- TOOT recorded as a post.
- TOOT self-declared in posts.
- TOOT listed in Educator notes.
They cross-check this with the declared TOOT on your Form R and recorded on your ARCP form, so it is important that these match.
The number one cause of delays to CCT is discrepancies in TOOT, if you get into the habit of self-declaring it on your ePortfolio it will make it much easier for you to collate it on to your Form R and ensure you have not missed any.
If you are absent from training, you will need to inform your VTS/Patch Admin/Manager and medical HR on the 1st day of absence so that your placement are aware and your pay is correct.
In the HEE SW School of Primary Care we need to know the dates out of training so that we can ensure your stages of training, ARCP and CCT date are correct.
We don’t need the personal details that your VTS team and medical HR might require, but if it is easier for you to copy us in to emails to HR or VTS you can rest assured your personal information would be handled with the professional discretion and security you would expect. If your absence is short term you can let us know on GPSupport.SW@hee.nhs.uk when you return to training, if it will be longer than 2 weeks please let us know at your earliest convenience and we can liaise your VTS team and medical HR to keep up to date until your return to training.
DAP – Discretionary Absence Policy
At each stage of training, you can have up to 14 days of absence before your CCT date is affected. So up to 14 days or 2 weeks off in ST1, the same again in ST2 and again in ST3. That way it is regardless of LTFT %.
Any additional days will be added to training to ensure your training programme meets the requirements of the EU Directive and Swiss Citizens’ Rights Agreement (SCRA).
What must be declared?
Time out of training that must be declared and may need to be made up include:
• Sick leave (long/short term and including COVID)
• Parental leave (maternity/paternity)
• Career breaks (OOPC) & non-training placements (OOPE)
• Paid/unpaid leave (compassionate, jury service, sabbaticals, etc.)
• Unpaid/unauthorised leave including industrial action
• Professional leave
• Shielding or self-isolation periods where remote training was not possible
• Annual leave accrued during times of exceptional leave periods as above
We do not need to know about:
• Paid annual leave taken during training
• Study leave
• Professional leave, e.g. representation at union meetings (up to 5 pre-approved days per phase of training)
Blocks of absence are counted in the number of calendar days absent and are replaced with the same number of calendar days. Basically, your time out includes your working and non-working days during that period and so does the same amount of time we replace it with.
If you are not sure how many days your period of sickness or mat leave was, you can click on the post/stage of training on your training map, so long as the dates are recorded correctly it will show you the right number of days:
Fragmented training during longer illness
When a DiT is living with a longer-term illness or medical condition there can be short periods of return to training between absences.
- More than 50% of a week must be worked for it to count towards training.
- Posts shorter than 2 whole time equivalent months and short periods of training between multiple periods of prolonged absence will normally be assessed by your AD or an ARCP panel, to see if enough quality log entries and WPBA have been added for the time to count towards training. The results of this assessment will then be documented in an Educators note or on your ARCP form.
Phased Returns
Periods of phased return do not normally count towards training. On occasion your Educational Supervisor and yourself may agree that a phased return should count. This is unusual as a phased return should gently ease you back into your normal working hours without the pressure of WPBA.
If your phased return is to count towards training, again you must be working at 50% LTFT or more and your Educational Supervisor must leave an Educator note to explain that it will count towards training.