This information is available in the following location: –
Category: CPD, Travel & Expenses
Trainees are expected to commute from home to their practice placements which may include for some distance across the North West region. This may also include staying away from home. If travelling from home to the university would be a shorter distance, the extra mileage is funded. Travel during work time is also often required, to attend meetings and home visits for example, and this is funded by the programme. Personal circumstances are always taken into account if this is a possibility, e.g., trainees with caring responsibilities would not be asked to stay away from home.
Claiming travel expenses
Travel expenses should be claimed using the NHS expenses form. These are submitted electronically to George Silverwood via g.silverwood@lancaster.ac.uk
| Mileage to academic teaching | No payment (regardless of teaching location) |
| Mileage to and from placement | At official rate (for distance exceeding home to base) |
| Mileage to clinical research | At official rate (for distance exceeding home to base) |
| Mileage within placement | At official rate |
In all cases the trainee’s base is the University teaching site. It is appreciated that a number of trainees who live some distance from their base may feel disadvantaged but the above arrangements are consistent with current employment arrangements. When trainees visit participants for their research work or go to a site to conduct research for their thesis or SRP research, claims can only be made when the distance is greater than home to base, and then only at official rate. For example, if a trainee lives 50 miles from Lancaster but is collecting data for research at a hospital base (or participant’s house) that is 48 miles from home, then no claim could be made. If the hospital base (or participant’s house) is 52 miles from home, then a claim can be made for 52-50 = 2 miles at official rate.
With regards to clinical research travel that takes place outside of the North-West region is costed to the £300 budget that trainees can use for research expenses. For these purposes the northwest region is defined as Cumbria, Cheshire/Wirral, Merseyside, Greater Manchester and Lancashire. Trainees therefore need to indicate on the NHS expenses form the county that the travel will take place within. For any travel that takes place outside of the North-West region trainees have to complete and return the research travel form to the Research Coordinator in addition to the NHS expense form. The NHS expense form must be completed for trainees to be reimbursed for any mileage incurred. More details on research expenses is available on the research expenses page of the online handbook.
Please note that conference travel is processed differently.
Staff actively encourage trainees to develop professional interests and expertise via various means including attendance at external conferences, online training and accessing personal therapy. Therapy for continuing professional development differs from therapy that would be indicated by an occupational health referral. The latter concerns therapy accessed to address issues around capacity to practice whilst the former pertains to enhancing practice. To discuss further the first point of contact is Claire Anderson, Clinical Tutor, c.l.anderson@lancaster.ac.uk
There is a formal procedure for determining use of your funds, to maintain equity in the distribution of funding and to ensure financial accountability.
Applications should be submitted to Katherine Thackeray, Programme Administrator.
- Trainees joining from 2022 onwards are entitled to a £500 budget over three years, this budget is called a ‘Training Budget’. This budget can be used for activities of the trainee’s choice, such as attendance at external conferences, online training, accessing personal therapy and must also cover research related expenses. Please see the research expenses section of the handbook for more detail on example expenses. £100 of this budget is ring fenced for the payment of experts by experience; this will pay for up to 5 hours of involvement in research in an advisory capacity (further information on the payment structure for this element). Plans for involving experts by experience should be discussed with your supervisor and cost implications agreed in advance.
- Trainees in the 2019, 2020 and 2021 intakes are entitled to £400 over the three years. This budget can be used for activities of the trainee’s choice, such as attendance at external conferences, online training, accessing personal therapy and must also cover research related expenses. Please see the research expenses page of the handbook for more information on example expenses.
- Money unspent at the end of training remains within the programme budget. It is not possible for money to be spent after the completion of the three years training, or for it to be used for books as these can be requested or accessed through the library. If the activity exceeds the budget the trainee is required to cover the excess.
- Only in exceptional circumstances will programme staff allow attendance at a conference or non-programme activity if this involves missing part of the DClinPsy teaching programme (such as one-off conferences that are of specific relevance to the trainee’s individual learning needs, or events where the trainee will be presenting). If trainees wish to attend an event which clashes with DClinPsy teaching, they must agree to this with their individual tutor pair. In addition, the trainee should send apologies, in advance to the lecturer scheduled to deliver the teaching, assuming it has been agreed that they can miss that session. Ongoing commitments, such as personal therapy sessions should be scheduled within study time.
- All trainees must submit the details of the CPD activity, and costs of attendance to the Programme Administrator. An application form (see appended) should be completed for each activity. Research related expenses, including expert by experience involvement, should be approved through the Research Coordinator instead.
- Details should include promotional literature if applicable, dates of the event, and whether the trainee has gained the relevant approval (e.g. from a placement supervisor) to attend the event.
- All rough costings must include, where relevant, fees and for conferences only travel accommodation and subsistence.
- The Programme Administrator will organise the approval system and consult with tutor pairs as required.
2017 and 2018 intake:
The CPD entitlement depends on programme finances at the time of your entry to the programme: trainees joining in 2017 or 2018 are entitled to £300 over the three years.
Vitae
Lancaster University is a member of Vitae, so all staff and students have access, they just need to sign up using their university email. For some of the events this means a discount rather than free access, but the resources on the website are open access.
Vitae login page
About vitae
Application to access programme CPD funds
The Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust expense claim form is available at the link below. You should complete a form at the end of each month and submit the form to George Silverwood, Programme Assistant. Travel expenses are accepted electronically. Trainees should email the claim form and photos/scans of any receipts.
The form will be checked and approved and then sent to Payroll at the Trust; in order for the form to be processed in time for your salary the following month, Payroll need to receive it by the 5th of each month (so please submit to the office in time to ensure this, otherwise, the travel claim will be held over for another month). You are only eligible to claim for travel within the past three months, so it is advisable to submit on a monthly basis.
Trainees must register their vehicle before submitting any claims to the Trust. This can be done by completing the car insurance form below and submitting it to the programme office together with a current insurance document which states that there is cover in place for business use.
Each trainee has a budget for the duration of training, which is to be used to cover CPD, such as attendance at conferences, research costs and also CAT formulation sessions (personal therapy). The budget depends on the year of entry to the programme.
Once your application to attend a conference, online training or personal therapy has been approved by Katherine Thackeray, Programme Administrator, she will provide a budget code for you to quote when submitting a request through the procurement portal to book your event and travel and accommodation if required. Please note that the procurement and travel teams need advance notice to process the booking, so allow plenty of time ahead of the event. The University finance team will no longer approve claiming back for events you paid for yourself, they have to go through the portal in advance.
Conference and course fees should be requested through the purchase order request (if you experience issues with this in specific circumstances the programme may be able to make payment on credit card).
For conference/cpd booking queries email: strategic.purchasing@lancaster.ac.uk
For any travel booking queries email: travel@lancaster.ac.uk
Any costs associated with during the event, such as meals and sundries, you can pay yourself and claim it back electronically through the online student expenses system. Claims must be submitted within three months of the expenditure. Please see the Lancaster University student expenses web page for links to the expense policy and full details for making a claim in Agresso Web.
Please note that the Agresso icon will not appear on your desktop, but you can access the system via the web address (which is included in the help pages).
Receipts should be scanned or photographed and attached to the online claim. Please notify Katherine Thackeray of the expenses being claimed as these need to be deducted from your budget (you need to ensure you have sufficient unspent budget to cover the full cost of the claim). Please note alcohol will not be reimbursed.
Please contact Sarah Heard, Research Coordinator, for any research related costs (including expert by experience involvement).
Fees claimed are reimbursed direct into your bank account, so you need to register your bank account via the Lancaster University bank account nomination website.
Guide to claiming expenses through Agresso
Lancaster University bank account nomination