Planning and Partnership Working

The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan commits to supporting ICSs (Integrated care systems) to develop local apprenticeship strategies that maximise benefits from changes to funding approaches and to focus on workforce shortfalls and the deployment of roles that enhance patient outcomes.

A system-level apprenticeship strategy, with system-level oversight and planning, would better support organisations to grow and recruit their own staff, and enable ICSs to collaborate on their approaches to using apprenticeships with education providers both nationally and locally.

Evaluate the benefits of apprenticeships in your organisation by regularly analysing the performance and outcomes of your apprentices, this will allow you to see the current and future benefits to your business.

What can you do?

Assess your workforce development needs to identify the skills gaps within your system.

Look at your workforce plan and think about vacancies that could be considered as a future apprentice role and what resources you can pool/share to save on infrastructure costs.

Visit our Standards page and Job Family page to discover what apprenticeship standards could fit your needs.

Organisation and system senior leaders play an important role in the successful delivery of apprenticeship programmes. Gaining their buy-in and support will help embed apprenticeships into your workforce strategy. Visit NHS Employers to discover tips on having conversations with your board about apprenticeships

Use the resources available for particular areas, there are plenty of apprenticeship guides to help you.

Learn about how Apprenticeship Funding works .
Primary Care Apprenticeship Resources
If you are a Primary Care organisation, visit our Primary Care Apprenticeships page. Access resources there to guide you through taking on an apprentice and what apprenticeships are available.

Read some of our Primary Care Case Studies

Discover the routes into Primary Care Health Careers resource.

The Primary Care Nursing and Community Nursing Apprenticeship Standards Factsheets also give a brief overview of the apprenticeship standards in this area:
- Primary Care Nursing Factsheet
- Community Nursing Factsheet
Primary and Community Care Training Hubs have information about primary care workforce, education and development. These training hubs work to address local needs. It’s always worth taking the time to find out what’s on offer, whether you’re an individual, employer or part of the Primary Care Network (PCN).

The training hubs bring together education and training resources from NHS organisations, community providers as well as local authorities. There’s not always an actual door you can knock on to ask for help but what they all have is access to a range of information, resources, apps and contacts within national and local networks who can offer practical guidance, support and advice.

You can access the Primary and Community Care Training Hubs here.
How others have done it!
When it comes to partnership working, and how others have done it, read some of our employer case studies.
- Bridgewater Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust – read about the diverse range of apprenticeships that this trust offers and the benefits that it has brought to the organisation.
- Joined Up Careers Derbyshire – Rotational Apprentice Programme – learn how Joined Up Careers brings together local partner organisations to support the current and future health and social care workforce.
- NHS South Yorkshire Apprenticeship Placement Agreement – When the trainee Nursing Associate (tNA) programme became an apprenticeship, this partnership group collaborated to select a Higher Education training provider, standardise entry criteria and uniforms and to support placements.
You can access our full case study section here.

Organisational Strategy Next Funding