Trainee Nursing Associate (TNA) and Assistant Practitioner roles

The Trainee Nursing Associate (TNA) and Assistant Practitioner roles have been introduced in England to bridge the gap between support workers and Registered Nurses and Allied Health Professionals to deliver hands-on, person-centred care as part of a multidisciplinary team in a range of settings.

There has been a great success in the delivery of these programmes within the healthcare setting since their introduction. However, now more than ever we are starting to realise the benefit that these roles could have within social care settings too; not least to enhance patient care and support but also to reduce hospital admissions. These roles also offer a career progression pathway for health and social care support workers to increase staff retention and satisfaction.

Health Education England (HEE) currently has funding in place to upskill the social care workforce by providing full funding for this 2-year, Level 5 apprenticeships for appropriately skilled care assistants or support workers. Additional funding for employers is also available to help with the ancillary needs of the trainees, such as supervision or placement support. The successful completion of these apprenticeship programmes will support social care providers to enhance the skills and professional confidence of their current workforce.

The apprenticeship levy can be used to fund Trainee Nursing Associate (TNA) and Assistant Practitioner programmes and will cover the cost of the training and assessment (including end-point assessment) up to the maximum of the assigned funding band. HEE also provides funding of £4000 per apprentice per year to employers, which rises to £15,000 per apprentice per year for those working in the Learning Disability and Autism fields for at least 50% of the time. Although Assistant Practitioners usually follow a therapy or nursing training pathway and undertake a Level 5 two-year foundation degree in health or social care, this may be available as an apprenticeship programme and under such circumstances, they too would qualify for funding under the levy scheme.

Skills for Care are also running a series of webinars with the theme of ‘Embracing Apprenticeships’. These are aimed at social care employers to support them to understand how social care apprenticeships can make a positive contribution to their organisation and includes the NA apprenticeship.

Contact us to find out more and or to connect with others who have introduced NAs and Assistant Practitioners into their teams.