To contact TEEAA team please email us at : syicb.syrec@nhs.net

Learning environments and placements  

This month sees our busy times starting as we welcome our new cohorts of learners as well as returning ones back to the campuses of our universities and colleges. We have also seen the latest cohorts graduate and begin to join our workforce and wish everyone well in settling into new roles and courses. All our universities have seen an increase in numbers of students, with the majority of our nursing, midwifery and allied health professions courses full. We also have new courses with built in foundation years starting for the first time this year which have proved very popular, helping those who aspire to be our future registered health professionals start their journey towards achieving their goals.

Colleagues within Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals are also working hard to implement the Safer Learning Environment Charter as one of the Trailblazer sites chosen by NHS England, and we look forward to hearing about their successes in the coming weeks so we can share the good practice they have developed and learn from each other.

We also welcome any students joining the ICB and the TEEAA team on placement with us- we currently have two brilliant apprentice occupational therapists with us, and hope they enjoy their time with us.

Apprenticeships and new roles

We are very proud to announce that our apprentice programme lead Pam Case has been awarded the title of Queen’s Nurse, and we are sure you will join with us in congratulating her on her success. The Queen’s Nurse title is awarded to individual community nurses who demonstrate a consistently high level of commitment to patient care and nursing practice, a title Pam richly deserves in recognition of her hard work and dedication to growing the apprenticeship offer within health and care across South Yorkshire.

We continue to work collaboratively with employers across South Yorkshire to increase the access and availability of apprenticeships in a wide variety of roles throughout health and care, both within clinical settings and others, such as digital and facilities teams.

Sadly, we say goodbye to Faye Lane, our NHS England regional apprenticeship lead as she moves into her new role as the National Senior Estates and Faculties Workforce Manager for NHS England. Faye will be sorely missed, but we would like to take the opportunity to thank her for the support she has given to South Yorkshire and wish her good luck in her new role. In the interim, Kay Butterfield and Claire Ryan from NHS England will be taking up the mantle, and can be contacted at england.neyapprenticeships@nhs.net

SY Career (NHS Health and Care)

We are very pleased to announce that our brand-new website is now live, and can be viewed here: Home :: SYREC Health and Social Care Careers

The site is home to both general and place specific resources for anyone looking for an opportunity to volunteer, start or develop their career in health and care, employers, schools and other organisations to view the wide variety of opportunities available as well as access a number of useful resources. There are also links to other useful sites too, such as Employment is for Everyone and Autism Plus.

The team also met with a wonderful charity In2MedSchool, who offer mentorship and arrange work experience for disadvantaged young people who aspire to enter medical school to train to become a doctor. They are looking to increase their offer across South Yorkshire and are interested in hearing from any colleagues or schools who may be interested in working with them. Anyone interested in finding out more can do so here: United Kingdom's Leading Widening Participation Initiative | In2MedSchool

We also said goodbye to another much-valued colleague and member of our team Rebecca McQueen, who retired in August. Many of you will have worked with her, particularly within the schools engagement programmes and through the support she gave to the Acute Federation. I’m sure you will all also join us in wishing her a happy retirement.

Employability

Our team is committed to ensuring that our employability activities meet the needs of our communities, which is why we have started to meet with the ICB Place Directors as well as continuing to work very closely with the place workforce leads to highlight our offer and ensure our activities align to the priorities that are unique to our four localities across South Yorkshire.

The team supported an event last week at Autism Plus with some really high quality and personalised career conversations to assist neurodiverse young people looking to join the workforce via apprenticeships or other routes such as supported internships.

We have now begun working more closely with colleagues in primary care, forging links between DWP and STH partners and GP practices to meet the needs of the local communities.  We are also meeting Practice Managers to discuss how they might increase the use of apprenticeships as a means of bringing new people into the workforce or as a personal development opportunity for existing staff.

Upskilling/workforce development

NHS England announced the continuation of continuous professional development (CPD) funding for registered nursing, midwifery and allied health professionals who work in NHS and primary care organisations for a further 12 months. We continue to liaise closely with our national and regional partners to identify any other funding offers and will ensure these are shared with our partners as and when they are announced.