Employment Contracts and Funding

Historically University of Cambridge employed Junior Doctors were issued standard clinical contracts along with Honorary Contracts as appropriate. From October 2019, new Junior Doctors receive joint (co-terminous) employment contracts. This means these posts are an integrated appointment between the University and the relevant NHS Trust. The individual will also be issued with an Honorary Clinical Contract by the NHS Trust. If the contract with the NHS Trust is terminated the employment with the University will be terminated, and vice versa.

Whilst a Junior Doctor may undertake clinical duties at a NHS Trust and/or be completing a PhD, if they have a University of Cambridge contract of employment then they are a University employee.

Note: Honorary Contracts do not constitute a contract of employment. Further details about Honorary Contracts can be found here.

New Regulations for Clinical Lecturer Appointments (Extension Process) 

The recommendation from the NIHR Strategic Review of Training is to allow NIHR CL posts (including badged/match-funded) to span Certificate of Completion of Training (CCT). 

The guidance and application process for extensions beyond CCT/CCST is accessible to all NIHR CLs that are in post on or after 1 April 2019, i.e. the extension process is also available to NIHR CLs appointed in previous allocation years. 

NIHR expects this extension process to be followed for NIHR-recognised, locally-funded (badged/match-funded) CL posts. 

Extensions are not automatically given; they are considered on a case-by-case basis and are not guaranteed to be granted. 

Although this process is for NIHR funded Clinical Lecturers, the process has been adopted for locally funded posts to enable parity for all Clinical Lecturers regardless of funding stream. 

The new regulations for Clinical Lecturer appointment are summarised as: 

• The CL post is for a maximum 4 years or until CCT is reached 
• If someone doesn’t obtain their CCT by the end of 4 years then the CL post ceases at 4 years 
• If someone obtains their CCT at the end of 4 years then the CL post ceases at 4 years 
• If someone obtains their CCT for example, 2 years into their 4 year CL post, they can request an extension (there is criteria on when they can apply for extension) then if their extension is successful this would be for a maximum of 12 months so effectively their CL post would cease after 3 years not 4.