Training is expected to take at least one full session per week and 7-9 days per year on top of that.
Weekly Sessions
Training is considered to take at least a full session per week for direct teaching, preparation and planning.
Training time includes the weekly tutorial (usually 2 hours) and planning, as well as monitoring and feedback of ePortfolios for the current trainee in practice and possibly a further one or two who are going though the hospital system at ST1/2 levels.
When another member of the team within a practice delivers a tutorial most trainers will give the equivalent time back in surgery appointments, but still need 1.5 hours for all the other educational activities.
If your trainee is sailing and all is going well there may be weeks when commitments are reduced but trainers will find that a trainee in difficulty will require more support and practices need to be able to accomodate this. It is also important to note that the 6 month educational supervisor reports do take some time to complete and one trainer may have three of these to do. Trainers can claim a £500 per year educational supervisor grant (pro rata) for the work they do to support ST1/2 trainees in hospital posts.
The sum needs to be claimed annually using this form which needs to be sent to england.gpfinance.tv@nhs.net
Annual Sessions
On average there will be 7-9 days per year in addition to your weekly educational commitment. These may not be evenly spread throughout the year. They are made up of:
VTS input
All trainers are expected to contribute to the Vocational Training Scheme. We invite trainers to volunteer their areas of interest and run half-day teaching sessions for our ST1/2/3 year groups.
Trainers’ days
The VTS runs two Trainers’ away days per year to help trainers keep their educational skills up to date. One usually occurs in November and the other in March. These are an opportunity to update, benchmark your skills and meet other local trainers. You should try to attend both, though this might not be possible if you have multiple trainers working in your practice. The Deanery also runs two Faculty days per year, for educators across the Thames Valley GP school. You will be expected to attend at least one of these.
Trainers’ sub-group meetings
On the Reading and Newbury scheme we have a monthly trainer meeting – usually the first Tuesday in each month – which runs on line at lunch time for an hour. This is a chance to discuss any problems or concerns with the PD team and your peers – you also have updates from the Pds and AD.
We also have three subgroups running within the scheme area based in central Reading, Newbury and Sonning Common. They usually take place at lunch time, and run every month or two. The sessions are an ideal opportunity for benchmarking, developing your skills as a trainer and general support. They are run by trainers, for trainers.
You should try to attend at least half of the sessions per year if possible.
Educational supervision
You usually meet with your ST1 at the beginning of their first placement and then every six months to complete their educational supervisors reviews. This means you will often be supervising an ST1 and ST2 remotely whilst having an ST3 in practice. Each ESR meeting takes 1-2 hours and a further 1-2 hours to prepare for. You can claim an educational supervision grant (links to form above) for each ST1/2 you are supervising. Some trainers choose to recieve the educational supervision grant directly and complete these meetings in their own time – others have the grant paid into the practice and take time out of the working week to do this.