Workforce, training and education
East Midlands

Leave Applicant (Postgraduate Doctors, Dentists, and other Learners)

Leave applicants are responsible for:

Relevant policies/guidance

Find out about other people involved in approving study leave here: www.eastmidlandsdeanery.nhs.uk/policies/Study_Leave/Roles

What you need to know about study leave

 

What's the website for Accent Leave Manager?

Accent Leave Manager is available online at https://accent.hicom.co.uk/Portal/Live/Web/

It is compatible with Microsoft Edge, Safari, Chrome, and Firefox. Please note that Accent cannot be accessed properly using Internet Explorer, which has been discontinued by Microsoft. Please ensure that your device is set to UK time. 

How do I get a login for Accent Leave Manager? / I've forgotten my login details

You can request your login details from the Accent homepage at any time: go to https://accent.hicom.co.uk/Portal/Live/Web/ and click on ‘Forgotten password’ – type in the email address that you have registered with NHSE (the address held on the Trainee Information System, TIS) and click Send reset password link. Your login credentials will then be emailed to you from NoReply@hicom.co.uk - you may need to check your junk/spam folder as your email provider may filter the email.

Unless you have contacted NHSE to update your contact email, your login email will be either the contact email address that you provided at recruitment (if you are new to training) or the contact email address used in your previous training programme. If you would like to update your login email, please contact NHSE's Programmes Team to update your email in TIS:

How do I update my login email?

Your login email is linked to your email address on NHSE's Trainee Information System (TIS). If you would like to update your login email, please contact NHS England's Programmes Team to update your email in TIS:

Can you show me how to apply?

We have a YouTube video providing an introduction to Leave Manager, including a walkthrough of submitting a leave request:

What do the different leave types mean?

"International" is for all international study leave requests.

"Private" leave is for private exam revision, in the run-up to an exam. You’re entitled to a maximum of 5 Private leave days a year, and this comes out of your Discretionary entitlement. Please note that Foundation trainees cannot apply for Private leave, as exams are not part of the Foundation curriculum. Please note that you cannot apply for expenses for Private leave, as it must only be used for days when you are revising privately yourself (and therefore should not incur any costs).

"Exam" leave is for attending exams, and always comes out of your Curriculum requirement entitlement for exams which are required for your curriculum. For exams not required for the curriculum, these will come from your Discretionary entitlement.

"Study" leave is for everything else.

It says "There are no approvers available for this placement"?

This error will appear for one of the following reasons:

  1. This error can occur if you attempt to apply for leave retrospectively: per the Study Leave Policy, all leave requests must be submitted prospectively. Please contact our team (StudyLeave.EM@hee.nhs.uk) and provide the following information so that we can consider your request:
    • Study leave date/s
    • Number of study leave days requested
    • Activity name
    • Venue
    • Provider
    • Breakdown of expenses (if applicable)
    • The reason/s why the leave request was not submitted prospectively
  2. If your request is prospective (meaning it is for tomorrow or later) your approvers may not have been set up. This generally happens when a new post number has been created for you as part of an expansion project, and we have not been notified. Please email us (StudyLeave.EM@hee.nhs.uk) to confirm:
    • The date/s of your planned leave:
    • Your approver name:
    • Your approver email:
How do my requests get approved?

When you submit your leave request on Accent, the system will automatically direct your leave request based on the approvers for your training post at the time:

  • Sequence 10 - threshold approver (HOS) (only where the expenses requested exceed £1000)
  • Sequence 30 - international approver (APD) (only for International leave requests)
  • Sequence 40 - GP Programme Office (GP training programmes only)
  • Sequence 50 - rota approver/s (JDA/Rota Manager/Practice Manager/Clinical Supervisor/etc)
  • Sequence 60 - educational approver/s (TPD/HOS)

Except in very rare circumstances, only one person in each Sequence will need to approve the request for it to progress to the next Sequence (or if it's reached the final stage for the application, to be approved). Your TPD/HOS will only need to approve the request if it's not on the pre-approved list that they have agreed.

Exception approver (TPD/Head of School) can’t see the leave request.

There are two possible reasons for this:

  1. The application hasn’t been approved by the first approvers in the sequence yet
    The Exception approver (TPD/Head of School) doesn't see leave requests until/unless it's been approved by the first approvers in the sequence. If your TPD/Head of School can't see your Exception request, it's worth checking that it's been approved by the rota coordinator/etc. first.
     
  2. TPD/Head of School approval is only required for ‘Discretionary’ activities
    “Discretionary” activities require the approval of the Rota Approver, followed by the Educational Approver, who will generally be the TPD or Head of School. They are both requested by completing the Aspirational event name box on Accent. 
    If you choose an activity from the standard Event dropdown, your HOS/TPD won't need to approve the request (as it's already educationally pre-approved).
How do I know who needs to approve my request?

Once you've submitted an application, go to the 'My Applications' page of your account (https://accent.hicom.co.uk/LeaveManager/Live/Web/MyApplications/Index) and open the request you want to check. Scroll down to Approval Chain at the bottom.

  • A green tick will indicate anyone who has already approved your request, and whether the Sequence stage has been approved.
  • Anyone with a pink/purple circle will currently be able to approve your request - you can contact them using the envelope icon next to their name.
  • Anyone with a blue egg timer next to their name will not yet be able to see your request - it needs to be approved at an earlier Sequence stage.
My leave has been approved but my expenses still show as 'Pending'

These are two separate processes - the approval of your leave request includes approval of your estimated expenses, and is reflected in your leave being 'Approved'.

Your expenses will show as 'Pending' until they are processed by your Trust after the leave has taken place. Remember to submit your expense claim to your Trust/Programme: Accent does not currently support automatic processing of expenses.

Why was my request rejected?

Whenever an approver rejects a leave request, Accent requires them to provide a reason. Open the leave request in the 'My Applications' page of your account, and open the request that has been rejected. Scroll down to Approval Chain at the bottom, and look for the approver that rejected your request. Click on Comments, and you will see the comments regarding their rejection.

Please note that the NHS England Study Leave Team is not involved in approving leave requests, so will be unable to provide more information than what your approver has shared in their comments.

Can I 'transfer' days from Curriculum required to Discretionary (or vice versa)?

The Curriculum required/Discretionary split is set at the beginning of the academic year by your TPD, based on the most appropriate distribution for all trainees on the programme.

However, we recognise that some trainees may have different needs. If you feel that you need more of one type of days and less of the other, please contact your TPD to discuss this. If they are supportive, please ask them to email StudyLeave.EM@hee.nhs.uk (or copy us into your email to your TPD) to confirm the number of days to be 'transferred', and we will update Leave Manager accordingly.

My placements are wrong/missing; who do I contact?

Placements are all managed by our Programmes Team; please contact the team on the appropriate address below:

What about Accent Course Manager?

For any queries about Accent Course Manager (https://accent.hicom.co.uk/CourseManager/Live/HEEM/Web), which is a different product to Leave Manager (although developed by the same company), please email FacultySupport.EM@hee.nhs.uk with the email subject "Course Manager query".

X