Our Apprenticeship and Career Hub has been rated ‘Good’ in all areas by Ofsted following our first inspection.

Inspectors said: ‘Apprentices enjoy working and studying at the Trust and quickly learn the skills they need to become effective members of their departments.

‘They receive effective careers guidance, and most are keen to stay in their job roles. Apprentices value the Trust as a place of work and are ambitious to progress their careers there.’

This inspection followed on from our becoming a ‘main provider’ in April 2024, meaning as well as offering apprenticeships to our staff, we also run them for people who work outside our Trust.

We offer a wide range of apprenticeships across 39 different programmes from Level 2 to Level 7, allowing people to get their first step into healthcare, or develop their careers.

We were also the first NHS trust in the country to achieve The 5% Club’s gold standard for our commitment to providing apprenticeship opportunities for staff. It is given to organisations whose workforce has at least 5% of staff doing apprenticeships.

Lesley Roberts, Head of our Apprenticeship and Career Hub, said:

We’re really happy and the whole team feel it’s a job well done. Since launching the hub in February 2023 we’re still growing and developing and striving to do better all the time, this proves we have a lot to offer.

Our leadership is very invested in the hub and how it is helping our staff gain the skills to develop their careers. We’ve increased apprenticeship roles by over 100 since the hub started, offering lots of new jobs to local residents, some of whom come to us with no healthcare background and are soon on their way to developing successful careers.

We also regularly celebrate the successes of our apprenticeships, holding special events at the House of Commons for the past two years (apprentices are pictured at the event above and top). This year’s event, on Monday 10 February, was attended by the Health Secretary and MP for Ilford North, Wes Streeting.

He said:

One of the things I’ve been most struck by is that so many people have been encouraged by the Trust to take up these opportunities to stay with the Trust.

So I think we see BHRUT as a Trust which really cares about its people, invests in its people. It’s brilliant to see the work the Trust is doing.

We currently run apprenticeships for staff from two other NHS trusts, with more interested. These apprenticeships are funded by the trust the learner is from. They remain in their role while attending tutor-led apprenticeship sessions and meeting with coaches virtually via our hub.

We were rated good in these areas following the inspection, which took place in January: quality of education; behaviour and attitudes; personal development; leadership and management; and apprenticeships. Read our report.