Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (EPUT) has been recognised for the quality of its support programme for allied health professionals (AHPs) joining the Trust.
The Trust achieved areas of excellence for its AHP Preceptorship, a structured programme that supports a smooth transition into a new place of work for newly qualified practitioners and those returning to professional practice.
There are 14 allied health professions, of which there are eight represented at EPUT, including occupational therapists, dietitians, speech and language therapists, and physiotherapists.
The Trust scored highly in the NHS England AHP Preceptorship Organisational Self-Assessment tool which helps NHS Trusts check their preceptorship programmes meet the standards set out by NHS England and the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC). EPUT was also praised by Hertfordshire and West Essex Integrated Care Board, which is the local lead on the self-assessment on behalf of NHS East of England.
EPUT achieved 100% in two of the areas evaluated – organisational culture and preceptorship, and the preceptor’s role. It scored 93% for quality and oversight of preceptorship, 88% for preceptee empowerment and 91% in delivering preceptorship programmes.
EPUT runs a multi-professional preceptorship programme for AHPs and nurses and was last year awarded the National Preceptorship Interim Quality Mark for the quality of the support given to nurses.
Allen Senivassen, Student Education Facilitator Lead and Lead for Preceptorship and Transitional Development Preceptorship, said: “Over the last two years, our preceptorship team and practice colleagues have been working hard to strengthen EPUT’s preceptorship programme so that it meets national gold standards and has maximum benefit for our colleagues.
“We’re really pleased with the progress we’ve made and will continue to listen to feedback from colleagues to develop the programme further.”
Mobolaji Lewis, Chief Allied Health Professional at EPUT, said: “I am particularly proud of the achievements we’ve made in the last few years and want to say a big thank you to everyone involved.
“At EPUT, we have extended our preceptorship to international recruits because although they are not newly qualified, they are having to learn how things work in the NHS.
“We can already see they are really benefiting from the extra support and we have a lot of good practice to share in this area.”
The preceptorship is among the training and support programmes available to staff at EPUT. This includes apprenticeships, support for staff wishing to undertake higher education and further training, and leadership programmes such as RISE.
Find out more about working at EPUT.