Bournemouth & Christchurch FT

A trust-wide approach to maximise opportunities for newly qualified healthcare professionals (NQHPs), that engaged staff and was supported by the senior management team.

SHA region

NHS South West

Project dates

Work started in April 2007 and still on-going.

Project work area

The Trust started implementing its programme to proactively support newly qualified healthcare professionals in April 2007, supported by its senior team. So far, it has successfully secured full-time employment for 56 of its 75 applicants this year - covering both nursing and AHP posts - and is confident that it will be able to support the remaining 19, either with 12 month contracts or part-time posts.

Profile of the trust

The Trust achieved Foundation status in 2005. The Trust has three hospitals with over 300,000 patients covering acute and rehabilitation services, as well as a sterile supply department. It has (4,000) staff working across the three sites and recruits its NQHPs from .Bournemouth University predominantly and also from all around the country.

Aims and results

The Trust started focusing on supporting NQHPs in April 2007 and engaging its senior team and SHA to develop its approach which included the following:

• Early discussions with the director of nursing to develop recommendations for the trust board, using NHS Employers' Maximising Employment Opportunities briefing to identify new options that the trust could consider
• Working closely with NHS South West to feed into an SHA-wide plan to identify opportunities for NQHPs
• Early ring fencing of vacancies, starting in April, to secure 38 vacancies for NQHPs, working with individual wards to review the skill mix to create more opportunities - the Trust covered any short term gaps with locums and extra contract hours
• Scoping opportunities across the trust for 12-month contracts to cover winter pressures, sick leave and maternity leave
• Splitting full-time to part-time posts to give more NQHPs work experience until they can secure permanent, full-time roles
• Reviewing and revising existing HR policies for example ensuring that job advertisements were more generic and did not ask for 'experience'
• Supplementing SHA funding to offer preceptorship programmes for all NQHPs including AHPs, to support their transition from education to healthcare roles - alongside this, nurses and AHPs joined the trust's own 'resource pool' or bank until they found permanent roles (in 2006 the 15 nurses in the trust pool all secured posts within three months)

Working with the SHA

In addition to trust based activity, the FT has also worked closely with its SHA, with regular reports on expected vacancies. This has formed part of the SHA's wider work to gauge numbers and to match any outstanding posts with candidates on the SHA based newly qualified profile pools.

The SHA is also working with higher education institutions to get 'live' first destination data, to start building a fuller picture of how many graduates are seeking work in their area, in the health sector.

Tips for other trusts

Annie Osuch, Workforce and Learning Lead at the Trust, believes that early planning and senior level engagement have made the key difference in supporting more of its NQHPs applicants this year.

For more information

• Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust - Annie Osuch, Workforce and Learning Lead, , annie.osuch@rbch.nhs.uk
• NHS South West (SHA) - Patricia Bradley, Career Management and Graduate Placement Lead, patricia.bradley@southwest.nhs.uk