FAQS

To be considered for an award you must have graduated from a programme approved by the World Federation of Occupational Therapists (WFOT).

Some awards are available to international applicants while others are only for occupational therapists in the UK. Please look at each award, found on our Support and Development pages, to see which award is available to international and/ or UK occupational therapists.

Please note, we do not fund pre-registration education.

We know that occupational therapists work in many different settings and for many different employers, or indeed may be self-employed. This breadth of practice is a strength for the profession and we welcome applications from occupational therapists practising in any setting.

We are very happy to accept applications from individuals or groups. If you are a group, decide on a contact person and use their details at the beginning of the form. You will be able make clear in your answers that the application is for a group.

We are open to receiving requests for a wide range of learning experiences. This includes formal learning at university, conferences, courses endorsed by the Royal College of Occupational Therapists or training provided by other organisations.

However, we also welcome applications for learning that may have been designed by you to meet your particular development needs (Design Your Own Learning). You will still need to show that the learning has clear objectives and will impact on your professional development, delivery of your service or development of the profession; an example of this might be a study tour. Other examples include organisations who have designed training for their service that is delivered ‘in-house’ to enable more therapists to participate, or a learning set of therapists who want to supplement their online discussion forum with a meeting to discuss research, new resources, suppliers and case studies.

We encourage you to think creatively about your personal/ professional development and that of your organisation.

Please note, there are application windows for some applications, all other applications are considered on a rolling basis.

It’s important for you to know we do not provide retrospective awards, that is an award for a learning event that has already taken place. We expect you to apply well in advance of your learning event so please plan appropriately.

A lead time of at least two months is expected for requests less than £5000 and at least three months for requests more than £5000.

Unfortunately not. We recommend that you read all the questions and think about your answers before starting to apply. If you are interrupted briefly, do not close your browser – you can leave the application page open for a short period without losing the information you have already entered.

You may find it best to draft your answers in a word document and then copy/ paste them into the application form.

Once you apply through the website you will receive an automatic notification to let you know your application has been received. Please note, some work servers block these automated responses.

Members of the Assessment Panel are notified when an application is submitted and will independently review each request against agreed criteria. These criteria consider:

• how closely your request is aligned to the Trust strategy. We suggest you look at the strategy before you complete your application;
• how participating in the development opportunity will help you meet the occupational needs of your service users;
• how participating in the development opportunity will promote development of yourself, your service or the profession;
• how you plan to share your learning so others can also benefit from the award we give you;
• your own resourcefulness in seeking support for the learning and your personal commitment to the opportunity.

The questions in the application are designed to help you focus your answer these points. You may want to think about each of the questions before completing the form so you can give your best answers.

A score is given for your application and awards are made based on your score and your funding request. See ‘How much information on the cost do I need to provide?’ below.

Once a decision has been made the Pam will notify you by email at the address you provided in the application. If an award is being offered, you will be asked to confirm you would like to accept it and to provide your bank details so an electronic payment can be made. A formal notification letter will then be sent via email for your records and HCPC portfolio. This letter also contains instructions on how to provide feedback on your learning following the event.

The Panel and the trustees value hearing about your learning and how you feel it benefitted you, your service or the profession.

Receiving this feedback is important for them as it ‘closes the loop’: did they make a sound decision when they awarded you the grant? Did your learning help us to fulfil our Charitable Purpose – the furtherance of the the profession? Answering these questions and others is an important aspect of our governance and will help us with future decisions. Providing this feedback is also a requirement for receiving an award and not providing this will compromise any future application you might make.

We may use paragraphs of your feedback on our website to illustrate how people have used the funds we’ve provided. You can opt on the form to remain anonymous, if you wish.

The formal letter that confirms your grant award contains a unique link to our online portal that places your feedback with your application form to confirm you have meet our terms for receiving the funds.

If you have misplaced your feedback link, please contact Pam to request for it to be sent again.

The Panel is formed of experienced occupational therapy educators who are used to assessing work. If you are known to them, they will declare a conflict of interest and abstain from assessing your request.

When you apply, keep in mind that you are talking to OT colleagues who understand occupational therapy so it is appropriate to use our professional language.

The Trust’s Charitable Purpose is the ‘furtherance of occupational therapy’. As such, a strong application will be framed around ‘occupation’.

Some requests we receive are to develop specialist or adjunct knowledge. We welcome these applications however take care to always link back to why having the knowledge will improve your occupational therapy practice and benefit the occupational needs of your service users.

In the past, the Trust has made awards for as little as £150 to as much as £10,000. As you can imagine, the more that is requested, the stronger you must make your case when you apply.

The Assessment Panel has the authority to award grants up to £5000.

The process is slightly different for larger requests. For requests over £5000, the Panel will review your application and make a recommendation to the Board of Trustees. The Board will then vote on whether to accept the recommendation or they may make a recommendation of their own. This extra step in the process for larger requests may add up to 8 weeks to the application process – be sure to plan for this when applying.

It is important you tell us how much participating in the opportunity will cost. This includes not only the cost of the event itself but also travel, accommodation, any study materials, time without pay, etc. It is important for us to know the full cost as we decide how much to award you based on a percentage calculation of the total cost for the learning, using the Assessment Panel’s ‘score’ for your answers to determine the percentage.

Courses, Design Your Own Learning, Innovation Award, Pump-primer Research Awards: If you are asking for less than £5000 to attend a course, we try to give you an answer within 3-4 weeks; occasionally it may take a little longer to hear the outcome if we have received a large number of applications at that time. Occasionally we may ask you for more information which could add some delay. It is important to plan well ahead to allow for this. Please be patient and remember the trustees are volunteers.

If you are asking for more than £5000 (excluding Pump-primer Research Awards that are capped at £5000) it may take up to 8 weeks longer, i.e. up to 11-12 weeks. This is because larger grants must receive approval from the Board of Trustees.

Other applications: The dates for other applications, such as post-registration masters, doctoral, international scholarship, etc can be found here

Once a decision has been made Pam will notify you by email at the address you provided on the application. You will be asked to confirm you would like to accept the offer and to provide your bank details so an electronic payment can be made. A formal notification letter will then be sent via email for your records and HCPC portfolio. This letter also contains instructions on how to provide feedback on your learning following the event.

The payment will be made to you as the applicant rather than an institution or company offering the learning. Occasionally, we may make a payment directly to your employer if they are also contributing funds and making the payment on your behalf.

We’re happy to answer any questions you may have and to help you with your application or discuss the learning you would like to do. Please email Pam Anderson at [email protected].

Unfortunately, the Trust does not normally provide funding for travel and accommodation however please include these costs in your application form so we understand the true total cost for your participation in the learning.

The letter of support from your line manager or academic supervisor should address the following ‘3Cs’: capacity, capability and commitment for undertaking the learning for which you are applying. If the letter is from your line manager, we ask for a 4th ‘C’ to be addressed: confirmation that the learning will be applied in your practice/ service.

The Trust does consider requests for sensory integration training. We accept applications for the Sensory Integration Network modules 1-3 (or equivalent through other providers) but do not normally fund modules 4-7 unless an applicant is registered to complete a full masters programme in which case this request should come through the post-registration masters studies funding application.

Likewise, if you are applying for funding for three SI modules (equivalent for a PGCertificate), this request should also come though the post-registration master funding application.

Funding requests for one or two modules should be made through the courses application.

Sometimes the timing of application windows can work against you if you are waiting to hear if you have been accepted into a post-registration masters or doctoral programme therefore we are happy to receive applications before you university offer has been confirmed. Of course we will need confirmation of a place before making any award!