Financial support and funding

This page details the various funding and support options participants on the Return to Practice (RtP) programme are eligible for.

Funding

What support is available?

Participants on the RtP programme are eligible for a number of funding opportunities.

• For doctors undertaking placements on the programme, NHS England will provide a bursary payment of up to £4,000 per month (full time) while on a clinical placement
• For doctors undertaking the programme whilst directly employed by a practice, NHS England will reimburse the practice for a gross salary of £73,113 per annum WTE
• Indemnity covered under the Clinical Negligence Scheme for General Practice but all General Practitioners (GPs) are advised to take out personal “Top Up” cover
• Up to 4 fully funded attempts at the Multiple Choice Questions (MCQ) Assessment (subject to a pass)
• Help with finding a practice that can sponsor your Health and Care Worker visa if required
• One year's free associate membership to the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP)
• Access to training and other educational and development support
• Peer support networks, mentoring and coaching

All the available funding is only claimable upon commencing the RtP programme clinical placement.

You may, in certain circumstances, qualify for additional support through the Cameron Fund.

You will be eligible for a full-time bursary (37.5 hours per week) or pro-rata for part-time participation.

All areas: £4,000 with hourly rate at £26.67

Full Time	Percent of Full time	Hours in RtP Programme	Claim
37.5	100%	37.5	£4,000.00
37.5	90%	33.75	£3,600.00
37.5	80%	30	£3,200.00
37.5	70%	26.25	£2,800.00
37.5	60%	22.5	£2,400.00
37.5	50%	18.75	£2,000.00
37.5	40%	15	£1,600.00

How to claim your bursary

For doctors employed by a practice, the employing practices will pay the monthly salary. This process will be facilitated by your local education lead and/or team.

Practice payments from the Programme Team will be facilitated by your local education lead and/or team.

The bursary placement will be paid directly to you from the Programme Team. In order to claim, you should follow the RtP programme finance process, detailed below.

RtP finance process

First time claimants must complete a Supplier setup form confirming their bank details to setup an NHS England supplier account. Sections that are marked with an asterisk (*) are required to be completed.

It may take up to 4 to 6 weeks for the supplier account to be created. Please note that without this account in place, payments cannot be made. Shared Business Services (SBS)/finance team will be in touch with you directly via phone call to confirm the details, of which they will make 3 attempts at contacting you before rejecting the account creation.

Finance purchase order will be requested.

• Form A needs to be completed and submitted by local offices to NRO, prior to the placement being commenced
• Form B should be completed by your practice and submitted every 4 weeks. Ask your educational supervisor or practice manager to countersign the number of hours you have participated
• Form C needs to be completed by you, as an RtP doctor, every 4 weeks

All forms should be sent to the Programme Team via email as clear PDF attachments.

Please note, all forms must be typed up. Handwritten forms are not accepted.

Depending on the creation of your supplier account it can take between 2 to 3 weeks for the first payment to be made. Subsequent payments may take up to 3 weeks to be paid. All the available funding is only claimable upon commencing the RtP placement.

Please note that RtP programme doctors are only eligible to claim the number of hours in the clinical placement within the agreed training placement contract and are not eligible to claim for bank holidays, annual leave, sick leave, maternity leave, or any additional time.

Should any changes occur to the start, timing or breaks in the placement these must be notified to the local education lead and the Programme Team immediately by email. Claimants are advised to keep a copy of all their completed forms.

Please note that the practice is not involved in the claim process other than to confirm the hours present.

Bursary payments under the programme are usually exempt from tax as the payment is for educational purposes and the GPs receiving the payment do not have an employer.

Tax liabilities

It is the responsibility of each GP claiming the funding to confirm the impact of the payments on their own tax liabilities with HM Revenue and Customs.

GP Return to Practice (RtP) or International Induction Programme (IIP) / Trainers grant payments process

Host GP practices can receive a monthly payment of £865.17.

To claim, download the invoice template and fill out the necessary information. Then return the form to your regional GP Return to Practice (RtP) or International Induction Programme (IIP) education team.

The form is available on the downloads section of this page.

Admin guidance for the doctors funding process

Local Educational lead/team completes and sends across Form A (this contains placement information) to GP IIP RTP team (NRO) once a placement has been confirmed.

Finance process will only be started for the doctor once GP IIP RTP team (NRO) has received this form.

Timely submission of Form A (1 month prior to start of placement) to GP IIP RTP team (NRO) is necessary to avoid delays in initiating the payment process.

Local Educational lead/team advises doctors about the available funding and on how to claim at the point of finalising the placement with the doctor/medical teams.

Doctors are responsible for claiming the allocated funding from the GP IIP RTP team (NRO)  by completing and submitting the relevant forms available in the downloads section fo this page.

GP IIP and RTP Practice payment PO process

Local Educational lead/team completes and sends across a Form A (this contains placement information) to GP IIP RTP team (NRO) once a placement has been confirmed. Finance process will only be started for the practice once GP IIP RTP team (NRO) has received this form and the practices supplier details from the local educational office.

GP IIP RTP team (NRO) raises PO and shares it with the Local GP IIP RTP educational admin / teams via email.

Local GP IIP RTP educational admin / teams informs the practice to send the invoice to GP IIP RTP team (NRO), and the invoice must include the details below otherwise it will be returned to the Practice, which will delay their payment. 

Practice will send the invoice to GP IIP RTP team (NRO) [email protected] with the mandatory details below, copying in local educational team.

GP IIP RTP team (NRO) processes the practice invoice for payment and confirms with the Practice / Local Educational admin / team.

Mandatory Fields to be completed on the practice invoice:

• Name of IIP / RTP Doctor
• Region
• Month of claim
• Claim Description – Practice payment or Observational payment
• Unit price – Practice payment £865.17 / Observational payment £500
• Supplier number
• PO number

Please note - all practice invoices need to be submitted to GP IIP RTP team (NRO) to be processed. Local Education admin / team cannot process the invoice for payment to SBS; to avoid duplicate payments and effective record/ budget management.