Doctors should not be precluded from following an academic medical career pathway just because they may wish to train on a less than full-time basis for some defined part of their total training.

Principles

• flexible training arrangements must be within the same overall constraints and structure as full-time academic training
• the appointment procedure, monitoring of progress, and outcomes must be comparable with that of full-time training
• from a purely professional view point, training is best undertaken on a full-time basis. However, in certain circumstances this training might be modified to take into account the needs of an individual
• training programmes are set up in response to individual's identified needs rather than in response to the availability of a training slot.

Flexible academic opportunities might be available to the following groups of people provided they satisfy the eligibility criteria

• Doctors already in clinical lecturer posts, appointed on a full-time basis, who wish, for well founded individual reasons, to pursue this training flexibly. (i)They might continue in their current post on a reduced sessional commitment if the service component of the post allows; 
  (ii) they might transfer, with their National Training Number and honorary contract, to a supernumerary post in, or associated with, the same academic Unit, thereby releasing the full-time training opportunity. In this case, the Unit would need to negotiate with the appropriate STC and Postgraduate Dean as to the best way of managing overall training opportunities.
• Doctors currently in training as Specialist Registrars on a flexible basis, wishing to pursue a more academic pathway. In a small number of cases and on the recommendation of the senior academic staff in their speciality these doctors might be considered for personal re-grading as part-time clinical lecturers. They would continue to hold their NTN, would assume honorary Specialist Registrar status, would continue a training programme towards getting their CCST, and would continue to be funded from the Flexible Training Budget. Their training programme would need to be modified to take into account recognition of their academic potential and would need to have College approval.

The Department of Postgraduate Medicine, in the London Deanery, would like to establish a small number of part-time clinical lecturer posts in specialities to be advised, for which doctors already in flexible training, or those eligible, could compete.