Period of Grace

The Period of Grace (POG) enables doctors who have completed their training and not yet obtained a consultant post to continue in their specialty post for a time limited period whilst they find employment.  Terms and conditions in relation to POG are defined by employers and not by the Gold Guide.  

The standard POG is up to six calendar months following date of CCT:   

• It is available to higher specialty trainees at CCT.   
• It is not available to GP trainees, core trainees or foundation trainees.   
• It is available to LTFT trainees but there is not a pro-rata modification. 
• It is available to Tier 2 Visa holders if their sponsorship period can be extended, or if they will have achieved settlement status/indefinite leave to remain prior to taking up the POG.

When a doctor takes up their POG: 

• They will retain their NTN for the POG, and their Postgraduate Dean will remain the responsible officer for revalidation purposes. 

During POG: 

• If a trainee obtains a consultant post during their POG, they would be required to resign from their training programme/NTN and their employment. 
• Trainees cannot ‘act up’ during the POG.  The trainee would require to resign from their training programme/NTN and their employment; and they could then apply for a locum consultant post (as opposed to acting up). 
• If a trainee goes on maternity leave, their POG is paused until their return from maternity leave when it will restart.

How does a trainee take up their POG? 

The Scotland Deanery has agreed that POG is an ‘opt-in’ process. A trainee’s ‘training contract’, i.e. ownership of NTN, will end at date of CCT unless trainee has requested a POG. 

A trainee should contact their TPD at their earliest opportunity to discuss POG, where possible 3-6 months before CCT.  When a higher specialty trainee is awarded an outcome 6 at final ARCP, the automated outcome notification email (from Turas) will remind them of their option to take up the POG and ask the trainee to contact their deanery administrator if they wish to take up the POG. 

Trainees holding a Tier 2 Visa must also notify the Tier 2 Sponsorship team (Tier2sponsorship@nes.scot.nhs.uk).  Sponsorship may require to be extended but this cannot be guaranteed.

When a POG is agreed with the TPD, the trainee should notify their deanery administrator and their employer. 

The Scotland Deanery is interested in data and understanding trends, therefore if you opt to use your grace period you will be sent a short questionnaire to help us understand the reasons doctors use the period of grace. 

This data will be used to report in an anonymised format and we appreciate doctors in their period of grace, assisting us by completing this short questionnaire.

This page was last updated on: 15.08.2024 at 10.10