Study Leave
for Postgraduate Doctors and Dentists in Training

This page provides information about using Accent Leave Manager for trust administrators. The page also highlights key aspects of the study leave policy and guidance. Trust administrators are strongly encouraged to read the policy and guidance alongside this guide.

There is also and an approver user guide and an applicant user guide for doctors and dentists in training, as well as an overview of study leave and frequently asked questions.

ALM Trust User Guide

• Policy and guidance
• Approval process
• Regional Teaching and Pre-approved courses
• How to activate your account
• How to reset your password
• How to navigate the site
• How to navigate the application / expenses lists 
• How to read application forms
  • Leave details
  • Event details
  • Entitlements and budget
  • Cover and authorisation
  • Estimated expenses
  • Leave history
  • Application approval chain
  • Exception approval chain
• How to add an approver
• How to batch replace an approver
• How to amend number of days requested
• How to add missing expenses
• How to cancel an application
• How to download an application
• How to record expenses
• Expense allowances
• How to set an out of office on behalf of an approver
• How to request support

Policy and guidance

The NHS England approach to study leave is set out in the national study leave policy, which provides a strategic overview of the study leave process, approval principles and finance management. The policy was developed by the Study Leave Working Group with trainee representatives.

The Yorkshire and the Humber study leave operational guidance sets out our local NHSE study leave guidance and covers the process for applications and claiming expenses.

Approvers are strongly encouraged to familiarise themselves with the policy and guidance documents and also refer to them when reviewing study leave applications.

Guidance documents
 National Study Leave Policy |  Study Budget Reforms
 Local YH Study Leave Operational Guidance
 Local YH Foundation Study Leave Guidance

Approval process

Before submitting a study leave application on Accent Leave Manager, applicants must secure Rota Coordinator agreement for the time off and Educational Supervisor support for the educational appropriateness of the course/conference. Rota Coordinator agreement must be requested 8 weeks before the event using the local trust e-roster / process. Educational Supervisor support should be discussed as part of PDP planning and documented in the applicant's e-portfolio.

Once Rota Coordinator and Educational Supervisor support have been confirmed, a Study Leave application may be submitted on ALM for final Training Programme Director approval. Alternatively, where a course/conference is pre-approved by the PGMDE school, the application will be routed to Medical Education for approval.

Study leave applications must be submitted on ALM in advance of the course/conference and applicants should wait for approval before making any payments. If an applicant chooses to pay for a course/conference prior to requesting or receiving approval, they risk incurring costs which may not be reimbursed. Retrospective applications may considered if there is an exceptional reason and the application is received within 6 weeks of the event. Applications received outside of 6 weeks of the event would not normally be considered.

Final expense claims are submitted after the event using the employing trust's e-expenses or process and are authorised by Medical Education. Expense claims must be submitted within 6 weeks of the event. Claims must be accompanied by receipts and evidence of attendance. Claims will only be reimbursed in line with the nationally agreed rates for subsistence and travel. Late claims submitted within 3 months of the event may be considered if there is an exceptional reason. Claims received outside 3 months of the event will not be considered.

Regional Teaching and pre-approved courses

Applications for Regional Teaching and pre-approved courses will be routed in ALM to Medical Education for approval. Regional Teaching is a study / clinical skills day organised by the specialty training programme, or a school conference. Applicants may request travel and (if required) subsistence expenses only for attending Regional Teaching. Pre-approved course lists are provided by the specialty school and imported to ALM by the NHSE Study Leave team. 

How to activate your account

ALM account requests for new Medical Education staff should be sent by the Medical Education Manager or team leader to england.studyleave.yh@nhs.net. An account will then be created by the NHSE study leave team and the team will send you confirmation. You will also receive an activation email from NoReply@hicom.co.uk. Please follow the instructions in the email to set your password. Alternatively, use the Forgotten Password link on the ALM login page to request a password reset.

There may be a delay before receiving the password reset email. Please check your junk/spam folder and consider adding NoReply@hicom.co.uk to your safe senders list. Adding NoReply@hicom.co.uk to your safe senders list will also help ensure that you receive approval and other notifications.

How to reset your password

To change your ALM password, please use the Forgotten Password link on the ALM login page. There may be a delay before receiving the password reset email. Please check your junk/spam folder and consider adding NoReply@hicom.co.uk to your safe senders list.

How to navigate the site

When you log in into ALM, you will be presented with the dashboard menu. Expanding the Navigation Menu at the top of the screen will also show menu options. The navigation menu is available while navigating throughout the site.

The following menu options are available to trust administrators:

Leave Manager

• Outstanding Approvals: This is a list of applications which are waiting for you to approve or reject.
• Previous Approvals: This is a list of applications you have previously approved.
• Previous Rejections: This is a list of applications you have previously rejected.
• All Applications: All applications from all applicants employed by your trust at the time of the leave.
• All Expenses: All expense records for applicants employed by your trust at the time of the leave.
• Budgets: Applicant budget records. Budgets are added by the NHSE study leave team.
• Entitlements: Applicant entitlement records. Entitlements are added by the NHSE study leave team.
• Events: Pre-approved events records. Events are maintained by the NHSE study leave team based on pre-approved course lists provided by specialty schools.
• Approval chains: TPD and Medical Education approval chains. Approval chains records show the TPD and Medical Education approvers linked to the approval chain. Approval chains are maintained by the NHSE study leave team.
• Out of Office: Create out of office rules to re-route applications to covering approvers. Approvers can also set their own out of office rules.

Also available in the navigation menu:

• Batch replace approvers: Replace one approver with another on outstanding applications.
• Message: Includes system notifications as well as messages sent by other users. Messages are also sent by email.
• Non-administrators: Applicant and approver account details and contacts.

How to navigate the applications / expenses lists

The approvals list and other approval tabs provide a summary of the applications linked to you. Outstanding Approvals shows applications waiting your approval. All Applicants shows all applications from applicants employed by your trust at the time of the leave.

The columns can be filtered to help you find specific applications. You may need to scroll horizontally to view all the details. The details shown in All Applications include:

• [Applicant] Surname, 
• [Applicant] Forename
• Registration Number
• Application Date
• [Leave] Start Date
• [Leave] End Date
• Leave Type: ie Study, Private, Exam, International
• [Placement] Specialty: This may differ from the applicant's parent Training Programme
• [Programme]: The applicant's parent Training Programme
• Event: The name of the course/conference.
• Total days: Number of entitlement days involved.
• Application Type: ie Prospective or Retrospective.
• Application Status: ie Pending, Draft, Approved, Cancelled, Rejected, Lapsed

By default All Applications shows Pending applications. You may need to change the Application Status filter to see Approved applications or other statuses.

To view a full application form, click the relevant row to open the form.

All Expenses shows all expense records from applicants employed by your trust at the time of the leave. (Outstanding Approvals in Expenses is not used within Yorkshire and the Humber. Please use All Expenses to navigate to expense records.)

The columns can be filtered to help you find specific applications. You may need to scroll horizontally to view all the details. The details shown in All Expenses include:

• [Applicant] Surname, 
• [Applicant] Forename
• Registration Number
• Application Date
• Expense type: ie Course/Conference fees, Travel - Mileage, Travel - Public Transport / Other, Subsistence - Food, Subsistence - Accommodation
• [Placement] Specialty: This may differ from the applicant's parent Training Programme
• [Leave] Start Date
• [Leave] End Date
• Estimated Cost
• Claimed Amount: Amount claimed by the applicant
• Claimed Date: Date recorded in ALM
• Authorised Amount: Amount authorised by Medical Education to be paid to the applicant
• Date paid: Normally the salary pay day
• Event: The name of the course/conference
• Expense Authorisation Status: ie Draft, Pending, Claimed, Authorised, Rejected, Cancelled, Lapsed
• Application Status: ie Pending, Draft, Approved, Cancelled, Rejected, Lapsed

By default All Expenses shows Pending expenses for Approved applications. You may need to change the Expense Authorisation Status filter to see Authorised expenses or other statuses.

To view an expense record, click the relevant row to open the record.

How to read application forms

The guide below explores the sections of the ALM application form. Please refer to this guide as appropriate when reviewing applications.

Leave details

To view the status of an application, go to Navigation Menu > My Applications. Leave application status is displayed in the My Applications list. For more information, click and open the relevant application. 

The application status appears in the top right corner of the application (see 1 above). The Application ID also appears in the Leave Details section at the top of the page. If you need to contact us about a particular application, please quote the Application ID. This helps us to find the right application.

Begin by entering the initial leave details and checking the placement information displayed:

• The leave details section of the application form includes the following information:

• Applicant name and registration number
• Leave type: Study, Private, Exam, International
• Application ID: Please include the Application ID if contacting Medical Education or the NHSE study leave team about a specific application.
• [Leave] Start / End date
• Number of days requested: Number of entitlement days involved. This can be adjusted by the applicant when creating their application (eg to reflect half-days).
• Date submitted: Applications must be submitted in advance, normally between 8 to 6 weeks before the event.
• Reason for late application: Applicants submitting late or retrospective applications are asked to provide a reason for late application. Retrospective applications may considered if there is an exceptional reason and the application is received within 6 weeks of the event. Applications received outside of 6 weeks of the event would not normally be considered.

• The leave details section also includes details of the applicant's placement at the time of the planned leave, including:

• Placement site
• Placement start - end date
• Training grade
• Placement specialty: This may differ from the applicant's parent Training Programme

If the placement information is incorrect, applicants can be sign posted to My placement details / training grade in ALM are incorrect | Study Leave FAQs

The top right corner of the application form also shows the overall application status. In the example above the application is pending. When the application has been fully approved, the overall application status will update to indicate that the application is approved. Likewise, if the application is rejected or cancelled.

To be used when adding a TPD as 2nd approver to pre-approved applications routed to Medical Education. Please note: If the application has been completed incorrectly, please reject the application and ask the applicant to resubmit with the correct details.

To add a TPD as a 2nd approver after Medical Education navigate to the application and:

1. Click Add Approver in the approval chain section
2. Lookup the Approver
3. Enter 40 next to Sequence
4. Toggle Key Approver to Yes and set the other toggles to No
5. Click Save
6. Approve the application at your sequence and add an appropriate comment

The application will then progress to the TPD approver for final consideration.

How to batch replace an approver

To be used when one or more applications need to be reassigned from one TPD approver to another TPD approver. For example if the original TPD approver is away or unavailable. Heads of School also have ALM accounts should they be needed as the replacing approver.

To batch replace an approver:

1. Go to the Navigation Menu
2. Click Batch Replace Approvers
3. Lookup the Approver to replace (the original approver)
4. Then lookup the Replacing approver (the new approver)
5. Select Leave types Study, Exam, Private, International
6. Click Search
7. Click the checkboxes next to the relevant applications or the header checkbox to select all
8. When you are happy that the correct applications have been selected, click Replace Approver

The applications will then be reassigned to the new approver. The new approver will receive a notification for each application but you may wish to send a brief email to advise them of the reason for the change.

How to amend number of days requested

Applicants enter the number of days requested when creating the application. The number of days can be adjusted to reflect (for example) half-day courses or self-paced courses undertaken outside of work time. If needed this can be edited after submission by an ME or NHSE admin.

To amend the number of entitlement days recorded for the application:

1. Navigate to the application and
2. Replace the number in number of days requested in the leave details section with the correct number
3. Click Save at the bottom of the page

How to add missing expenses

Estimated expenses must be included at the time of submission if the applicant intents to claim expenses after the event. If estimated expenses are not included at the time of submission, any subsequent expense claim would normally be rejected.

In exceptional circumstances and as a one-off, Medical Education admins may add missing expenses to an application after submission. For exception applications, any expenses added after the application has been approved, must be agreed with the original TPD approver.

To add missing expenses navigate to the application and click Add in the Expenses section. Complete the pop-up expenses form with the relevant details and click Save.

How to cancel an application

If the event/booking has been cancelled or postponed, the applicant will need to cancel their study leave application in order to ensure that their entitlements and expenses are recorded correctly. Instructions for applicants are available at: How to cancel an application | ALM Applicant User Guide.

If the course / conference date has passed, the application will need to be cancelled by a Medical Education admin on their behalf.

To cancel an application, navigate to the application and click Cancel Application at the bottom of the page and add an appropriate comment.

How to download an application

If needed a PDF copy of an applications can be downloaded for record keeping or to share. For example if contacting the applicant, the school, or an NHSE PGMDE team. 

To download an application, navigate to the application and click Download Application at the bottom of the page.

How to record expenses

Expenses are claimed after the event using the local trust expenses system. Claims are then recorded in ALM for trust reimbursement and reporting. Claims may only be recorded in ALM after the event. If the leave date has not yet passed, the ALM expense record will not be editable.

Expenses must be properly itemised. For example only course/conference/resource fees may be recorded against 'Fees - Courses/Conferences only'. If an applicant only included estimated expenses (for example) for course/conference fees on their application, typically only this may be reimbursed after the event. If an exception is allowed, please refer to: How to add missing expenses.

When authorising claims and to record expenses, navigate to the relevant expense record via All Expenses and:

1. Open the original leave application via the link in the leave application summary section and check that the claim matches the activity. Also check for any approver comments in the approval chain section of the application form. For discretionary activity, the TPD approver may decide to part fund the leave or approve for time only.
2. Check the claim against the estimated amount. If the claimed expenses differ significantly from the estimated expenses the original approver should be consulted before authorising the claim.
3. Enter the claimed amount: This is the amount claimed by the applicant.
4. Enter the authorised amount: This is the amount authorised by Medical Education to be paid to the applicant.
5. Enter the date paid: This is the salary pay day when the expenses are due to be paid to the applicant.
6. Enter a reference (optional): This may be the trust claim reference, trust coding, or applicant ESR number, or other reference chosen by the trust.
7. Click Save.

Expense allowances

Expense allowances are detailed in the local study leave operational guidance and are also listed below. The allowances are based on the national NHS Terms and Conditions of Service Handbook. Any estimated expenses must reflect the study leave allowances. Expense claims submitted after the event will only be reimbursed up to the nationally agreed rates for travel and subsistence.

How to set an out office on behalf of an approver

TPD approvers can set an out of office rule when going away. Out of office rules redirect applications to another TPD approver. Heads of School also have ALM accounts should they be needed as the covering approver. If a TPD approver has not set an out of office rule themselves, it can be added by a trust administrator.

To add an out of office rule on behalf of a TPD approver:

1. Go to the Navigation Menu and click Out of Office
2. Click Add above the list on the right
3. Lookup the TPD approver going away, cover for
4. Lookup the covering approver
5. Toggle to confirm covering approver notified
6. Enter the date from and date to
7. Click Save & Back to set the Out of Office and return to the list

How to request support

For help using ALM or further guidance, please contact the NHSE study leave team. If contacting us about a specific application, please include the Application ID or the applicant's GMC Number and the start/end dates and course/conference name for the application. If you are emailing about a system error, please include the text of the error message and or a screenshot. Please also include the date and time that you encountered the error.