LTFT Champion UHCW
Miss Clare Langley
MBChB, Bsc FRCS Tr and Orth, Dip Hand Surgery
Clare.Langley@uhcw.nhs.uk
I was appointed as the first LTFT champion in UHCW in December 2020 and work along side your Return to Work Champion and your Well-being Champion
My clinical role is as an Orthopaedic Hand and Wrist Surgeon currently working full time. I was appointed as a consultant in 2017.
I spent 6 years of my specialist training as LTFT. At the time this was not a common way to train, I was only the second trainee in the region to follow this route. I felt like a trail-blazer, slightly fumbling through the LTFT route, sometimes understanding pay and rotas better than my employers! There were challenges and hurdles but overall I value that I was able to train in this way, spending time with my young family alongside training in a craft speciality. It is fantastic that LTFT training opportunities have expanded and is becoming an accepted way to train; with programmes adapting to trainee needs. I think there is further cultural change required to develop understanding of the positive impact LTFT trainees can have within a team.
As your LTFT champion I want to be here to ensure those working LTFT have support for any challenges you face during your LTFT training, provide links to mentors if required and direct those interested in LTFT training to resources to inform their decisions.
What have we achieved so far? Pay, or lack of it, is a common LTFT problem. Working with HR we now have a comprehensive guide to empower you to ensure you are paid correctly. We have a Trickle app (https://trickle.works) LTFT rep, who will with myself, support problems raised by training doctors through this modality. Here you can post using your own name or anonymously.
I would be very happy to chat to any LTFT (wannabe) trainee; if any of you have any ideas of how you want me to champion an LTFT please get in contact.
Trickle.pptx