Information For Fellows
The Future Leaders Programme offers Leadership Fellows a wide variety of learning opportunities, which can be tailored to the individual’s leadership learning needs. Please click on the sections below to learn more about the educational opportunities available. Useful policies and documents specific to the Leadership Fellowship are provided at the bottom of the page.
Fellows may also wish to view the 'Information for Educational Supervisors' section to see the resources and documents provided to ES's.
As a Fellow you are not just doing your own project, you have joined a programme. This means you are expected to contribute to the wider Fellowship cohort. This includes:
- Attending the FLP bimonthly meetings. Dates of these meetings will be given in August and Fellows need to do their upmost to attend.
- Attendance and engagement with the courses provided by the FLP. Each fellow will have different learning needs and may therefore wish to book either a select few, or all of the courses on offer. The courses are costly to run and difficult to source elsewhere, so we suggest making the most of the opportunity to access such courses for free. Attendance at courses is monitored and waiting lists are in place. There is an expectation that you contact the facilitator as well as the future leaders admin team well in advance if you are no longer able to attend, so the place can be offered to another fellow.
- Contributing to and attending the FLP conference.
- The FLP is a large fellowship scheme and we cannot know how your fellowship is going unless you tell us. We expect all fellows to advise us promptly if there is a change in personal circumstances interfering with your ability to do your work, eg a change in your supervisory relationship, a significant change in your project, a change in your health status, so that we can offer appropriate support.
By the end of your first month, Fellows need to:
- Familiarise themselves with the FLP Charter and the Inclusion, Equity & Belonging in the FLP: Guide for Fellows
- Attend the Innovation and Intellectual Property session (this is provided by Medipex at induction).
- Email the FLP Learning Agreement (after agreeing learning objectives with your Educational Supervisor).
- Email the Locum-Bank-Clinical Work Whilst Undertaking FLP.
- Consider the need for ethics approval (this would be agreed through your trust).
- Enrol onto an academic or post graduate (PG Cert) course - this list is not exhaustive and the FLP does not endorse any of the courses.
For the FLP annual conference:
- Fellows are expected to submit an abstract (summary) about their project and state what format they would like to present (usually poster or spoken presentation). The conference is usually held in February / March – details will follow nearer the time.
On completion of your Fellowship year, all Fellows are expected to:
- Email the Post Summary form to the Fellows to the FLP. This document will be used within the FLP annual report, which is published on our website.
- Email a summary of any clinical work that has been undertaken to futureleaders.yh@hee.nhs.uk. For medical, dental and public health registrars in training, Fellows must declare all locums undertaken on their Form R, as this is the formal record of their whole scope of practice.
- Complete an online evaluation survey (a link will be emailed out) - this is anonymous and all feedback is used to develop the programme.
- We encourage all Fellows to sign up to the FLP Alumni Network which is hosted on the Future NHS Collaboration Platform. All communication from the FLP to Alumni is now via this platform.
- Your host Trust and/or Educational Supervisor may have specific requirements about how your project work should be summarised (for example, via a project report). To ensure you are clear about expectations, you should discuss whether there are any specific requirements with your Educational Supervisor well before the end of your Fellowship.
You may also with to join our informal Future Leaders and Alumni Facebook group by clicking on the link, to keep in touch with peers and for the most up to date information about upcoming activities.
For medical, dental and public registrars in training: We advise all Fellows who are completing the programme via the OOPE route to read the following guidance. You may also wish to take a look at the Supported Return to Training (SuppoRTT) webpage.
Unless otherwise stated, documents need to be emailed to futureleaders.yh@hee.nhs.uk.
Please be aware that there are a range of documents & resources to guide Educational Supervisors in their role as ES. These are available to view and download on our Information for Educational Supervisors page.
Fellows must be mindful of the fact that they are employed to undertake a Fellowship and that is their primary responsibility. The whole of their employed time is to be spent in this Fellowship, irrespective of the funding of the post. Normal hours of work should be clarified at the outset of the year with the Fellow’s Educational Supervisor.
It is not permissible to undertake any clinical sessions or other form of employment during normal hours of work. Undertaking additional/alternative employment during normal work hours of a Fellowship is fraudulent behaviour and Fellows doing so may be subject to disciplinary procedures by their employer, Health Education England and their professional regulator.
Some Fellows express concern at spending a year away from clinical work and may wish to take steps to mitigate this concern and maintain their skills, e.g. through locum or bank work. Locum or bank work is permitted as long as it is undertaken in a Fellow's own time, i.e. during evenings, weekends or annual leave. Locum or bank work must not interfere with a Fellows’ ability to carry out their Fellowship role.
All Educational Supervisors and Fellows need to sign the Locum-Bank-Clinical Work Whilst Undertaking FLP agreement form by the end of August.
All Fellows must declare any clinical work undertaken at the end of their Fellowship year. For medical, dental and public health registrars in training, Fellows must declare all locums undertaken on their Form R, as this is the formal record of their whole scope of practice.
Working Less Than Full Time (LTFT)/part-time should not be a barrier to anyone wishing to undertake a Fellowship. However, it is important to note that;
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Funding is time-limited to one year so Fellows working LTFT/part-time should complete their Fellowship alongside their full-time peers. Funding does not carry-over to enable an extension. The Educational Supervisor must be supportive of the Fellow undertaking their project on a part-time basis and it must be recognised that CPD will form 50% of their time at work.
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The individual study leave allocation of £3,450 should be accessed only during the Fellowship and cannot be utilised once the Fellowship has ended. A Fellow working LTFT may be granted an extension to their PGCert, but this agreement would be out-with the Future Leader’s Programme.
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For doctors in training, any extension must be prospectively agreed with Training Programme Director
Each Fellow commencing in post with effect from August 2021 will have an overall study budget of £3450. This includes the cost of an academic or postgraduate certificate (PG Cert) course - this list is not exhaustive and the FLP does not endorse any of the courses. See the Frequently Asked Question on How do I apply for my Postgraduate Certificate for further information. This means that if a Fellow chooses a PG Cert costing £3000, they will have a remaining study budget of £450 for all other study associated costs throughout the year. Study leave funding is available to fund professional development during the programme only. Any remaining allocation cannot be claimed once a Fellow has finished the programme.
Throughout the year, there will also be free courses offered by the Future Leaders Programme.
Any costs associated with the project, including travel, are covered by the employer.
All study leave requests need to be completed on the study leave form - either the form for trainees or for those in substantive posts.
The form needs to be approved and signed by your Educational Supervisor at your Trust first. Then email the form to the futureleaders.yh@hee.nhs.uk for approval by Dr Susy Stirling (Associate Dean for the Fellowship).
Any requests which exceed the overall study budget for an individual will not be considered.
See the Frequently Asked Question on Requesting Funding for Additional Courses / Conferences.
All Fellows are funded to undertake a postgraduate certificate (PG Cert) in a subject of their choice, as long as there is at least one module which has a leadership or medical education focus, or an appropriate alternative. The course needs to begin during the Fellowship and needs to fall within the allocated budget.
There is no entitlement to any particular amount of transferrable credits. Most Fellows report that the academic component of their Fellowship is more work than anticipated at the outset – it is therefore advisable to choose one Postgraduate Certificate or equivalent, in order to have adequate time to also focus on your Fellowship project.
The course must be within the £3450 funding budget. If the course exceeds this amount, then part-funding will be agreed up to a maximum of £3450. Fellows should be mindful that their overall study budget for the duration of the Fellowship is £3450 and, therefore, if they choose to enrol on a PG Cert at this amount, they would not be eligible for any other funded study leave throughout the Fellowship.
You may wish to view this list of academic or PG Cert courses that Fellows have previously undertaken - this list is not exhaustive and the FLP does not endorse any of the courses. We would encourage you to speak to current or past Fellows to help guide you in your choice of PG Cert.
Once you have chosen your PG Cert, we advise you discuss this with your Educational Supervisor. If they are in agreement please e-mail the following information to futureleaders.yh@hee.nhs.uk. This will allow a purchase order to be raised for your course and sent to the Course provider. You are advised to discuss how to register for the course directly with the Course provider. Please note if you are starting in August the earliest the FLP team will begin raising Purchase Orders is July.
- Name:
- Title of course:
- Web address of course:
- Course provider:
- E-mail contact for course provider:
- Postal address of provider:
- Cost of course (excluding VAT):
- Start date:
All leadership Fellows are encouraged to access the HEE YH Coaching Scheme, which offers 4-6 sessions of coaching with a trained coach on the HEE YH Coaching register. Please see here for further details. The register can be provided by emailing coaching.yh@hee.nhs.uk.
The aim of coaching is to increase potential and enhance the careers of those who access it. Sessions are confidential and do not form part of an educational assessment.
People access coaching for a variety of reasons, and there are no right or wrong ones.
Some examples are:
- You want to achieve different outcomes, improve your performance, or improve your leadership or management skills;
- You have yet to identify your key strengths and how best to utilise them;
- You perceive a gap in your knowledge, skills, confidence or resources;
- There is something at stake e.g. a challenge or development opportunity and you want to make the most of it.
Coaching complements the other components of the Fellowship and has the potential to enhance leadership confidence and the impact of the Fellowship.
We recommend that all Fellows complete a 360º feedback process using the NHS Healthcare Leadership Model 360° Feedback Tool. This is an online tool, which gathers information from raters via an anonymised online form, and then comprises a 2 hour facilitated feedback session. This process is funded by the Future Leaders Programme.
Alternatively, you may wish to use any tools that your college or faculty provide.
A 360º appraisal can be undertaken at any point of the Fellows choosing during the year, but it is probably most useful if undertaken in the latter half of their year This leaves time to identify development areas and an action plan to address these., leaving enough time so that they can work on any development points if they wish.
For further information on the process, please see the 360° Appraisal Notes.
Sheffield Microsystem Coaching Academy (recommended by Duncan Miller, Alumni):
The two day 'Introduction to Quality Improvement Course' is designed to introduce the basics of quality improvement through a mixture of presentation, video and practical exercises. It is aimed at anyone who is interested in quality improvement, as a leader, a potential MCA coach, or as part of an improvement team.
This course is a real eye opener! Out of all the medical courses I have ever been on (and I've been on a few), this stands out as the best… by a mile. This course will take you to away from the unknown unknowns.
The variety of candidates and interactive presentations made both days a huge success. If anyone is interested in quality improvement and service development this course surely is a must.
The HOPE Exchange programme (recommended by Saira Ghafur, Alumni):
HOPE exchange programme is a four week exchange programme run yearly by the European Hospital and Healthcare Federation. The aim is to promote the sharing of knowledge and expertise within the European Union and to provide training and experience for healthcare professionals. Each year has a different theme, for instance quality improvement and patient safety. It is open to all members of the multi-disciplinary team, with a minimum of three years’ experience working in healthcare. The exchange culminates with an evaluation conference in the lead country.
Applications for the programme should be returned by end October and you will need your host Trust / Deanery to help support the process. You may also require a language test depending on which country you are placed in.
This was an excellent experience to learn more about patient safety, quality and health policy at an international level. Despite very different health systems in each of the countries, you soon realise that we are all faced with very similar challenges. It is a great opportunity for collaboration and learning about best practice from other countries.
My contact details are sairag@doctors.org.uk to find out more information about the programme.
Porter Intensive Seminar (recommended by Saira Gafur, Alumni):
The Porter Intensive Seminar is held on an annual basis at the Harvard Business School. It is run by Professor Michael Porter, author of the book ‘Redefining Healthcare’. The course is based on the principle of value-based healthcare delivery and uses case studies, mainly from the US and some international examples. It focuses on value – based on patient outcomes, patient experience and cost of the healthcare. The course also looks at different ways of delivering healthcare and the importance of measuring outcomes. The course is very interactive and all students are expected to prepare for the discussions and actively participate.
The course intake is on a competitive basis and applications open in September. You can join the Diagnosis group on Linkedin, which advertises application dates for the seminar.
If you are accepted on the course, tuition fees are paid by Harvard Business School.
This is a fantastic opportunity, one which I would highly recommend. It helps develop alternative ways of thinking about value and outcomes for patient and different approaches to healthcare delivery.
Risk Management
International Association of Risk Management in Medicine
American Society for Healthcare Risk Management
After choosing your PG Cert, if you have any further funding available in your study budget, then you can apply to attend external courses and conferences.
Please complete the study leave form - either for trainees or for those in substantive posts.
All study leave requests will need to be approved and signed by your Educational Supervisor at your organisation first.
Then email the form to the futureleaders.yh@hee.nhs.uk for approval by Dr Susy Stirling (Associate Dean for the Fellowship).
In the body of your email, please include a supporting statement relating to why you want to go on this course / conference and how this relates to your learning needs.
Please send requests AT LEAST 4 weeks in advance, otherwise we may be unable to process requests at short notice. Please complete all fields to avoid delay.
Your request will be considered taking the following factors into account:
- HEE will cover costs associated with study leave during your Fellowship. Any costs associated with your project should be funded by your School (in case of 100% HEE costs) or your employer (in cases of 50/50 funded posts).
- Funding available within the financial year (each Fellow has an overall study budget of £3450, including the cost of their PG Cert);
- Relation to the Fellow’s learning needs;
- Potential benefit to the Fellow and the programme;
- Cost of course / conference.
Please see Requesting study leave whilst on the FLP for further details.
Training activities completed during the Fellowship year which are related to your specialty will be at the discretion of your FLP supervisor. You should also seek agreement from your parent school, TPD or substantive team. This will not be covered by the FLP study budget.
If a course is related to your specialty but also necessary/advantageous for your FLP project work, then this may be considered by the FLP supervisor. An example of this would be a Paediatric trainee completing an FLP project in safeguarding and wishing to access safeguarding training. In this case please email futureleaders.yh@hee.nhs.uk to discuss.
If the request is granted by your FLP supervisor, You should seek approval from your FLP supervisor and should inform the FLP team via email futureleaders.yh@hee.nhs.uk.
Although courses may be free at the point of access to Fellows, they are not free to the FLP. Cancelling a course / conference at short notice (particularly at less than 48 hours) means significant cost is incurred to the Programme, and impacts on the funding available for other courses and conferences.
If you are unable to attend a course or conference please e-mail futureleaders.yh@hee.nhs.uk at your earliest convenience:
- Marking your e-mail for the attention of the Business Manager
- Outlining your reasons for cancellation.
Please note it is not acceptable to notify via Whatsapp alone. It is also unacceptable to offer no apologies or explanation for your absence.
We appreciate there will be occasions when cancellation is unavoidable due to illness or adverse life events, and are understanding of such reasons.
If cancellations are made without good reason or prior notification, Fellows will be refused funding for further activities and removed from the current FLP courses. You may be asked to repay the fee for the course.
When Fellows write up their leadership work, you should acknowledge the source of funding and the FLP.
In the instances where:
- You have your work accepted for national or international conferences / publications,
- You have any discussion with local, national or international press.
Please email details to both:
- Miss Sarah Kaufmann via sarah.kaufmann@hee.nhs.uk,
- communications.north@hee.nhs.uk.
Expenses for activities related to your Fellowship can be claimed back from your employer. This includes travel to FLP courses (including those recommended on the FLP curriculum), meetings and other activities in relation to your Fellowship. Your expenses should be discussed and approved by your Educational Supervisor.
If you wish to discuss requesting funding for further courses, please see the Frequently Asked Questions on Requesting Funding for Additional Courses / Conferences.
If you are working solely on behalf of HEE, you will be given a HEE email (@hee.nhs.uk) address and full access to the HEE network for the duration of your Fellowship. In order for this to happen, HR must put a temporary secondment agreement in place to facilitate network access for governance purposes. You will be contacted before your start date setting out arrangements for the secondment and the steps you should take to fulfil the requirements set out by HEE Human Resources.
Hot desks with access to PCs are available at Don Valley House, HEE Leeds Office (Blenheim House) and the HEE Hull Office (Health House, Willerby). These can be booked at the following website: https://yhhee.this.nhs.uk/sites.php
In terms of indemnification of work undertaken by Future Leaders, cover is provided under the NHS Resolution scheme for Fellows undertaking service evaluations. This would normally be through the Fellow’s employer. Where however the project primarily benefits HEE rather than the employing NHS trust, it has been agreed that HEE indemnifies the employer and that HEE will take the lead in the unlikely event of any litigation arising from the Future Leader’s work.
However, where the project primarily benefits HEE rather than the employing NHS Trust, it has been agreed that HEE indemnifies the employer. Therefore, HEE will take the lead in the unlikely event of any litigation arising from the Fellow’s work.
The majority of projects do not require NHS Research Ethics.
One potential challenge of improvement work is that it does not necessarily fit the traditional research model, but we still wish to disseminate the findings widely. The definition of research versus service evaluation (in terms of research ethics) can be open to interpretation. If you are unsure look at this table produced by the Health Research Authority (HRA) Research Ethics Service:
http://www.hra-decisiontools.org.uk/research/docs/DefiningResearchTable_Oct2017-1.pdf
There is also a ‘Decision Tool’ to help identify whether or not your project is classed as research by the HRA:
http://www.hra-decisiontools.org.uk/research/
If you intend to publish your work in traditional academic journals then it is important to consider what type of work you will produce before you start.
Option 1: Does you work classify as ‘Service Evaluation’ according to the above resources? If yes, then you would need to identify a journal that publishes ‘Service Evaluation’ work with a new methodology etc. A good example is BMJ Quality and Safety.
If you wanted to publish work that was specific to a specialty (e.g. Psychiatry, Paediatric or Public Health), it is worth contacting the journal to see if they would publish these sorts of initiatives under the ‘Service Evaluation’ umbrella.
Option 2: Alternative route – requires NHS Research Ethics:
If you did wish to use the ‘Research’ label, or this is what seems more appropriate, there are a number of options available. Full research ethics committee approval is rarely needed for these types of projects. A ‘Proportionate Review’ may be sufficient. In order to do this, you need to complete an IRAS (Integrated Research Application System) form.
https://www.myresearchproject.org.uk/
Once the IRAS form is complete, a quality improvement/service evaluation that has been considered ‘research’ using the above HRA guidance would then usually be suitable for a ‘Proportionate Review’, please refer to:
https://www.hra.nhs.uk/documents/1022/proportionate-review-information-guidancedocument.pdf
This is a simplified version of an ethics application which does not require full ethics committee review, and guarantees a response within 2 to 3 weeks of submission. If the review identifies the need for full ethics review you will be told this at the outcome of the proportionate review.
Universities and HEE offer advice and support regarding ethics submission.
The Future Leaders Programme is intended to improve the leadership skills of professionals with as wide a range of backgrounds as possible. Becoming a parent is not therefore a barrier to undertaking a Fellowship. Please refer to our parental leave guidance for the available options during your fellowship year.
For medical, dental and public health registrars in training:
ARCPs have to be conducted on a roughly 12 monthly basis with a maximum of no longer than 15 months between two ARCPs. This is regardless of whether a trainee is out of programme. As a medical, dental or public health registrar in training you will have taken an OOPE for this Fellowship year. Your TPD should conduct an ARCP in the timescale outlined above. This can be in abstentia (you do not have to attend) if you and the TPD are happy with that. You are not required to upload evidence or work based assessments (WBAs) during your OOPE to your training program portfolio as your out of programme leave is not counting towards your training. Should it be beneficial to your training progression to do so you can do this at your own choice. You must however provide an Education Supervisor report using template to provide the panel with an update on your OOPE. The e-Portfolio based tempate will not be applicable so you may upload a report in a format that best serves you and your ES. It is essential that all junior doctors must complete a Form R and declare any clinical practice and locum work they have undertaken in the period since their last submission.
You should be given an outcome 8 if you under go an ARCP whilst out of programme.
For further information see the Gold Guide, available here: https://www.copmed.org.uk/gold-guide/
Extension of a Future Leaders Programme post is only available to those Fellows who are currently occupying a Future Leaders Programme post.
Applications for an extension must include:
- Formal letter, for the attention of the Postgraduate Dean (PGD), outlining the personal reason(s) for requesting an extension
- Letter in support of extension from the Supervisor of Future Leaders Programme Project.
- Letter in support of extension from the Head of School of your parent specialty (for medical, dental or public health registrars in training only) or your substantive manager (all other fellows)
- Letter from a budget holder within employing organisation (for posts which are Trust-led projects funded by Trust only) confirming funding is available for duration of the extension.
Please note that a letter from a budget holder within the employing organisation is not needed if the post is funded and led by Health Education England – Yorkshire and the Humber / a School funded post. If you are in doubt as to who funds your post, please seek clarification from your Project Supervisor.
These items should be collected together along with a completed FLP Extension Request Form and sent to the Future Leaders inbox at futureleaders.yh@hee.nhs.uk. The Extension Request Form can be accessed in the Documents section at the bottom of this page.
Extension applications should be submitted with 6 months notice. This is in line with Gold Guide guidance for Out of Programme Extension requests, and gives sufficient notice to employers for those healthcare professionals who are on secondment.
For further advice and information please contact futureleaders.yh@hee.nhs.uk.
On completion of your Fellowship year, all Fellows are expected to:
- Email the Post Summary form to the Fellows to the FLP. This document will be used within the FLP annual report, which is published on our website.
- Email a summary of any clinical work that has been undertaken to futureleaders.yh@hee.nhs.uk. For medical, dental and public health registrars in training, Fellows must declare all locums undertaken on their Form R, as this is the formal record of their whole scope of practice.
- Complete an online evaluation survey (a link will be emailed out) - this is anonymous and all feedback is used to develop the programme.
- We encourage all Fellows to sign up to the FLP Alumni Network which is hosted on the Future NHS Collaboration Platform. All communication from the FLP to Alumni is now via this platform.
Your host Trust and/or Educational Supervisor may have specific requirements about how your project work should be summarised (for example, via a project report). To ensure you are clear about expectations, you should discuss whether there are any specific requirements with your Educational Supervisor well before the end of your Fellowship.
You may also with to join our informal Future Leaders and Alumni Facebook group by clicking on the link, to keep in touch with peers and for the most up to date information about upcoming activities.
For medical, dental and public registrars in training: We advise all Fellows who are completing the programme via the OOPE route to read the following guidance. You may also wish to take a look at the Supported Return to Training (SuppoRTT) webpage.
A range of useful forms and documents are available at the bottom of this page for Fellows to download.
We have also put together a range of resources and documents for Educational Supervisors - these can be accessed on our Information for Educational Supervisors page.
Fellows with HEE accounts will be able to access a range of HEE documents and templates via HEE Connect.
As this activity is not directly related to the FLP you are required to request professional leave to attend a job interview just as you would in your substantive/training post. You should seek approval from your FLP supervisor and should inform the FLP team via email futureleaders.yh@hee.nhs.uk. This is in keeping with BMA guidance (Study, professional and special leave (bma.org.uk)). Whilst the BMA guidance is limited to doctors, this should be applied to all fellows regardless of their clinical background.
Contacts
For more information about the Future Leaders Programme, please contact the team at Futureleaders.yh@hee.nhs.uk
Links
You are welcome to access FLP bimonthly meetings for networking opportunities – please contact futureleaders.yh@hee.nhs.uk for upcoming dates and links. Priority for all of our courses will be given to felows whose post is part of the FLP. If places are avilable there may be opportunities for you to attend so please enquire with the future leaders team at futureleaders.yh@hee.nhs.uk.
Educational Supervisors are provided with an induction handbook and other resources to help guide them in their role in providing their fellow(s) with a positive and meaningful fellowship experience. These are available in the 'Information for Educational Supervisors' section of our website.
