Last Updated on 08/08/2024

Introduction to the Tutor Pair and Vertical Tutor Groups (VTGs)

To ensure that trainees receive coordinated support and advice on their progression throughout their training, from staff who have a chance to get to know them and their learning needs, each trainee is allocated a pair of tutors (a clinical tutor and a research tutor).

Each trainee and their individual clinical tutor will be part of a Vertical Tutor Group (VTGs). There are three VTGs consisting of 4-6 clinical tutors and their allocated trainees. The VTGs were established in order for the tutors and tutees within them to get to know each other so that other tutors within the group can work with particular trainees if the need arises for any reason. The VTGs also help to foster relationships between trainees in different cohorts.

Trainees will be made aware of their allocated VTG early on in their induction, and there will be a range of spaces for them to meet and get to know the clinical tutors from their VTG. Trainees will be allocated an individual clinical tutor from the VTG prior to starting their first placement, and clinical tutors and trainees are encouraged to agree a psychological contract describing the way that they will work together (see below). In order to operate effectively information that trainees have shared with their individual tutor will be shared within VTGs on a need to know basis, as the other tutor members of the VTGs have delegated line management responsibilities for all the trainees within the VTG.

In addition to an individual clinical tutor and the VTG the trainees also have an individual research tutor. The research tutor will also usually be their thesis supervisor. The timeframe for allocation of research tutors will be shared during the induction – for full-time trainees this will typically be within the first few months of year one, and for part-time trainees this will be in year two. The respective roles and responsibilities of the research tutor and the trainee are captured in the thesis contract and the research consistency framework. The individual tutor team will usually work with the trainee to the end of the training programme.

Once allocated, individual tutors are intended to be the main point of general contact for the trainee with the programme. They are available to provide pastoral support as well as having the delegated authority to deal with some day-to-day line management issues, such as approving annual leave requests (clinical tutors). Prior to being allocated an individual clinical tutor, there are group and individual spaces available with VTG tutors where trainees can ask questions and seek support. During this time, trainees can also ask questions or seek support by contacting their VTG lead (or their deputy in their absence), who will either respond to the trainee themselves, or ask another tutor in the VTG to respond.

Tutors will also work with the trainee to develop and maintain an Individual Training Plan (ITP) (see below) throughout training. It would generally be expected that both tutors would copy the other into communication with and/or about the trainee when this concerns issues beyond routine clinical/academic/research tasks. Examples of such communication would be concerns regarding personal issues impacting on training; discussions about planned absence from the programme or revisions to an ITP. The principle here is that both tutors and the trainee are involved in decision-making wherever that is appropriate and possible. Where trainees approach other members of staff to discuss specific issues that have implications for their wider training experience, these staff members will also link back to the trainee’s individual tutors so that a coordinated response and plan can be agreed.

Individual tutors (or a nominated tutor from the VTG) also carry out some specific tasks in relation to the trainee. These include the following: –

• Support the self-assessment exercise (SAE) assignment (both tutors)
• Undertake the self-assessment exercise (SAE) viva (both tutors)
• Pastoral support (both tutors)
• Conducting (in person or remotely) visits to the trainees at their placement to review progress (clinical tutor)
• Supervise the thesis proposal assignment (research tutor)
• Support for placement assignments, including draft read of first placement assignment (clinical tutor)
• Conducting ITP meetings with the trainee (both tutors if possible)
• Raising issues of concern with the trainee or feeding back on discussions about the trainee which have taken place in other fora (both tutors if possible)
• Conducting end of training interviews with the trainee (both tutors if possible)

Tutor Contract

The role of the Clinical Tutor

The primary role of the clinical tutor is to help trainees to acquire the competencies to help vulnerable and distressed members of the public when they graduate from the course.  Overall, the clinical tutor role involves monitoring the tutee’s progression in terms of acquiring skills, identifying any barriers to that, offering pastoral support and signposting support where necessary, plus working with placement supervisors to provide clarity on what opportunities are necessary for skills acquisition.

Although the Clinical Director has ultimate line management responsibilities for trainees, clinical tutors have shared  ‘delegated line management responsibilities’ for trainees in their VTG.

Line management responsibility has two main areas of activity: University and NHS.

• The NHS role involves an interface with Lancashire and South Cumbria Foundation Trust, our employing Trust, and includes tasks like managing absence, both long and short term, managing maternity leave, performance reviews and monitoring professional behaviour.  Within this context the tutee is conceptualised as an employee and the tutor as a manager.
• The university role involves the management of deadlines, assessment, involvement in teaching and university committees and the acquisition of skills, where not on placement. Here, the trainee is seen primarily as a postgraduate student within an adult learning model (responsible for their own development with tutorial support)

Principles for Tutor/Tutee contract

Regularity of contact

• The clinical tutor will offer the trainee monthly check in meetings of between 30 minutes and an hour. It is an expectation that the trainee will attend those meetings at a mutually convenient time. These can be face to face or online to maximise opportunities to meet, although face to face is preferable, particularly at the start of training. In months when there is an ITP or placement review already planned there is no expectation for there to be a separate check in meeting. Trainees will also have monthly contact with their thesis supervisor.
• Where issues (e.g. personal circumstances requiring pastoral support, identification of the need for study support, a persistent health issue, a failed assignment) have arisen there may be a need for more frequent meetings and they will be arranged as necessary. Again, if the clinical tutor identifies a need for more regular meetings it is an expectation that the trainee will attend at a mutually convenient time.
• Trainees can request meetings outside of the monthly check-ins. The clinical tutor will do their best to accommodate this meeting. Where this is not possible due to work commitments/leave etc, the clinical tutor will ask another tutor from the VTG to meet with the trainee.
• If either the trainee or the clinical tutor cannot make the arranged meeting notice should be given where possible and a new time negotiated.
• Both the clinical tutor and the trainee should be on time and prepared for meetings.
• Meetings can be held face-to-face, on-line or by phone dependent on preference and pragmatics.

Responsiveness

• Most clinical tutors work part-time. They will reply to e-mails, phone messages within a working week, unless on annual leave. If the trainee has an urgent issue they should email the absence inbox and/or e-mail their VTG lead.
• Although trainees are typically on placement 2-3 days per week they are line managed by their clinical tutor throughout the working week. Placement supervisors do not have delegated line management responsibilities. Trainees would be expected to check university e-mails and triage them on every working day, including placement and teaching days. Not all e-mails need to be responded to on the day, but some will be more urgent. If not on leave, trainees will be expected to reply to all e-mails requiring a response within a week.
• If there are any issues with a lack of responsiveness from either the tutors or the trainee then please see the ‘how to deal with difficulties section below’.

Raising Issues

• Regular check-ins provide the opportunity for the trainee to raise any issues pertinent to their training. These could be issues on placement, issues with academic assignments and/or any personal issues (including physical and mental health issues) impacting on training and competency development.
• It is the trainee’s responsibility, as outlined in the HCPC code of conduct and ethics for students to make sure their clinical tutor is aware of any issues that impact on training. Trainees should raise issues as soon as they become aware of them, the hope being that issues shared in a timely manner can be managed together in a way that prevents them becoming more significant challenges.
• The clinical tutor will treat any issues raised in a respectful and compassionate manner. Issues raised will be treated confidentially but there are limits to that confidentiality. Information may need to be shared with others on a need to know basis, such as VTG tutors, placement supervisors, communication skills facilitators and the clinical director (see below).
• Any issues raised which have a significant impact on training will be shared with the research tutor. It is expected that both tutors will be involved in any pastoral support offered to the trainee.
• It may be that issues raised by the trainee suggest that ongoing professional support would be beneficial for the trainee. It is not within the role of the clinical tutor to provide this support but they will, alongside the research tutor, help to identify appropriate sources of support for the trainee.
• Any issues raised which have a significant impact on training will also be shared with the VTG tutors, and the clinical director as part of clinical tutor’s regular supervision. This is because of the shared delegated line management responsibility, and because the clinical director is ultimately the line manager for all trainees.
• Clinical tutors will regularly check-in with trainees about their placement experience. It is important for trainees to raise any issues regarding placement as soon as they arise and not to wait until the mid-placement visit. It may be that trainees raise issues about their placement experience which they ask their clinical tutor not to raise with their placement supervisor. At times, this may be appropriate, but at other times the clinical tutor may consider it necessary to raise with placement supervisors. Tutors will be open and transparent with the trainee about any issues they need to raise with the placement supervisor.

Tutoring Relationship

Conditions that will help the relationship to work well (we would encourage you to personalise this element of the contract through discussion with your clinical tutor):

• Maintaining regular contact and being responsive to communications.
• Being open and honest re: development, abilities, progress, workload etc.
• Give regular constructive and, where appropriate, positive feedback.
• Having time to discuss what will be raised at the mid placement review.

How to deal with any difficulties:

• Both the individual tutors and the trainee should talk as openly as possible about any difficulties encountered.
• Disagreements should be dealt with professionally and responsibility should be shared.
• If the trainee is experiencing consistent difficulties with one or both of their individual tutors they should raise that with the tutors and attempt to resolve this together. If resolution is not possible then the trainee should raise the issue with the Directors and a solution will be sought. Where trainees feel they have difficulties with other members of staff, they can also discuss this initially with their tutor pair. However, they would also be encouraged to discuss any difficulties openly with the specific member of staff with whom they felt they were having difficulties. The programme’s approach to any such interpersonal difficulties is to aim for resolution in an informal way before any recourse to more formal mechanisms. This is captured in the trainee concerns about staff document available in the online handbook.

Individual Training Plans

The purpose of the individual training plan (ITP) is to provide an overview of all aspects of training for each trainee, and to provide appropriate guidance to allow optimum development across the duration of the programme. This system of progress review is a collaborative exercise between the trainee and their individual tutors. It is important to emphasise that the individual training plan is not a formal ‘examined’ evaluative procedure but, instead, allows a considered discussion of progress in all domains that relate to training. The aim is for both the trainee and tutors to communicate openly and to agree on the best way forward to meet each individual trainee’s needs in the forthcoming year. Regular review is not only good practice and helpful to trainees, it also satisfies university and employer expectations for review.

The ITP process requires at least one meeting per year, and will typically follow the schedule below. The first meeting is the self-assessment exercise (SAE) in year one, followed by an ITP meeting in each subsequent year.

Additional ITP meetings can be arranged and can beas frequent as is agreed to be useful. To ensure that students are supported effectively, failure in one of the assessments deemed to be summative will also result in a formal review of academic progress being undertaken. This will usually be done by scheduling an additional ITP meeting where these issues can be discussed and the training plan adjusted accordingly. If possible both individual tutors should be present for all ITPs. At times, due to part-time working and scheduling difficulties, it is not possible for both tutors to attend the ITP. In such cases, the tutor who is unable to attend the ITP should still review progress with the trainee. It is expected that both tutors are present for at least one ITP per year.

It is anticipated that issues in training evolve through the three years. For example, trainees’ goals are likely to be more exploratory (‘wider’) during the first year, and focus down to areas of special interest and career planning by the third year. It is the role of the tutors to help focus on appropriate goals, and strategies to meet these goals, in order to facilitate developmental progress.

It is anticipated that the trainee will make notes regarding the different areas of discussion prior to each review meeting and will bring the form to discuss at the meeting. Information in the document is then shared with the trainee’s individual tutors during the meeting, and progress on development goals from any previous meetings is discussed. There is then some reflective discussion culminating in new development goals being agreed for the next training period. Following the meeting, the trainee then updates the remainder of the form based upon these discussions. At the end of training, the form containing notes for all ITP meetings is signed by trainee and tutors and submitted to the office. These are stored in a password protected drive which can be accessed by all staff.

Individual Training Plan form – 2021 cohort onwards
Individual Training Plan form – 2021 cohort onwards – completed example