Freedom of Information Request: 0180 2019/20

I was enquiring to see if you could provide me with information regarding apprenticeship funding within the trust and how it is split across departments and also who is responsible/ in charge of allocating funding to different departments. 

Please can you provide me with the current split of apprenticeship funding levy across departments.

As a large UK employer, the Trust pays the Apprenticeship Levy to HMRC. In 2018/19, this cost the Trust circa £3.6 million. This funding is held in a digital account for the Trust, to be used for Apprentice training and assessments against approved standards and with registered providers.

It is important to note that the Levy cannot be used to pay apprentice wages, travel and subsistence, management costs, or the costs of setting up apprenticeship programmes.

As such, there is no fixed apprenticeship funding / budget split across the Trust. Each Trust (on behalf of the departments) will draw down the approved training costs back from the digital account. The amount drawn down will vary month to month depending on the number of apprentices in place and changes as people leave, start or finish their apprenticeships.

All departments are encouraged to recruit Apprentices; however, they must have the funding in place to pay the apprentice wages. The Trust is currently claiming back from the Levy significant less than is it contributing, therefore there is no detailed process for allocating Apprenticeship Levy funding to departments. This process is monitored by the Education department which is led by Louise Banks (Director of Education).

For specific enquires regarding Apprenticeships and UHB, the best contact is; Apprenticeships@uhb.nhs.uk