Attendance & Absence

Attendance

Trainees are required to attend regularly all components of the Programme. These include all timetabled teaching and seminars for that year group, relevant meetings (e.g. Programme meetings, selection interviews, OCSA, etc), the Personal and Professional Development sessions, research conference, case presentations and clinical placements. Trainees are subject to Sheffield Health and Social Care NHS Foundation Trust (SHSC) employment procedures relating to absence form work, including on teaching and study days. When trainees have been absent from the Programme due to illness or other personal difficulties for a period of time long enough to disrupt their training, the Programme will endeavour to reschedule academic deadlines or defer placements, and consult with the employing authority and the funding body as appropriate about the possibility of extension to training. However, if, in the judgement of the Internal Board of Examiners, the trainee has no good cause to be absent from the Programme, in line with the university policy on non-attendance, this will result in a trainee failing to progress between years of their degree or from graduating until they have made good their attendance. Poor attendance will also constitute grounds for review by the Faculty Student Review Committee (https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/research-services/code/monitoring/progress-concerns). Disciplinary procedures via employment channels will also be instigated. This may lead to dismissal from employment or termination of sponsorship. In all circumstances the University retains the right to terminate registration if a trainee is no longer employed by the NHS or relevant body or holding an NHS License to Operate.

Trainees who have experienced periods of extended sick leave will need to follow the procedures of their employer (SHSC), and apply for suspension of registration from the University. If a contract of employment or NHS License to Operate is terminated on grounds of ill health or for any other reason, the University may, at its discretion, also terminate a trainee's registration if requested by the Board of Examiners.

A condition of registration on the Programme is that a trainee is in employment with a relevant NHS Trust or other appropriate employer, or holds an NHS Licence to Operate. In exceptional circumstances, a trainee may at the discretion of the Board of Examiners continue their training for a short period of time (up to six months) without funding, if suitable arrangements can be agreed with the Director of Clinical Practice regarding the management and liability.

Absence from Training due to Sickness or Unavoidable Cause

If trainees are sick and unable to work, they must notify the Programme by emailing the absence inbox (clinpsy-absence@sheffield.ac.uk) and their Clinical Tutor as soon as possible, stating the reason for their sickness. This must be done on the first day of sickness whether a teaching, placement or study day preferable, before 9am.  Trainees must also notify their supervisors if absent on a placement day and do whatever possible to minimise the effects on the service by notifying secretaries, patients, clinics, teachers, etc of their absence.

It is important that trainees understand it is their personal responsibility to notify the Programme and their supervisor and that failing to report on the first working day of an absence affects entitlement to sick pay. For more details about employer's sick pay see SHSC Promoting Attendance Policy Supporting Attendance Policy (HR 042 V8 March 2023) (1).pdf )

On returning to work, trainees must ensure that the Programme is notified of their return to work on their first day back. As sick leave includes non-working days, the return to work date is the day trainees are considered fit for work (this could be a weekend). Trainees must email the absence inbox and their Clinical Tutor on their return, confirming the date they were fit for work. Upon return, the Clinical Tutor will carry out a welcome back to work meeting. Failure to notify will eventually lead to reduction of salary as the sickness episode will not have been ended.

If a trainee is taken ill during annual leave, then a doctor's note can be obtained and sent to the Clinical Tutor. The appropriate period can then be regarded as sick leave and the annual leave can be taken at a later date.

Attendance requirements for teaching sessions (and arrangements in the event of missed teaching)

Attendance at all teaching sessions (including PPD sessions, seminars, year meetings etc) is compulsory and part of trainees' employment contract. If a trainee has any reason for not attending a teaching session a formal approach in advance in writing, stating reasons, should be made to the Programme Director and Director of Clinical Practice. If approved, the procedure for taking leave during teaching time would normally be followed (See Programme policy of taking holiday leave during term time, Appendix 5). Missing teaching will be handled according to following process: 

1. In circumstances where trainees have accumulated more than six full days of missed teaching, their academic tutor will be notified (e.g. this could be after six consecutive days or an accumulation that adds up to six full days). This will be based on a review of the registration logs generated by the new iSheffield application. 

2.  The academic tutor will get in touch with the trainee and arrange a meeting. The aim of the meeting is to develop a collaborative plan that addresses any gaps in knowledge and how to remediate these. This is likely to include scholarship, listening to lecture recordings or engaging with other materials. The plan will depend on the sessions missed and trainee circumstances. It is the trainees responsibility to assure their academic tutor that they will undertake sufficient activity to catch up on the missed teaching. 

3. Once agreed, trainees should upload the plan to PATs. The entry should include a list of all the sessions missed and remediating action points for each of these.

4. It is the trainee's responsibility to ensure the fulfilment of the plan and progress should be discussed at the annual PDR meeting. If there are any difficulties with addressing gaps in knowledge, and any further support is needed, this can be discussed with trainee's academic and clinical tutors.

Annual leave must not be taken during the research conference in year 3 as this is a mandatory teaching session.

Attendance Monitoring on Teaching Days

Lecture attendance monitoring is routine throughout the University for all students, which the programme has to comply with. The following information outlines the procedures that are in line with University attendance policy and NHS employment.

Procedure:

1. Trainees must log on to iSheffield and input the code provided by the speaker/ programme at the start of the morning and afternoon sessions. 

2. For 'in person' and online teaching please arrive prior to the start time of the session. If late, for either online or in-person teaching, please liaise with the admin team to give a reason for lateness.

3. The trainee must email the absence inbox (clinpsy-absence@sheffield.ac.uk) and their Clinical Tutor if they are off sick and on their return. The programme must also be informed of any doctor's appointments. The NHS administrator will liaise with other admin staff and confirm any trainee's authorised absences (sick, annual or carer leave).

4. If the trainee is not present and does not have authorised leave, this will be classed as unauthorised leave. In this situation, action must be taken that day to ensure trainee safety. The NHS administrator will therefore inform the relevant manager/clinical tutor or Director of Clinical Practice or one of the other Clinical Tutors if the trainee's tutor is not available. To ensure the safety of the trainee, the following action will be taken. If the first action is not successful, the second will be implemented and so on:

   1. Year group members will be contacted for any information on the trainee's whereabouts

   2. Every effort will be made to contact the trainee (trainees must ensure the office has complete and up-to-date information on home/mobile phones).

   3. Emergency contact numbers and next of kin numbers will be utilised. A decision regarding any further action will be taken, taking into account the individual circumstances of the trainee.

We hope that these situations will rarely/never arise and to avoid this, trainees should be aware of their responsibilities as NHS employees and inform the University of their whereabouts.

Annual Leave/Carer Leave

It is part of the professional responsibility of the trainees that they follow the correct procedures when applying for all types of leave.

Procedure for applying for annual leave

1. Leave requests must be made via the NHS Employee Online system. https://shsct.allocate-cloud.co.uk/EmployeeOnlineHealth/SHSCTLIVE/Login (see guidance document on Blackboard). The system will show you your annual leave entitlement along with the breakdown of standard annual leave and bank holiday leave.

2. Alongside the leave request in Employee Online, trainees must also complete the Google form which includes space to upload your supervisors' approval of your leave along with questions about whether your leave request is for a teaching day and the reason that you need the leave.

3. Annual leave requests will be checked during the week by clinical tutors and once approved, you will receive an email from the Employee Online system confirming this.

4. Annual leave taken without approval will be classed as unauthorised and will be dealt with appropriately.

5. The trainee should contact all speakers who will be teaching on day(s) they will be absent. Trainees should also inform the Programme/Timetable Administrator of their intended absence.

Trainees are entitled to 27 days annual leave in a full financial year (which runs from 1st April to the following 31st March). If trainees have worked in the NHS for five or more calendar years, then they are entitled to 29 days and 33 days if over 10 years. Please notify the NHS workforce team if you are entitled to more than 27 days. Trainees are not usually expected to work on Bank Holidays. Trainees are advised to use all their holiday entitlement within the identified year as leave cannot be carried over from one year to the next other than in exceptional circumstances. Any leave a trainee wishes to take must be approved 3- 4 weeks in advance and leave cannot be approved retrospectively. The taking of unauthorised leave constitutes a disciplinary matter and pay will usually be withheld for the duration of this.

For any annual leave to be taken during a placement, the placement supervisor's approval must be obtained in advance. This approval should not be regarded as automatic and the needs of the placement and the work being undertaken should be taken into account when discussing leave arrangements. Once the leave to be taken is agreed, trainees should ask their supervisors to sign the leave form. This form then needs to be uploaded to the Google Form for trainee annual leave requests, which can be found on Blackboard, alongside a request made in the Employee Online system.

Annual leave requested relating to a future placement must be approved by the supervisor of that placement. If trainees are booking annual leave far in advance and do not have details of their placement supervisor for that period, then they can seek approval from their Clinical Tutor. They must inform their supervisor once they have been allocated.

If you take a week or more as annual leave, you must include study days as annual leave, unless you specifically indicate to your supervisor and Clinical Tutor where you will be working on your study day.  

Emergency carer/domestic leave (for unforeseen circumstances) or compassionate/bereavement leave or leave for medical appointments or jury service may be applied for using the Employee Online system alongside an email to the absence email and their Clinical Tutor.