A GOVERNMENT levy launched to boost the number of apprenticeships is having ‘unintended consequences’ for Whiston Hospital, it has been claimed.

The scheme, which launched in April 2017, is intended to create three million new apprenticeships by 2020.

However, figures released by the Department for Education in April showed there had been 24 per cent drop in the number of new apprenticeship starts between August 2017 to January 2018.

The government has faced much criticism over the unpopular levy, particularly from the business sector.

Anne-Marie Stretch, deputy chief executive and director of human resources at St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, represents the health sector on Liverpool City Region’s skills and employment board.

She told the trust’s board this week that the trust’s concerns over the levy have been shared by employers in the City Region.

Ms Stretch said: “All of the employers round the table have commented about the unintended consequences of the apprenticeship levy, which seemed a really good idea at the time but actually from an employers’ perspective it’s costing more money to produce more apprenticeships.”

Under the scheme, all employers with a wage bill greater than £3 million pay 0.5 per cent of their payroll into a central fund and receive vouchers in return to fund apprenticeships.

As at June 2018, St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust has committed £820,760 from the apprenticeship levy fund to support apprenticeships across the trust.

Ms Stretch said the levy is having a ‘double whammy’ effect on the trust as apprentices now have to study off-site.

She said: “We’re sending off healthcare assistants to go off and do a degree, training programme, using our apprenticeships levy.

“But we still have to pay them when they are not here as healthcare assistants and we still have to back fill them when they’re not here as well.

“So, it’s like a double whammy in a way isn’t there?

“Not only is it the cost of the course but then there is the salary and the back fill when they’re not here as well.

“And that’s the unintended consequence I don’t think the Department of Education has really thought through.”

Ann Marr, chief executive of the trust, called the scheme a ‘minefield.

“There isn’t a ready-made apprenticeship curriculum for many of the specialist areas the hospital wants to focus on,” she said.

“If you’re going to spend all that money you want to spend it in the areas where you’ve got the biggest problems, but often it’s not available.

“So, you’re kind of doing this juggling thing.

“If you’ve got a shortage, then you don’t necessarily want to send even your unqualified staff off because you need people to be doing the job.

“It’s a bit of a minefield.”

If the trust fails to utilise the apprenticeship fund within an 18-month time period, then it will have to return it to the government.

Subsequently, the trust has deemed it an ‘extreme risk’ that it may face unplanned cost pressures as a result of not spending apprenticeship levy fund.

Ms Stretch said: “Everybody thinks it’s a great idea because you get a million pounds to spend, but it’s quite hard to spend.

“To spend a million, we have to spend more than a million and so I suppose that’s the risk.

“And the risk is if we don’t spend the money then we just lose it.”