The UK will soon have its first NHS National Rehabilitation Centre – a 70-bed, purpose-built and state-of-the-art facility on the Stanford Hall Rehabilitation Estate near Loughborough – which plans to change the face of rehabilitation across the country. But as the centre is being prepared for the first patients to come through the doors, so are the apprentices who have embarked on a bespoke course which they hope will lead them to a brand-new role at the NRC on opening day.
“To an outsider, it might look like I’m just playing a game with a patient, but it’s so much more than that – I’m assessing the cognitive ability of that patient – are they initiating the task, are they problem-solving, are they needing prompts?”
James Tague is spending his day on the Daybrook Unit at City Hospital supporting patients who are undergoing rehabilitation following a stroke – showing them how to do their physiotherapy exercises, facilitating shape puzzle games with them, and assessing their ability to make hot drinks or simple meals and therefore be discharged home.
The 22-year-old from Derby is one of just six apprentices who have embarked on the very first course of its kind – the Rehabilitation Assistant Practitioner apprenticeship at Birmingham City University which hopes to change the future of rehabilitation training in the UK.
Until the course began in September, James had been working as a dietetics technician at Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham, supporting dietitians and nutritionists.
He said: “I’d been in the role for two years, and I would watch what the physios and occupational therapists did with interest, and so was looking for an opportunity to move into a rehab role when I received the email about this apprenticeship.”
The apprenticeship currently comprises three six-month placements from a range of services at NUH including Stroke Rehab, Neurosciences – patients with neurological conditions, Trauma and Orthopaedics – patients with fractures, Critical Care– patients who have suffered a serious illness or injury, and Linden Lodge – our current rehabilitation facility.
The aim is for the apprentices to have as many clinical experiences as possible and develop a wide range of skills so that they can support the multitude of patients who will be treated at the NRC when it opens in Summer 2025.
On completing the 18-month apprenticeship, students will leave with the skills they need to work as an Assistant Practitioner (AP) in a rehabilitation setting, such as the state-of-the-art National Rehabilitation Centre – a 70-bed facility currently being constructed on the Stanford Hall Rehabilitation Estate near Loughborough, already home to the Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre which opened in 2018.
The role of the Rehab AP was devised to support and enable the NRC to provide an intensive level of rehabilitation, as supported by evidence and in line within international best practice. This intensive model of care will require the APs to work across Physiotherapy, Occupational Therapy and Nursing, bringing therapy into every interaction with the patient and truly embedding the 24-hour rehab model.
Alison Wildt, Service Improvement Lead for the NRC, explains that the apprenticeship is also designed to provide staff with education and training at all levels as part of a ‘skills escalator’, enabling an individual to join the NHS as a Band 2 therapy assistant and work all the way up to an Allied Health Professionals consultant should they wish.
Alison said: “This bespoke Rehab AP apprenticeship has the potential to change the way we train professionals coming into the field of rehabilitation – not just those who want to come and work at the NRC, but for healthcare workers in rehabilitation settings across the UK.
“Birmingham City University were appointed to develop this bespoke apprenticeship due to their willingness to develop a specific course for rehabilitation and they have been a great team to work with.
“We know that training not only nurtures and develops our own workforce, it also demonstrates our commitment to our staff and the value that we see in them and what they can deliver, which ultimately supports with the retention of staff.
“We want to enable continued professional development and for all members of the team to be working to the top of their licence.”
James is now eight weeks into his first placement in stroke rehabilitation. He explains that that these are patients who may have had a bleed or a clot on the brain, and may have a loss of movement, of sight, of sensation and their communication may be affected too.
While the stoke patient will likely be on an acute ward until they are medically stable, they then need to move to a ward where rehabilitation is the main goal so that the patient can be discharged home safely.
As a Trainee Assistant Practitioner, James works with the Physiotherapists, Occupational Therapists (OTs) and Nurses. The focus of Physiotherapists is to help restore movement and function when someone is affected by injury, illness or disability, while Occupational Therapists have a greater emphasis on helping people to overcome challenges completing everyday tasks or activities – called ‘occupations’ – while also considering their environment.
James said: “If someone has suffered an injury then it can affect their physical, mental, and social functions, and our role is to help them find that new normal. Hospital can be quite a daunting place, and most people just want to get home, and we want to help them to do that safely.
“The key thing is that everyone is different, and so everyone will recover differently and will have different goals. For one person, their focus may be on walking again; for another person they may be working on moving from sitting to standing from a chair or their bed.
“It’s a privilege to be part of someone’s rehab and you get to make such a positive difference in helping them to reach their goals. It’s especially rewarding to visually see the progress of their rehab.
“When I clock on in the morning, I’m smiling, and when I leave work, I’m smiling. It’s great because we are only doing positive things for that patient, and they appreciate it.”
In addition to the placements, the apprentices spend each Wednesday together at university for the academic element of the course, which has been designed specifically in partnership with the NRC to encompass all the skills and knowledge required for this role, which they then put into practice during their clinical placements.
James says that once he’s completed his three placements and comes to the end of the apprenticeship, he hopes it to be working at the NRC, and may wish to further his studies in the future into either Physio or OT.
He said: “The NRC can only be a positive thing and it shows how far we’ve come in understanding the importance of rehabilitation.
“It will be lovely to have a building which has been specifically designed to improve someone’s rehab. In a hospital setting there are always other things going on, so it will be good to be somewhere that patients can focus on their goals and targets, and being a part of that would be really cool.”
The second cohort of apprentices will be recruited in Spring 2024 and will be advertised through our website: Home - National Rehabilitation Centre. These apprentices will also get to train at the NRC when it opens in Summer 2025.