Voluntary Bonding Scheme

What you need to know

Terms and conditions

1. Registration of Interest

1.1 You understand that a registration of interest is not an application for a place on the 2009 Voluntary Bonding Scheme. The purpose of the registration of interest process is to obtain contact details for potential applicants and to gauge the number of potential applicants.

1.2 A separate process to formally confirm your place on the scheme will follow.

2. Scheme confirmation

2.1 To be confirmed in the Voluntary Bonding Scheme, you must be:

a New Zealand citizen or permanent resident
a graduate of an accredited New Zealand Training Institution (refer to the definition below) in or since 2005
a practitioner registered or able to be registered with the Medical Council of New Zealand, Nursing Council of New Zealand, or Midwifery Council of New Zealand
working or intending to work in a hard-to-staff community or specialty for three to five years (see definitions below).

2.2 You understand that there are limited places on the Voluntary Bonding Scheme.

2.3 The Voluntary Bonding Scheme is a voluntary process and the Ministry of Health takes no responsibility for any employment decisions you may make based on the hard-to-staff areas defined by the Voluntary Bonding Scheme.

2.4 No voluntary bonding payments will be made if you withdraw before three full years (36 months) have been completed on the scheme in accordance with these terms and conditions.

2.5 You are responsible for notifying the Ministry of Health (or its nominated agent) of any change of address or other contact details.

3. Payments

3.1 You are responsible for initiating the first claim for payment after three full years (36 months) have been completed on the scheme in accordance with these terms and conditions.

3.2 You will only be eligible for payments if:

you have been employed in a hard-to-staff community and/or specialty (refer to the definitions below) for three full years (36 months) in accordance with these terms and conditions
you meet minimum full time equivalent (FTE) employment requirements (refer to the definition below) OR the required number of births for Lead Maternity Carer Midwives (see section 5b below)
you have complied with the rules governing pauses and absences from the scheme (refer to the rules below).

3.3 No payments will be made until you have submitted a declaration confirming that the terms and conditions of the scheme have been met during the relevant bonding period. You will also provide a report from your employer and/or college as evidence of compliance with the terms and conditions of the Voluntary Bonding Scheme during the relevant bonding period.

3.4 If you have a student loan, the voluntary bonding payment will be made against your student loan.

3.5 If you do not have a student loan, the voluntary bonding payment will be paid as a cash payment.

The annual bonding credits for each profession are:

	Annual credit (gross)	Annual credit (after tax)
Doctors	$15,873	$10,000 net
Midwives	$5,224	$3,500 net
Nurses	$4,228	$2,833 net

Amounts correct as per 22 February 2009.

3.6 Taxes are deducted from bonding rewards before they are paid. Rates may be subject to tax changes.

4. Definition of graduate

4.1 A graduate is defined as having completed the requirements of a training programme from the list of accredited institutions below in 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008 so that the graduate is eligible for registration in the following year.

4.2 List of accredited training institutions:

Medicine	Nursing	Midwifery
University of Auckland	Auckland University of Technology	Otago Polytechnic
University of Otago	Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology	Massey University (Wellington)
	Eastern Institute of Technology	Auckland University of Technology
	Manukau Institute of Technology	Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology
	Massey University (Wellington and Palmerston North)	Waikato Institute of Technology
	Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology
	Northland Polytechnic
	Otago Polytechnic
	Southern Institute of Technology
	Te Whare Wananga o Awanuiarangi
	UCOL Universal College of Learning
	UNITEC New Zealand
	University of Auckland
	Waiariki Institute of Technology
	Waikato Institute of Technology
	Western Institute of Technology
	Whitireira Community Polytechnic

4.3 New Zealand citizens who are currently in overseas training institutions and who meet the registration requirements of the New Zealand Regulatory Authorities can be considered for the scheme on a case by case basis.

Medical graduates

4.4 Registration will be considered from:

2007 and 2008 medical graduates who will work in one of the hard-to-staff communities for doctors for the next two years then enter into a vocational training programme for one of the hard-to-staff specialties for doctors for a further one to three years
2005, 2006 and 2007 medical graduates who have entered into a vocational training programme for one of the hard-to-staff specialties for doctors and will work in one of the hard-to-staff communities for doctors for the next three to five years.

If there are places available on the scheme, registrations from 2005, 2006 and 2007 graduates who have entered into a vocational training programme for one of the hard-to-staff specialties for doctors in other locations will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Doctors must satisfy both the hard-to-staff community and hard-to-staff specialty criteria at the end of the initial three year bonding period.

4.5 The hard-to-staff communities for doctors are:

Northland DHB
Lakes DHB
Tairawhiti DHB
Whanganui DHB
Wairarapa DHB
West Coast DHB
Southland DHB
Wairau Hospital
Whakatane Hospital
Thames Hospital.

4.6 The hard-to-staff specialties for doctors (in any community) are:

general practitioner
general surgeon
internal medicine physician
psychiatry
pathology
rural hospital medicine.

Midwifery graduates

4.7 Registrations will be considered from 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008 graduates who will work in one of the hard-to-staff communities for midwives for the next three to five years.

4.8 The hard-to-staff communities for midwives are:

Northland DHB
Dargaville
Counties Manukau DHB
Tairawhiti DHB
Taupo
Whanganui DHB
Wairarapa DHB
Capital and Coast DHB
Southland DHB
West Coast DHB.

Nursing graduates

4.9 Registrations will be considered from 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008 graduates who will work in one of the hard-to-staff communities for nurses for the next three to five years.

4.10 The hard-to-staff specialties for nurses are:

theatre
intensive care (ICU) or
cardiothoracic.

4.11 It is acknowledged that a number of other medical specialities and professions face considerable difficulty in recruiting and retaining graduates. Therefore other specialities and/or professions for the scheme may be considered as part of the review of the eligibility criteria.

5. Definition of full time employment and criteria for Lead Maternity Carer (LMC) midwives

5.1 The scheme is only open to graduates who obtain permanent employment in a hard to staff location/speciality and Lead Maternity Carer (LMC) midwives who work in hard to staff communities.

a) For doctors, nurses, and DHB-employed midwives

5.2 A minimum 0.6 FTE apples for all scheme registrants.

5.3 Graduates who undertake substantive or continuous locum work will not be eligible for the scheme.

5.4 The responsibility for verifying that the full time employment requirements have been met will be the responsibility of the graduate.

5.5 Graduates will make declarations and provide a report from their employer before each bonding payment is made (see above).

b) For LMC midwives

5.6 FTE requirements apply to DHB midwives only.

5.7 LMC midwives have a different set of criteria to meet, based on the number of births carried out each year. This will vary depending on whether you work in an urban or rural hard-to-staff area. Whether the hard-to-staff communities for midwives are classified as urban or rural is still being determined.

5.8 An LMC midwife working in a hard-to-staff community must undertake the following number of births annually to be eligible for the scheme:

LMC midwives working in hard-to-staff urban communities are required to undertake at least 20 births in their first postgraduate year of practice and at least 30 births for their second and subsequent years of practice.
LMC midwives working in hard-to-staff rural communities are required to undertake at least 15 births in their first postgraduate year of practice, and at least 21 births for their second and subsequent years of practice.

These criteria have been developed to bring an LMC’s workload as close as possible to the 0.6 FTE requirement for DHB midwives. The first postgraduate year of practice starts in the calendar year following your final year of study. If you are accepted into the scheme, but are not in your first year of practice, you are required to carry out the specified number of births from the second year of practice.

5.9 The responsibility for verifying the number of births undertaken each year will be the responsibility of the graduate.

5.10 Graduates will make declarations and provide a report from their midwifery provider organisation before each bonding payment is made (see above).

6. Absence/pauses in service

6.1 A graduate may choose to take an absence or pause in service during the term of their bond. These absences or pauses may be taken for such reasons as maternity/paternity/parental leave, further training, and for special circumstances (for example, carer’s leave, bereavement leave, sick leave). Annual leave taken in accordance with the graduate’s employment agreement does not constitute an absence or pause.

6.2 A graduate must not locum for substantive and continuous periods as part of the pause period. That is, 'career locums' will not be eligible for the scheme.

6.3 The definitions of an absence and a pause are still being developed.

6.4 Any absences or pauses will need to be noted in the declaration for payment.

7. Privacy statement

Our registration of interest form requires users to give us personal information such as your email address, employment and general professional details. The Privacy Act 1993 requires us to tell you that we are collecting and using your personal information.

All of the information you provide in the registration form will be treated as personal information and will be used, stored and disclosed in accordance with the provisions of the Privacy Act 1993. Relevant provisions include:

the information must be collected directly from you
the information will only be used for the purpose for which it is collected
you have the right to request a copy of the information and to request correction of the information.

The information will be kept confidential and will not be disclosed to any person except in connection with the purposes for which it is obtained, or by operation of law.

By submitting the registration form, you are authorising the Ministry of Health to collect personal information about you. This information will be stored and used by the Ministry for purposes associated with the Voluntary Bonding Scheme.

You have the right to contact the Ministry of Health to request access to and correction of any personal information held about you.

We suggest you print a copy of this statement for your records.

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Page last updated: 17 April 2009