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

All the available funding is only claimable upon commencing the IIP/RtP placement.

1. Form A placement confirmation details and salary details if employed by practice, need to be completed and submitted by the NHS England regional educational lead/admin team and sent to the GP IIP RtP programme team, prior to the placement being commenced

• Timely submission of Form A (1 month prior to start of placement) to GP IIP RtP programme team is necessary to avoid delays in initiating the payment process
• Upon receiving Form A - placement confirmation details

2. A finance supplier account is required: as a supplier, you will receive an invitation from the GP IIP RtP programme team [email protected] to register on the Supplier Portal. Upon registration, the portal will enable you to manage your account details and access key information, such as the status of your invoices

• Please select 'No' for Steps: 1, 2, 3 as these are not applicable to IIP RtP bursary doctors
• Select Both option purchasing and Invoicing to question what is the purpose of this address
• Attachment section you must upload a pdf copy with your full name, home address, bank details and telephone number onto sbs portal or copy of bank statement including address details If you encounter issues with the NHS SBS Portal (for example, access, login, or performance issues) please call NHS SBS: 0303 123 1166 or 0303 123 1177 selecting option 1 or emailing: [email protected]

3. A finance purchase order will be requested to cover the payments: you will receive a notification of this directly from the finance team.If you do not receive confirmation of the purchase order please contact the GP IIP RtP programme team [email protected]   

• Please ignore any information about Trade Shift and do not send any invoices including Form B or Form C directly to the finance team, as it is not applicable to IIP RTP programme doctors and  they need to be sent to the GP IIP RtP programme team via [email protected] 

4. Claim forms to be submitted

• Form B should be completed by your practice and submitted every four 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 IIP/RtP doctor, every four weeks

Invoices and Form B and Form C should be sent to [email protected] via email as attachments in clear versions, and as PDF attachments only.

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.

Please note that RtP programme doctors undertaking the programme as a placement are only eligible to claim for 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.

The regional education lead/team should be informed immediately about any changes to the start, timing or any breaks in the placement.

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 on Form B.

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

Regional educational lead/team completes and sends across a Form A as this contains placement and salary information if employed by practice, to the GP IIP RTP programme team once a placement has been confirmed. Finance process will only be started for the practice once the GP IIP RTP team has received this form along with practices supplier details from the regional educational office.

A finance purchase order will be requested to cover the payments and you will receive a notification of this directly from the finance team. If this is not received please contact the GP IIP RTP programme team [email protected] 

Please ignore any information about Trade Shift and do not send any invoices direct to finance team, as it is not applicable to IIP RtP programme doctors

Claim forms to be submitted

Please note - all practice supervision / salary invoices need to be submitted to GP IIP RtP programme team [email protected] to be processed.

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