Society, Health and Development

Meriel Tootell, Diploma Line Lead, Bolton Consortium
Pippa Frost, Practitioner and Diploma Line Lead, Hertfordshire Consortium
Lisa Hoseason, Diploma Line Lead, Newcastle Consortium

Narrator: Developing effective strategies to engage employers in meaningful partnerships is key to the success of the Diploma programme. The Bolton consortium started by casting its net wide and contacting a range of employers.

Meriel Tootell, Diploma Line Lead, Bolton Consortium: We managed to get the employers onboard by, sort of, emphasising to them how much the, sort of, training the students as part of the Diploma would help with their future workforce development plans. And I think we had to start with showing them how they could benefit by being involved with the Diploma. So I think that tack did work. We obviously had to have lots of meetings, they needed to know what the Diploma was about, what the purpose was. And we shared schemes of work with them. And I think that was really useful because then they could see what the content was. And we also, particularly within the schemes of work, identified where we could use professionals particularly to support the learning of the students.

Narrator: As the Diploma line lead, Meriel made contact with the NHS Skills for Health, which worked as a broker for the Bolton consortium, establishing a relationship with the local NHS trust on its behalf.

Meriel Tootell: Initially I worked with Skills for Health and we came up with this idea of coming into the hospital for one day a month, and I think once we'd clinched that we then could ask the next thing, "What about the idea of guest speakers?" And I think once the hospital had got a real understanding, they then took it onboard to organise the guest speakers and through the guest speaker coming in we've actually got an invitation to do a visit. So I just think one thing will lead to another. It's about building up the confidence really of the hospital staff, that this can work and that taking this gently, gently approach/ And also for us really all to feel our way and to see what works and what doesn't work.

Narrator: The Hertfordshire Consortium has also recognised the limited capacity of employers to facilitate learner experiences.

Pippa Frost, Practitioner and Diploma Line Lead, Hertfordshire Consortium: One of the problems with block placements has been the huge responsibility and burden that that actually puts on the employer. And we've worked all along, right the way from the beginning of our planning sessions, to think of ways in which we can reduce that burden on the employer. They need to know what those young people are coming in to do, they need to know about their learning objectives, they need to know why is that young person there, what it is that they're trying to gain? It's providing the employer with something that they want and need and therefore they are more likely to engage with the process.

Narrator: In Newcastle, the consortium strategy focuses on taking advantage of local events and training, to forge relationships with a wide range of employers.

Lisa Hoseason, Diploma Line Lead, Newcastle Consortium: We had already quite well established links within the healthcare and childcare sectors. So it was really - our main focus was to look for contacts within the justice sector. There was a day recently held at the local crown court, called Tyneside Justice Event, and that was open to everybody and there was lots of different aspects of the justice sector were there; the police, probation service, lots of different people. So we established loads of really good contacts there, just by going along and introducing ourselves. And the rest of it has just been phone calls and emails just, you know, on the hope that people will have heard of us and would be happy to come and talk to us. I think the thing about the practitioners is just that they need to know the Diploma quite well, they need to know the structure of it, they need to know what the benefits of it are, so they're able - not to sell it to the employers, but just to be able to, you know, tell them what the benefits will be for them.

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