Executive summary

NHS England Workforce Training and Education Yorkshire and the Humber (NHS England WTE YH) would like to thank the education and senior leadership team representatives for attending this Senior Leader Engagement (SLE) meeting. The main findings are:

• NHS England WTE YH gave an overview of the standards of education and training delivered (as part of the Quality Framework) working in partnership to assure and improve the quality of education and training.
• NHS England WTE YH thanked the trust for a positive meeting and stated that the trust has taken significant measures to improve the education and training of all professional groups.

Review overview

Background to the review

SLE meetings aim to strengthen working relationships with senior leaders, to develop an understanding around the commitment to the education and training quality agenda.

Evidence

• 2024 Trust self-assessment
• 2025 Quality intelligence summary
• 2024 National education training survey (NETS)
• 2024 General Medical Council (GMC) national training survey (NTS) scores and ranks
• 2025 Practice assessment record and evaluation (PARE) reports
• 2024/25 Tariff summary
• 2024 Guardian of Safe Working Hours (GOSWH) report (February – April)
• 2024 Freedom to Speak Up Guardian (FTSUG) report
• 2024 National Health Service (NHS) England Deans equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) summary

Trust attendees

• Director of Medical Education
• Head of Medical Education
• Deputy Medical Director
• Head of Organisational Development
• Freedom to Speak Up Guardian
• Operational Service Manager – Clinical Education Nursing and Allied Health Professionals (AHP)
• Guardian of Safe Working Hours
• Associate Director for Teaching and Student Support 

Senior team attendees

• Medical Director
• Director of Workforce, Human Resources

Review panel

• Education Quality Review Lead, Muzzammil Nusrath, Quality Associate Dean
• Specialty Expert, Lyndsay Murden, Senior Workforce Lead, Healthcare and Care Professions
• Speciality Expert, Anthony Hann, Education, Investment and Commissioning Lead
• Education Quality Manager, Louise Westley, Quality Coordinator
• Lay Representative, Julie Hastings
• Supporting Role, Michele Hannon, Quality Administrator          

Review findings

At the last SLE meeting in April 2023 Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust (LCH) performed well overall in the learner feedback. The trust was commended for the excellent amount of work undertaken and for the improvements made. The trust discussed areas of good practice and how they had established collaborative partnerships with the primary trust. The trust detailed how they had plans to offer 2 new placement options, providing on and off-site hospital services. 

The trust provided a comprehensive overview of their successes, challenges and initiatives. The trust advised that the Foundation Year (FY) pilot has been successful with 6 FY1’s supported this academic year, 1 in Integrated Children with Additional Needs Service (ICAN) and 1 in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS), for each rotation. This has been a successful innovation with positive feedback from the teams involved and the postgraduate doctors in training (PDiT). CAMHS specifically commented on the positive benefit of having an FY1 within the team and the placements have provided early exposure to community services. The trust also shared that adult and children’s nursing students have the option to self-select in their third year to be part of a community pathway, this in turn takes them through a variety of community settings. The Learner and Education Support Hub, Multi-Professional Student Network and Health toolbox are all still operational and receive positive feedback from users.

The trust has worked to create a robust induction programme and peer networks to improve the feeling of trust identity due to being spread over a large geographical area. They are currently undertaking a cost improvement programme, which has had an impact on service capacity to provide clinical placements.

It remains challenging to obtain medical education feedback due to contact arrangements across the city, similarly pre-registration nursing and AHP feedback is not consistent due to the non-compulsory nature of evaluation feedback.

General Medical Council (GMC) national training survey (NTS) 2024 results 

The trust is one of the best performing organisations within the GMC NTS. In 2024 the trust ranked 21^st of 230 UK acute, mental health and community trusts.  The trust continues to receive positive feedback for the trust-wide teamwork indicator and in 2024 it was an above outlier. 100% of respondents agreed that the organisation “encourages a culture of teamwork between multi-discipline healthcare professionals”. The indicator score has markedly improved from 2023 when it scored 72.78, placing it in the lower quartile (pink), but scored 88.18 in 2024, placing it in the interquartile range (white). 81% of respondents now rate the quality of induction as “very good” or “good”. Trust-wide facilities is not a quality concern, however the trust continues to score low for the indicator. Wi-fi connectivity seems to vary by site with 27% of respondents rating it as “poor” for their study needs, and not all sites provide a common room or mess area. The trust has 22 training posts, of which only 10 have LCH contracts, the other 12 have lead employer agreements with partnering NHS trusts in place, so their feedback will count towards the responses for the lead employing trust. 

National education training survey (NETS) 2024 results 

There was a low response to the 2024 survey, however, the feedback was largely positive. The trust closely tracks the benchmark mean across all NETS indicators and 74% of learners would recommend their placement. The trust does not have any negative outliers at a subject/specialism level. 

Equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) – initiatives and concerns including sexual safety

The trust has signed up to the Sexual Safety Charter and has a number of policies in place including the Bullying and harassment policy, Domestic violence policy, and Freedom to Speak Up policy (formerly Whistleblowing policy) which covers all staff appointed to LCH, including students and PDiT’s. 

International medical graduates receive a specific induction with the medical lead for the service, the educational supervisor and the Director of Medical Education (DME). 

The trust has a Safeguarding Lead for Sexual Safety, who is leading on the sexual safety charter work alongside the Freedom to Speak Up Guardian (FTSUG). The title Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence Champions (DASV) is no longer used within the organisation. 

Facilities – challenges and improvements including knowledge and library services 

The education teams and library services work closely together. The library is present at PDiT inductions and PDiT forums. Open Athens accounts are set up for all new starters as standard and they are provided with access to journals. There are no specific facilities for students as bases are spread out across the community and rest spaces are shared with other staff.  

The trust is working to further develop a landing page for students on the externally facing website that includes information on all community hubs such as how to access lockers, where to park, access to prayer rooms and local facilities.  

Involvement with higher education institutions (HEI) 

The Clinical Education Team has a close working relationship with programme leads for nursing and AHP at all local HEI’s. The Medical Education team and senior leadership have regular contact with the Medical School with regards to medical students.  

Learner engagement

The Student Network brings together nursing and AHP learners and is available to all students across the city. The trust has a quarterly PDiT Forum which is also attended by the Director of Medical Education, Deputy Medical Director, Director of Workforce, and Guardian for Safe Working Hours, along with the British Medical Association Representative.  

Freedom to Speak Up Guardian (FTSUG)

The trust has focused on building an effective and caring speaking up culture, ‘Speaking Up is a practice not a position’, which allows for a number of speaking up portals. These include, managers, human resources, staff side, ‘Ask the Chief Executive Officer’, easy access to directors, the clinical student forum and the FTSUG and champions.

Work with the Race Equality Network, the Disability, Neurodiversity and Long-Term Condition Network and the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer or Questioning and Intersex+ (LGBTQI+) Network is ongoing. The FTSUG attends the New Starters Forum and Clinical Students Forum. The trust staff survey shows positive results for the work undertaken, with 74.1% of staff stating that they felt safe to raise concerns. There have been no concerns raised during the last year, but there was an external concern relating to the trust supporting Muslim students wearing niqab. A review was undertaken which led to an inclusive approach embodying good clinical practice and the wearing of the niqab was agreed.

Areas that are working well

Good practice

Report approval

Report completed by: Louise Westley, Quality Coordinator
Review lead: Muzzammil Nusrath, Quality Associate Dean

Date approved by review lead: 30 May 2025

NHS England authorised signature: Jon Hossain, Quality Deputy Dean
Date authorised: 30 May 2025

Final report submitted to organisation: 19 June 2025