Preceptorship Case Study – Barts Health NHS Trust

Organisational Details

Barts Health NHS Trust, established in 2012, is one of the largest NHS trusts in England and is based in London. We operate five hospitals across the City of London and East London, delivering a wide range of clinical services to patients locally and beyond. Each day, our hospitals provide both specialist and routine care to over 7,000 individuals.

By working collaboratively as a group of hospitals, we are able to share expertise, strengthen our services, and ensure the consistent delivery of high-quality care to a population of more than 2.5 million people. The Trust employs approximately 22,000 staff and supports an average of 450–500 preceptees each year.

Description

A Task and Finish group was established in October 2023 with representation from the multidisciplinary team (MDT). The group met monthly over a six-month period to scope and develop the programme content. All content is delivered face-to-face and supported by our Moodle platform, which includes tasks, activities, and gamified elements to enhance learner engagement.

The programme is primarily delivered by the Preceptorship Education Team, with additional input from subject matter experts. The team is led by a Preceptorship Lead, supported by four Preceptorship Education Practitioners based within the Education Academy. Of the four practitioners, two are adult nurses, one is a paediatric nurse, and one is an Allied Health Professional (Operating Department Practitioner). The team is responsible for coordinating and delivering the programme, with each practitioner leading their assigned cohort.

We have been fortunate to receive financial support from the Trust, enabling us to train our preceptorship educators as Sage & Thyme facilitators and in Cultural Intelligence. The Trust has an established faculty for both Sage & Thyme facilitators and the Cultural Intelligence (CQ) team, who deliver training across the organisation. This structure supports the sustainability of the model, as these in-house facilitators could potentially assist with delivering the Preceptorship programme in the future, if needed. Additionally, the Trust is committed to further strengthening these faculties by financially supporting Train the Trainer courses as required.

Key content areas include:

• Better Together (psychological impact of working), delivered by the Psychology Team
• Sage & Thyme communication training
• Learning disability and mental health awareness
• Cultural Intelligence training
• Quality Improvement
• Leadership
• Preceptor development workshop
• Coaching workshop
• Supporting students through Practice Supervisor/Assessor training, delivered by our Undergraduate Education Team

Please note: Allied Health Professionals (AHPs) and Healthcare Scientists (HCSs) do not attend the standard Practice Assessor training. Instead, they participate in a profession-specific session led by our AHP Preceptorship Education Lead and AHP colleagues.

The programme is delivered in months 1, 2, 3, 6, 9, and 12, following a structured schedule. We run two new cohorts each month, with a maximum of 30 learners per cohort.

Support and Learning for Preceptees

Prior to launching the new preceptorship model, we conducted a thorough review and update of the Trust’s Preceptorship Policy. The Trust strongly recommends that all eligible staff participate in the programme and ensures protected time is allocated for attendance.

We are also working closely with the recruitment team to streamline the identification of eligible staff. A flyer containing a QR code linking to a Microsoft Teams form is included in all new starter welcome packs. This allows us to identify eligible preceptees early and liaise with them and their managers to facilitate timely enrolment onto the programme.

As part of the Core Preceptorship Programme, Day 6 includes a Career Pathway Workshop. In addition, we launched the Beyond Preceptorship programme in May 2025, which offers five focused modules on leadership and management to support continued professional development.

Support and Learning for Preceptors

The Preceptor Workshop is delivered on the final day of the programme (Day 6 – Month 12) as a face-to-face session. During the workshop, preceptees are signposted to resources for supporting colleagues with disabilities and learning needs, including guidance on the Barts Ability Reasonable Adjustment Passport. They are also introduced to the Multi-Professional Preceptor e-Compendium and the NHS Leadership Academy as additional development tools. Furthermore there is a strong appetite from the wider trust for us to deliver ad hoc Preceptor workshop training especially in their departments.

In addition, we offer bi-yearly Preceptor Update Workshops, which are delivered virtually via Microsoft Teams. The workshop has a set agenda which includes any national preceptorship updates, recap of the roles and responsibilities of the preceptor, updates of any internal changes ie.to the programme and a change for the preceptors to ask questions.

Although attendance has been poor and we are currently in the process of reviewing this. The Preceptorship educators also offer on-site face to face or MS Teams pastoral support.

Preceptors are offered 12 hours protected time to attend preceptor training and or conduct preceptee/preceptorship related activity, in line with the trust preceptorship policy.

Inclusion and Equity

The programme is designed to be inclusive and supportive of all learners. Prior to the start of each cohort, all participants receive a learner information sheet that includes a section to indicate any reasonable adjustment needs. These are reviewed in advance by the programme lead to ensure appropriate support is in place.

All presentation slide decks are designed to ensure accessibility for all learners and learners can access them in advance via the Moodle platform. For those with a Barts Ability Passport, the cohort lead arranges a meeting with the learner to discuss their individual needs.

As part of the programme development, we analysed learner evaluation forms and created a targeted survey, which was distributed to preceptees for additional feedback. Preceptees were also invited to participate in the Task and Finish group to contribute directly to the programme’s design and improvement. However, it was a challenge for preceptees to be released from clinical practice to attend the T&F meetings.

Challenges and Lessons learned

Before the introduction of the MDT Preceptorship model at Barts Health, we operated two separate preceptorship programmes: one for Nursing and Midwifery, and another for Allied Health Professionals (AHPs). When we proposed transitioning to a multidisciplinary (MDT) model, a key concern raised by the AHP workforce was the risk of their voices being overshadowed, given their smaller numbers compared to Nursing and Midwifery staff. To address this, we now ringfence a set number of spaces specifically for AHPs to ensure strong representation within each cohort.

In May 2025, we launched the new Beyond Preceptorship programme. This initiative encourages managers to support newly qualified professionals (NQPs) in attending an additional six study days over the course of a year. Therefore, are now focusing on developing and implementing a targeted marketing strategy to raise awareness of the programme and highlight its benefits for NQPs, the wider workforce and staff retention.