A quarter of a million pounds has been invested in staff at GP surgeries and social care providers by the Trust that runs Scunthorpe, Grimsby and Goole hospitals.
The £250,000 has been shared across six different organisations within the Humber, Coast and Vale area to help towards training for healthcare staff.
Rachel Maguire (pictured), Head of People Development at the Trust, said: “Each year we have around £1.2m available to invest in training for our staff through the Apprenticeship Levy. We’re really passionate about providing our staff with learning opportunities and currently offer 36 different types of apprenticeships.”
“Since the introduction of the Apprenticeship Levy we have helped more than 500 members of staff secure apprenticeships, we are really proud to be able to support six local healthcare providers with the remaining funds. This will help them to offer their staff apprenticeships, provide vital training and inevitably, improve the care provided to patients.
“In healthcare, we all work together for one reason: our patients. This money will hopefully help patients get the care they need sooner and in their community, meaning hospital admissions may reduce and we can keep people out of hospital and in their own homes.”
As part of regional workforce planning and development, healthcare providers were encouraged to come forward to show how they would benefit from the funds. Some of those who were successful in being awarded the money, said it will help towards ‘staff development’, ‘providing vital expertise in community care’ and ‘preventing hospital admissions’. Other applications stated the investment would ‘help to keep patients at home and out of hospital’.
Rachel added: “Our healthcare partners play a huge role in caring for the community. This investment is great news for them and the patients we treat.
“We have seen the success of offering apprenticeships and how much value they can bring, so we hope this comes as a huge boost to those who’ve been successful.”
The Apprenticeship Levy allows the Trust to offer apprenticeships through a ring-fenced amount of money each year that can only be invested in apprenticeships through strict funding rules. Since 2017 when the Levy was introduced, Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust has spent more than £1m on staff training.
Following this sharing of funds, Skills for Care the workforce development charity, has highlighted the Trust as ‘best practice’ and will use it as an example nationally to encourage other organisations to do the same.
The apprenticeships on offer within the Trust range from Level 2 (equivalent to GCSE) and Level 7 (equivalent to Batchelor’s or Master’s degree). Since 2017, more than 540 members of staff have signed up to an apprenticeship and many have gone on to win awards and new positions upon completion.
About Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust
Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust provides acute hospital services and community services to a population of more than 400,000 people across North and North East Lincolnshire and East Riding of Yorkshire.
We have three hospitals: Diana, Princess of Wales Hospital in Grimsby, Scunthorpe General Hospital and Goole and District Hospital. We also deliver community services in North Lincolnshire.
Our annual budget is £330 million and we employ around 6,500 people. Each year our emergency departments see around 130,000 attendances, we deliver more than 4,500 babies, carry out around 30,000 operations, treat 96,000 inpatients and run 390,000 outpatient appointments.
