Guides / LTFT and CCT dates
Guide · LTFT and completion dates
How LTFT and time out change a CCT date
Training time is counted pro rata, and time out of training does not count. The principle is simple; the dates are where it goes wrong. Here is how the counting works, with five worked examples.
The principle
A doctor training less than full time (LTFT) completes the same amount of training as a full-time colleague, spread over longer. A year at 80% counts as 0.8 of a year. Time out of training, such as maternity leave or an out-of-programme career break, adds nothing, so everything after it moves later by its length.
Annual and study leave are part of training. Annual leave that builds up during maternity or shared parental leave counts too.
What counts towards training in anaesthetics
The RCoA's guidance for its CCT date calculator lists what counts:
| Counts | Does not count |
|---|---|
| Time in training, at its LTFT percentage Annual leave accrued during maternity or parental leave Out of programme for training, research or a pause (OOPT, OOPR, OOPP) |
Maternity, paternity and shared parental leave Sick leave of two weeks or more in a row Out of programme experience or a career break (OOPE, OOPC) Phased return, shielding and unpaid leave |
Other colleges and deaneries draw these lines slightly differently, so check your own college's guidance.
How the RCoA calculator counts
The RCoA's workbook (version 4.5) counts in days. Each year of training is 365 days. Each period of a working pattern is a row; the row counts its length times its percentage, rounded up to a whole day. A period of time out counts nothing. The completion date is the day the total is reached.
One more rule: if the date lands within six days of the February or August changeover, it moves to the Tuesday before the changeover Wednesday. That is the last day of the rotation, so training ends with it.
Five worked examples
Each starts ST4 on Wednesday 6 August 2025, the August changeover. Every date here is what the free CCT date calculator gives, using the RCoA method.
| Pattern | The count reaches 1,460 days | CCT date |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Full time throughout | Sun 5 Aug 2029 | Tue 31 Jul 2029, moved to the changeover Tuesday |
| 2. 80% throughout | Mon 5 Aug 2030 (1,460 ÷ 0.8 = 1,825 days) | Tue 6 Aug 2030, moved to the changeover Tuesday |
| 3. 60% throughout | Mon 5 Apr 2032 | Mon 5 Apr 2032, no changeover nearby |
| 4. Full time for a year, then 80% | Tue 7 May 2030 (363 + 1,097 days) | Tue 7 May 2030 |
| 5. Full time, with six months' maternity leave from 1 Mar to 31 Aug 2027 | Tue 5 Feb 2030 (571 + 0 + 889 days) | Tue 5 Feb 2030, already the changeover Tuesday |
Two things stand out. First, a CCT date is rarely on a changeover unless the count happens to land near one: example 3 finishes in April. Second, the first row in example 4 counts 363 days, not 365. The workbook counts each row as finish minus start, one day short of its calendar length, and that is why each extra row, even with the same percentage, can move a date by a day. Enter one row per real change of pattern.
When absence triggers a review
Under the Gold Guide (11th edition, 2026), 14 or more days of absence in a 12-month period, not counting study or annual leave, triggers a review at ARCP of whether the completion date should move. It is a review, not an automatic extension: the ARCP panel decides.
Who confirms the date
In anaesthetics, schools (normally the Training Programme Director) calculate CCT dates and record them on the ARCP outcome form. A change of more than two weeks from the date the College holds is treated as an exceptional change and goes to the College's training committee. See the RCoA's guidance on managing CCT dates.
Other specialties
The principle is the same everywhere, but the arithmetic differs. Emergency medicine's calculator counts in months, with days counted inclusively; paediatrics counts days without rounding; most other colleges publish no formula and leave the date to the deanery. The CCT date calculator offers each method side by side.
Last reviewed 12 October 2026. This guide explains the counting; it is not advice about any individual's training.