Self-funded and flexible - why the OU's approach works in Torbay and South Devon

Torbay and South Devon is in a very beautiful part of country, making it an appealing place for people to live. However, its location also creates some challenges – the rural setting means there are transport issues and those seeking further education travel quite far to reach even the nearest universities. This situation has led to skills gaps and retention problems for local employers.

Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust needed to develop more nurses from the local population, so it decided to take a proactive approach to workforce planning, one that meets its needs and that of the community it serves. Partnering with The Open University (OU), the Trust has been able to recruit local people to train to become qualified nurses and stay and work in the local area. “The Trust has a real commitment to supporting learning and education,” says Laura Fuller, Head of Clinical Education at Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust. “We know that without a well-educated, well-supported workforce we can’t deliver that really high-quality patient care that we strive towards.”

Knowing the barriers that prevent some local people from pursuing further education, the Trust recognised the value of the OU’s distance learning model and open access policy – remote study overcomes the travel barrier, while also widening participation by reaching out to a wider pool of people and enabling students to fit their studies around other commitments. “The flexibility of that online offer is really key,” says Laura.

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The self-funded option

Many of the student nurses take out a loan to meet their study costs, but Laura says they know it’s worth it. “It’s a real investment in yourself. Nursing is a lifelong career – it’s a vocation.” And with the qualification under their belt, nurses can choose to progress their careers further by specialising or becoming non-medical prescribers, for example.

The OU has delivered nurse education in partnership with employers for over 20 years and Paul Armer, Senior Partnership Development Manager at the OU, says funding is an issue for many trusts. “We know that they struggle to put as many apprenticeships on programmes as they would like because of the financial constraints associated with salary backfill. With this model the students are not employed by the Trust and they self-fund through tuition-fee loans, so the financial risk to the Trust is very low.”

Leanne Dart is a student nurse at the Trust, having worked as a healthcare assistant, deputy manager and then registered manager at care homes in the past, before taking a break to have children. She is happy with the self-fund option as she views it as a long-term investment in her career.

I think it will pay dividends in the future when I’ve got a career that I love and one that’s more financially stable. Being a registered nurse will open a huge amount of doors for me. The sky’s the limit really of what I can then go on to do.
Leanne Dart
Student Nurse, Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust

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Benefits of distance learning

Remote learning has worked well for Leanne, enabling her to fit her studies around work and family life. The qualification also requires nurses to undertake a number of practical placements in different services, and these are arranged and provided by the Trust in the local area. Not having to travel has also eliminated fuel costs and saved her a huge amount of time. “I don’t have to travel to another city to go to university, I can do it from my own home – it just makes everything so much easier. I’ve looked into other avenues of nursing before, but I was never able to make those things come together in a way I needed.”

Torbay and South Devon case study: Millie

Millie Harmer, also a student nurse, appreciates the flexibility of the OU’s approach as well, and the ability to work and study locally, without losing family time through travel. She left school after doing her GCSEs and worked in hospitality but “I wanted to do something with a lot more purpose and job satisfaction.”

Millie had wanted to be a nurse for a long time, “but I always pushed it out, thinking it’s not doable, especially being a mother. I always felt like it’s too out of my reach.”

To get a better sense of what being a nurse would involve, she took a job as a domestic at the Trust and watched the other nurses at work. It confirmed to her that this was the career she wanted and now she is on her first placement. She says the student loans have been a lifeline for her. “It’s really important to invest in your future because it’s all worth it in the long run.”

The OU’s open access policy enables people who have the right personal qualities to be a nurse but not necessarily formal qualifications – such as A- Levels or UCAS points – to access learning and fulfil their ambitions.

Torbay and South Devon case study: Jessica

Jessica Osborne, now a registered nurse at the Trust, immediately got a job in the Trust after completing her qualification. She had worked as a teacher and then in the ambulance service and is delighted to have been given the opportunity to train as a nurse. “I’ve always been a very caring and empathetic person, so nursing and the values of nursing fit 100% with me as a person.”

Her husband was ill with long Covid during the programme, but she says the support from the Trust and the OU was brilliant, enabling her to continue. She thinks the opportunities of what she will be able to achieve now that she is a registered nurse are “tremendous”.