Preceptorship Case Study – Herefordshire & Worcestershire

Organisational Details

Herefordshire & Worcestershire Health & Care NHS Trust is the lead provider of mental health and learning disability services across Herefordshire and Worcestershire, supporting children, adults, and older people. We serve a range of physical health and mental health community services to a population of approximately 615,000 people.

In Worcestershire, we provide a wide range of nursing and therapy services for people of all ages — including, but not limited to nursing and therapy services, community hospitals and minor injury units, paediatric therapy, specialist dental services, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, stroke rehabilitation, dementia care, and sexual health services. All services are delivered across community hospitals, outpatient clinics, patients’ homes and specialist teams, ensuring joined-up care pathways for people experiencing physical and/or mental health challenges across Herefordshire and Worcestershire.

The Trust currently employs around 5,000 staff across the two counties and supports approximately 100-120 newly-registered clinical professionals each year on its preceptorship programme. We were the first organisation in the Midlands to be awarded the NHS England Multi-professional National Preceptorship Quality Mark, in July 2025.

Description

The Trust’s structured preceptorship programme lasts for a period of 12 months and can be adapted to suit those who aren’t newly registered, such as international staff, those who have completed a return to practice programme, nursing associates who have qualified as a registered nurse following further study, and experienced individuals who have been employed in their first community post.  All newly registered clinical staff are required to attend 5 face-to-face study days, which include all content outlined within the HEE Preceptorship standards (2015) as well as other helpful topics, such as human factors, restorative supervision and career conversations. The study days are repeated 4-5 times per year to allow for maximum attendance and provision of different options to meet staff/clinical need and were re-designed to include guest speakers to present, which have been helpful to preceptees on the programme. Guest speakers include Deputy Director or Nursing/Therapies, Freedom to Speak Up Guardian, Health & Wellbeing Lead, Quality Improvement team and senior clinical staff representing a diverse range of professional backgrounds to engage in career conversations during their final study day.

Preceptees are supernumerary for at least the first 2 weeks of their employment and are encouraged to have their initial meeting with their preceptor and become accustomed to the documentation and process during this time. I have recently recorded a video that explains how to complete all documentation and processes for ease, e.g. how to book onto study days, suggested evidence to support competency sign-off by preceptor, etc.

Preceptees are signposted to extra support if required, such as PNAs for restorative supervision and trained coached within our organisation and during their final study day, I have collated a list of all available academic courses related to healthcare and leadership at nearby HEIs that lets preceptees know what CPD is available for them post preceptorship, for their ongoing learning and development.

I am able to identify those who are eligible to enrol onto our preceptorship programme by attending all Trust Welcome Days (induction) and introducing myself to those before this day ends, to explain how the programme works and take down their contact details for follow up and to send them all the required information/documentation to ensure a smooth transition and to avoid delay in starting their preceptorship period.

All new starters in our Trust are required to attend a Trust Welcome Day preferably on their first day, or at the very least, within their first month of employment. For the small group of staff that are apprentices, (who completed their training as an existing member of staff and therefore do not need to attend a Trust Welcome Day) they are communicated to enrol onto our preceptorship programme by the Apprenticeship team, prior to their course completion. Recruiting managers are also reminded to ensure that their newly-registered clinical staff enrol onto the programme as per Trust policy. I also receive a list of new staff to the Trust (who have clinical roles and their banding identified) every month from the learning and development admin team and the Chief AHP’s PA, to ensure everyone is contacted and offered a preceptorship period if they are eligible/would benefit from receiving a period of structured support.

Support and Learning for Preceptees

Our Trust preceptorship policy supports preceptees to attend the 5 required study days as part of the programme and these hours are part of their working week. Preceptees and preceptors are to meet for at least 1 hour per month (12 hours protected time per year as a minimum) to have the opportunity to sign off competencies, facilitate reflective discussions, review their workload/health and wellbeing and to track progress on previously agreed objectives.

Learning and development related to their individual role is mapped as per their mandatory/essential training record and staff are released to access the relevant training to provide high-quality patient care.

Following each study day, I email staff with related information, such as articles, websites, useful e-learning, frameworks, etc for them to access, which contributes to the content delivered during each study day.

Preceptees regularly comment on the usefulness of this information for their ongoing learning/CPD and that they find much of the information sent to them helps them to attain competencies required during their preceptorship period.

Support and Learning for Preceptors

Since July 2025, preceptors are now required to receive preparation for their important role and this is stated in the welcome/introductory e-mail to preceptees/line managers, as well as stated in our updated Trust policy. Preceptors can receive preparation in one of two ways (flexible to meet their needs): either attend a half-day training session or complete the NHSE Multi-Professional Preceptor e-learning compendium.  Completion of either of these training offerings will allow them to receive a certificate and their training record will be updated.

Preceptors also have the option to attend quarterly online preceptor forums, which provide an opportunity to network with other preceptors across our organisation and share best practice/challenges with each other.

Preceptors can also contact the preceptorship lead for specific advice and I aim to be flexible to support as much as possible, e.g. meet in person, online, telephone discussion, etc.

Inclusion and Equity

We acknowledge prior experience, such as recognising clinical expertise gained abroad and signpost staff to language and literacy support if required. Plain language is used in teaching materials and documentation wherever possible and we aim to buddy up IENs/international AHPs with experienced staff who trained overseas for peer support.

We aim to support the strengths and needs of a Neurodiverse workforce by providing material in different formats if required and using a range of pedagogies/teaching styles (such as storytelling, reflection, quizzes, group activity, videos, etc) to best meet the needs of preceptees.

The study days aim to create a place of psychological safety by fostering environments where learners feel safe to disclose their needs and having the option to step out for a short period if they prefer (e.g. to process information, discussing a sensitive topic, etc).

Preceptees have historically co-produced the content of the programme by suggesting more or less of subjects covered and by taking the lead of their own learning during study days 4+5.

Challenges and Lessons learned

During re-design of the programme, some key barriers/concerns were identified and/or highlighted by staff which required consideration of how to proceed.  Whilst we wished to be as inclusive and accessible as possible, practicalities of working in a community Trust results in some constraints which were not able to rectified.

One key concern related to the content of the programme and the language used by the facilitator/guest speakers: some AHP staff felt the programme was very “nurse-heavy”, given their smaller numbers compared to nursing staff. To address this, I ensure parity of information delivered during the study days (e.g. NMC and HCPC information) and involve guest speakers from a variety of clinical backgrounds to co-produce content and assist programme delivery. Subsequent feedback from AHP staff say that the content is more meaningful and inclusive of all professional backgrounds, which is a great improvement on the previous offer.

Another barrier was identifying training venues that suited the majority of needs.  actors that were taken into consideration when selecting various venues were: travel time (staff work from over 100 bases across two counties), classroom size/capacity, parking, accessibility and scheduling of cohorts to optimise attendance.  To mitigate this barrier, each study day is scheduled for 7 hours (to allow travel time for staff and childcare responsibilities), information is provided about parking and how staff can claim parking charges back and all venues were ensured to be accessible by those with a disability.

A key lesson learnt was to utilise as many pedagogies when delivering the study days as possible, to not only keep the sessions exciting and ensure preceptee participation, but to also meet the needs of neurodiverse staff and allow for different approaches to learning.  Different teaching styles during the study days include: slide shows, videos, activities, quizzes, group work, storytelling, games and 1:1 conversations with staff.