Trainee details are primarily managed by our Programmes Team; please contact the team on the appropriate address below:

• For doctors in Foundation programmes: England.FoundationProgrammes.EM@nhs.net
• For doctors in General Practice programmes: England.GPProgrammes.EM@nhs.net
• For doctors in Public Health programmes: England.PublicHealth.Midlands@nhs.net
• For all other trainees on East Midlands training programmes: England.SpecialtyProgrammes.EM@nhs.net

Per the Study Leave Policy, all study leave must be applied for in advance of the leave taking place: you will not be able to submit a retrospective leave request on Accent Leave Manager, and will trigger an error. If you are attempting to submit a leave request for an activity that has already taken place or add expenses after submitting an application, please contact your local Study Leave Coordinator at the Trust or GP Programme Office, confirming the following:

• Your full name
• Your GMC/GDC/PH number (if applicable)
• The date/s of study leave
• The activity you are applying for
• A breakdown of any expenses you wish to claim - individual amounts for travel (public transport cost or number of miles), accommodation, subsistence and course fee
• The venue, course provider, and any other details to be included in your application
• The reason/s why your request was not submitted prospectively.

“Private” leave is for private exam revision, in the run-up to an exam. You’re entitled to a maximum of 5 Private leave days a year, and this comes out of your Discretionary entitlement. Please note that Foundation trainees cannot apply for Private leave, as exams are not part of the Foundation curriculum. Please note that you cannot apply for expenses for Private leave, as it must only be used for days when you are revising privately yourself (and therefore should not incur any costs).

“Exam” leave is for attending exams, and comes out of your Curriculum required entitlement if the exam is required for your curriculum. If the exam is not required for your curriculum, it will come from your Discretionary entitlement.

“Study” leave is for everything else.

• As with annual leave Less Than Full-time Trainees (LTFT) receive study leave days pro-rata to a whole time trainee in any one calendar year. If the planned number of study leave days in any one year will exceed the entitlement available, this may be increased on a case-by-case basis subject to written (emailed to england.studyleave.em@nhs.net) approval from your TPD/Head of School for specific activities (i.e. you must have a clear plan of how you will use your days, rather than just requesting an additional X days).
• If you are in GP/specialty training in an East Midlands Trust post, you can access the uncapped budget regardless of being LTFT for as long as you are in that post. This does not apply to Foundation doctors, Dentists, or GP trainees in GP placements.
• Trainees on parental leave will receive a reduced entitlement for their parental leave period.
• Trainees who start or complete their training part way through the study leave year will receive a pro-rata entitlement until the end of the leave year. This also applies to trainees who start in February.
• Entitlement to study leave ends once a trainee reaches CCT and trainees are not entitled to study leave during the Period of Grace.
• Trainees on Out of Programme Experience (OOPE), Out of Programme Research (OOPR) or Out of Programme Career Break (OOPC) are not entitled to study leave for the period they are out of programme. Trainees on Out of Programme Training (OOPT) are normally only entitled to study leave for this period if they are occupying a training post on a training programme in our region.

The Curricular/Discretionary split is set at the beginning of the academic year by your TPD, based on the most appropriate distribution for all trainees on the programme.

However, we recognise that some trainees may have different needs. If you feel that you need more of one type of days and less of the other, please contact your TPD to discuss this. If they are supportive, please ask them to email england.studyleave.em@nhs.net to confirm the number of days to be 'transferred', and we will update Accent Leave Manager accordingly.

If you are applying for an online resource that will be used over a period of time and has no specific attendance date, please enter the date you plan to purchase the resource as the activity date. If you want to apply for study leave time to use the resource, please enter the dates you plan to use as study leave.

In line with the Study Leave policy (and NHS Terms & Conditions of Service) you can claim the following expenses:

• Course/Conference fees
• Public transport 
• Mileage (at NHS Terms & Conditions of Service Reserve Rate)
• Parking 
• Overnight accommodation (at standard rate)
• Subsistence (in line with NHS Terms & Conditions of Service rates)

The rates (including links to the relevant NHS Employers pages for NHS Terms & Conditions of Service) are specified in the Study Leave policy.

No other expenses can be claimed through study leave as standard. Below are examples of excluded expenses, but the list is not exhaustive:

• Retrospective applications
• Examination fees
• Membership/subscription fees
• Credit card charges
• Conventions
• Ceremonies
• Equipment, incl. books
• Publication, abstract submission or printing costs (such as poster printing)
• Visas, application fees
• Car insurance
• Low emission zone charges 

Any costs where evidence of payment cannot be provided (i.e. receipts)
Please note that whether costs can be claimed or not is not affected by whether it is a curriculum required or discretionary activity; the above list applies regardless.

We have a video in the Study Leave catalogue on the NHS Learning Hub, "Accent Leave Manager: Applying for leave and expenses": this takes you through the application process, including applying for expenses.

Please note that you cannot apply for expenses for Private leave, as Private leave must only be used for private exam revision (and as such will not incur expenses).

You will receive an automated email and notification on Accent Leave Manager stating your application has been approved or declined. You will be able to monitor the progress of your request at any time on Accent Leave Manager under the My Applications section. You can view and message your approvers by going into the application on Leave Manager and scrolling down to the Approval Chain. 

Where provided, approvers’ comments are recorded against their decisions – it is important you read these as there may be some important information for you.

Cancelling leave requests should only be done when you are no longer planning to attend the activity you applied for. 

In order to cancel a leave request that you have submitted but you will no longer be attending the activity, please follow the below instructions. Please note that cancelled leave requests cannot be reinstated, so be certain that you need to cancel the request:

1. Login to your Accent Leave Manager account (at https://accent.hicom.co.uk/Portal/Live/Web/)
2. Go to My Applications
3. Click on the leave request that you want to cancel to open it
4. Scroll to the bottom of the page
5. Click Cancel application. This will send a notification to your Cancellation Approver (usually your rota coordinator or local equivalent) to acknowledge the cancellation.

Expenses are marked as 'authorised' when they are approved for payment by your Trust/Programme Office. In order to claim expenses please ensure you follow the appropriate reimbursment process outlined on our home page.