Take-away point: Deaneries should publish their study budget utilisation for prospective trainees to factor in when choosing their posts.

There is a wide variation between study leave budgets and policies between deaneries across the UK. Although a requirement of 30 days of study leave is widely accepted (see BMA advice: http://bma.org.uk/practical-support-at-work/contracts/leave/study-leave), how this is utilised varies widely as well.

Main points:

• Budgets vary so much such that some deaneries give more than twice the amount as others
• Top-slicing is prevalent (practice of using budget allocation for compulsory courses, such that in practice, the trainee has significantly less money to utilise for courses of their choice)
• Little transparency in declaring budgets from year to year, sometimes left to the discretion of supervisors, Trusts or postgraduate centres

Below is a list of deaneries with available information on the study budget for trainees >F2/CT1/ST1.