Work experience quality standard

A NHS England work experience quality standard is now available for healthcare organisations to apply for. The quality standard award, which can be displayed, will give organisations and placement holders assurance that the work experience on offer reaches the highest possible standards.

The standard which aims to support a good level of standardisation and consistency of offer between organisations across the country will also allow an appropriate amount of flexibility to acknowledge that work experience placements are offered in a variety of different ways.

To be awarded the standard, organisations must demonstrate how the work experience placements they offer are planned, delivered and evaluated. NHS England will then award a bronze, silver or gold quality standard award, free of charge, which will last for two years. The organisation can then display the quality standard digital logo and certificate in order to demonstrate that it meets the standard.

Please note, while this quality standard has been designed for the assurance of in-person work experience, it can be used to support and add value to existing quality assurance processes for other types of programmes and work placements.

Work experience quality standard framework

The quality standard framework includes all of the criteria to qualify for the bronze, silver and gold quality standard. The criteria is broken down into six sections which correspond to a work experience placement:

• healthcare organisation
• pre-placement
• placement induction
• during placement
• reflection and review
• post placement

Read the quality standard framework by clicking on the image below.

This document is also available in the related documents section of this page.

Work experience quality standard guidance

The quality standard guidance document includes further information about the purpose of the standard, and instructions to assist healthcare organisations in understanding how they can demonstrate that they meet each of the criteria, and to assist in completing the application form.

Please note, an updated version of the guidance document can be found below. The main changes include an application form checklist on p.4, and a two-week extension to the assessment cycles on p.17.

The main new points on the application form checklist include:

• clarification that evidence needs to be current (dated within the last 12 months) and should include as many completed, anonymised documents which demonstrate that templates are being used by a variety of host departments, and completed by learners. We expect to see the following minimum number of completed documents across the whole of the application to be eligible to receive each respective award: 4 for bronze, 8 for silver, 12 for gold
• blank templates cannot be accepted as evidence, all forms/ documents need to be completed in order to be accepted as evidence for the award (with any identifiable information redacted)
• mandatory completion of each supporting commentary box on the application form. As a minimum, this needs to accurately and explicitly reference all evidence which supports each criteria point including the names and page numbers of documents, reflecting the documents uploaded to Sharepoint
• reminder that evidence will only be accepted in relation to face-to-face work experience provision (for example, we will not accept evidence which relates to pre-employment programmes or online work related learning)

Read the quality standard guidance by clicking on the image.

This document is also available in the related documents section of this page.

Applying for the quality standard

Attend a drop-in session

Healthcare organisations that wish to apply for the quality standard must firstly get in touch with the WEx QS team to request to join a ‘drop-in’ session to determine if they are eligible to apply. Please email england.workexperiencetfc@nhs.net and you will be sent the meeting links to enable you to join a drop-in session of your choice.

Drop-in sessions for 2024/25 are scheduled as follows:

• Thursday 9 January 2025 09:30am to 10:30am
• Thursday 6 February 2025 midday to 1pm
• Tuesday 4 March 2025 10am to 11am
• Wednesday 9 April 2025 1pm to 2pm

Request an application form

Once you have attended a drop-in session, if you wish to apply for the quality standard, please email england.workexperiencetfc@nhs.net to request an application form, using the subject title 'work experience quality standard – [insert health organisation name]'.

The work experience quality standard team will respond by providing an application form, and a private SharePoint folder for all evidence to be uploaded into. Further instructions on applying can be found in the guidance document.

Healthcare organisations can apply for the quality standard at any time throughout the year. However, organisations should be aware that their application will only be reviewed at set times of the year, which can be found below in cycle of review dates.

Please note, only one application form will be accepted per organisation.

If further support is required with the application process, please contact england.workexperiencetfc@nhs.net.

Cycle of review dates

Please see the dates for the cycles of review below for 2025/2026. These dates will be advertised and updated accordingly.

Please note, healthcare organisations who submit an application may be contacted via email in the 6-week period of review following the submission deadline with requests for further information or evidence to support their application.

2024/2025

Cycle 2

Submission deadline: 17 January 2025

Period of review: 31 January to 28 March 2025

Decisions communicated: 31 March to 14 April 2023

2025/2026

Cycle 1

Submission deadline: 16 May 2025

Period of review: 30 May to 25 July 2025

Decisions communicated: 28 July to 11 August 2025

Cycle 2

Submission deadline: 19 September 2025

Period of review: 3 October to 28 November 2025

Decisions communicated: 1 December to 15 December 2025

Cycle 3

Submission deadline: 16 January 2026

Period of review: 30 January to 27 March 2026

Decisions communicated: 30 March to 13 April 2024