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(Gateway clearance no. 3143)

With retrospective effect from 1st July 2003 the abatement rule, which was previously applied to the trainer's grant for supervisors of pre-registration trainees, is abolished.  Previously the trainer's grant, which at the current rate is 2,600 per annum, was abated £ for £ when the trainer paid a pre-registration trainee an amount over the notional salary rate which was £8528.00 per annum

With no abatement rule there is no longer the need for the NHS to set a notional pre-registration reference salary for trainee optometrists employed in independent optometric practices, or for PCTs to check the trainee's salary rate before paying the trainer's grant to the supervising optometrist.  PCTs are asked to review and repay any abatements applied since 1 July 2003. 

Although setting the salary paid to a trainee is now solely the responsibility of the optometric practice which employs them, the Department and the profession's representatives agree that from 1st July 2003 all pre-registration trainees should be paid a salary at least equivalent to the National Minimum Wage, which is currently £4.50 per hour.