UNISON has raised the issue of unspent NHS apprenticeship levy funds and urged the House of Lords to relax the restrictions to the scheme to free-up cash for NHS Trusts.
Previous UNISON research estimates that Trusts in England are missing out on more than £200m. This is because unused cash earmarked to fund apprenticeships can’t be used for anything else, despite health budgets being stretched to breaking point. Hospitals unable to spend apprenticeship funds within two years - because they’re too hard up to take on apprentices says UNISON - can have the funds clawed back by government to fund apprenticeships in other parts of the economy.
The House of Lords debated - and passed - the NHS Funding Bill last week. UNISON wanted peers to see the health service as a special case and support its exemption from the levy-funding rules, which it describes as “restrictive”.
Reform would mean employers could use this money to pay the salaries of NHS apprentices and the wages of staff employed to cover them whilst they are training. UNISON also argues that levy cash should be ring-fenced in a new national NHS apprenticeship fund - to keep the money within the health service - and the two-year time limit dropped.
In the longer term, UNISON believes chronic staff shortages could be addressed by the government investing additional money in this new apprenticeship fund as part of the people plan for the NHS. The extra cash could fund the recruitment of more ‘earn as you learn’ apprentices – including in nursing where proper investment could make in-roads into the target of 50,000 additional staff.
The issue of apprenticeships was raised during the Lords debate by Lord Young of Norwood Green, who described the situation as “worrying”, especially because of the large number of vacancies in the NHS. “The government have said that 5,000 of the 50,000 more nurses they promised by 2023-24 will come from degree apprenticeships.”
Lord Young suggested more could be done through sharing good practice and he referenced a collaborative approach involving three Trusts in the Gloucestershire area, each with different staffing requirements, which worked together and have successfully made significant use of the apprenticeship levy.
UNISON head of health Sara Gorton says: “The apprenticeship levy model is failing the NHS. Hundreds of millions of pounds that could fund more NHS staff is sitting idle while the health service buckles under the weight of tighter budgets and unfilled roles.”
