Attendance & Absence

Attendance

Trainees are required to attend 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, placement and study days. 

It is expected that as full time employees you are attending all aspects of the programme (i.e. teching, placement, research, etc) unless you have good reason (e.g. sickness). In the event of not being able to attend work, you must adhere to both University and SHSC policy/ procedures around absence from work. Please see the following link - Supporting Attendance Policy (HR 042 V8 March 2023) (1).pdf ) and https://students.sheffield.ac.uk/leave-of-absence

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 SHSC line manager 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.  Trainees must also notify their supervisors if absent on a placement day and where possible to take steps to minimise the effects on the service. On returning to work, trainees must ensure that the Programme is notified of their return to work on their first day back. 

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. 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 10 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.

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. In the event of any absence, the trainee must email the absence inbox (clinpsy-absence@sheffield.ac.uk) as soon as possible and also inform of their return.

4. In the event of a trainee being absent without the programme being aware of their whereabouts, reasonable steps will be taken to contact them as part of the programme's duty of care for trainee safety and wellbeing.

Planned Annual Leave/Carer Leave/Study Leave

It is part of the professional responsibility of the trainees that they follow the correct procedures when applying for all types of leave. See the SHSC policy here - Supporting Attendance Policy (HR 042 V8 March 2023) (1).pdf

For any leave to be taken on placement days, placement supervisors' approval must be obtained in advance, for leave during teaching or study days, academic tutors' prior approval must be sought. Such 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. 

Procedure for applying for annual leave

1. The main process for requesting planned leave is via ESR or Health Roster (allocate Loop) https://shsct.allocate-cloud.co.uk/EmployeeOnlineHealth/SHSCTLIVE/Login (see guidance document on Blackboard), 

2. The system will show you your annual leave entitlement along with the breakdown of standard annual leave and bank holiday leave.

3. Prior to formally requesting leave using ESR or Health Roster, trainees should complete the Google form (LINK) which will automatically request the appropriate supervisors' and tutors' approval by email.

4. Annual leave requests will be regularly checked by trainees' line managers and once approved, you will receive an email from the Employee Online system confirming this.

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. 

The taking of unauthorised leave constitutes a disciplinary matter and pay will usually be withheld for the duration of this.

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